line of control 1

[Guest guest]

Dear srivaishNava perunthagaiyeer,

 

These are the days when borderlines do not really matter. 'Macmohan' 'lines'

becomes 'Manmohan' 'lines', and buses help 'bridge' the people across countries.

Whereas those days, - not so long ago - drawn lines were 'controlling' people -

means literally not allowing people to cross those imaginary line drawn called

'borders' between countries, between people - so named 'Line Of Control - LOC'.

 

Instead a stone 'bridge', with stones inscribed 'raama naamam' in sea was also

built - a 'line' drawn in the sea maps

- not a 'line of control',

- not even a helpline,

- nor a line to create amity and friendship

but a helpline of different nature - helpline to enable fight a war and kill the

so-called enemy.

 

Why enmity developed, because, the enemy abducted one lady. Perhaps, if the lady

is a commoner like one among us, then such a fight would not have occurred.

Later, many many years later after such a war, we need not think or discuss on

or about such a fight or about such people, in srivaishNava forums like this.

 

Since the lady abducted was the pet 'queen' of raama, the prince of ayOdhyaa,

the 'one and only raamaa' [since to be crowned as king later after this line -

bridge - and the fight, I am calling him prince] with all difficulties involved

in that bridge like

* seeking and getting the friendship of the monkey [?] king,

* begging the ocean king and seeking his permission,

* removing much of the natural resources like hillocks and large stones, and

then inscribing raama naamam in them [to become sanctified by that inscription,

so that even today going and seeing that line, [bridge], is considered a

pilgrimage to sEthu even today], dumping them in ocean to make them float [coz.

of that inscription] against all natural gravitational principles.

* squirrels rolling over the beach to "transport" [?] sand on their tiny bodies

to plug gaps [?] among such large stones in that floating bridge. [re -

kurangukaL malaiyai nooka kuLiththu thaam puraNdu ittu Odi' of thirumaalai - of

thoNdar adip podi - one adip podi talking about another podi]

* the flood of monkeys crossing over the line - bridge - and then fought with

vigour and valour, to get back that abducted lady, in the process killing the

abductor.

 

So 'a line of help' across the ocean [the bridge] was built to secure back a

lady and restore her to the prince - later coronated as king.

 

Why all these struggles? Because that lady - seethaa - that special lady - not

the commoner - crossed the limits of 'lines' drawn to protect her, control her,

in particular, the 'line of control' for seethaa - named "lakshmaNa rEkha".

 

Was it really drawn? Do vaalmeeki or kamban talk about it? About that we will

see a little later, when we deal more on that. Before that some specials are

given here.

 

A person who is able to command over his 10 senses is called Dhasa rathan - 10

chariots - the commander of 10 chariots at a time - the 10 senses - are the 10

chariots [5 karma and 5 gnaana senses].

Among his many wives, Kousalya, the patta mahishi is said as an embodiment of

'Devotion'.

KaikEyee the second among the queens is an embodiment of 'Attachment'.

Sumithraa, the third queen is a personification of virtue, of 'Detachment'. Just

recall or refer the consoling words, she offer to kousalya calling raaman as

'sooryasya soorya'- [ayodhya kaaNdam 44th sargam] - that shows to what extent

she is a realized soul - on that seeking of the lord with detachment - actually

she did not bother much about his son going to forest nor her daughter law

getting separated from her husband - but blessed son and sent him to serve

raaman - such a detachment

 

Raaman represents or is god, the supreme and absolute 'Wisdom' personification.

Bharathan is the personification of the virtue called 'Discrimination'.

Lakshmana is the 'Renunciation'. "Shatru-ghna" is the 'Thought'.

 

Seethaa is the symbol or representation of the 'soul' and / or devotion. [Please

note the difference between kousalya and seethaa soul much in devotion to god -

whereas kousalya - devotion to controlling senses - level wise lower]

 

Raama, the god, is always in search of Seethaa, the soul and its devotion to

him.

LakshmaNan the 'renunciation' always goes with 'fixed aim' of serving the god,

and is the object of that god used in a variety of ways by that wisdom raaman.

 

The trio of raaman, seethaa lakshmaNan the Wisdom, Devotion and Renunciation

travel to occupy Panchavati - literally the abode standing for the embodiment of

the 5 sense organs. The cottage Panchawati is symbolic and means the body made

up of the 5 elements, namely earth, water, fire, air and ether. The 'jungle'

setting represents the kingdom of RaavaNan.

 

Having analysed that the ascetic princes raaman and lakshmaNan are no ordinary

individuals, and, have withstood the attack on them by not only the Pride

[kharan brother of raavaNan] and Evil [dhooshaNan - raama fought single handedly

and killed them in war along with 14000 others] but also disfigured the Desire

[viz. soorpanaka], Dasa aanana - the ten headed - or the 10 senses - decides to

organise an attack with the help of Deceit, the Mareecha. Maricha or Deceit

could assume a variety of forms. Hence RaavaNan, as a ploy asked maareecha - the

deceit - to appear as a golden deer, before seethaa, the devotion, to create a

flutter, and eventually she might be attracted towards him.

 

The 'LakshmaNa Rekha' means in simple terms "staying focussed" and keeping one

within the 'line' or 'code of conduct'. But since that did not happen, we know

the rest of the story. Dear bhakthaas, coming back on the LOC of seethaa, the

devotion, or the meaning of LOC is staying within the devotion. Once the

devotion to god goes out of control it leads to problems. What are the problems

- everybody knows what they are. But let us analyse this 'lakshman rekha' the

line of control a little more in detail, as to whether it was really drawn as

per vaalmeeki or kamba raamaayaNam etc in the next post.

 

Dhaasan

Vasudevan m.g.