The Hunter

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Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

 

The Hunter

 

What image does the word “Hunter” bring to your mind? A strong,

muscular figure, clad in tree bark or deerskin, with a bow and arrow

in its hands and a feather in the cap, with cruel eyes constantly

scouring the environs for prey—this is the common portrait your mind

conjures up, at the mention of the word. Our impression is that of a

person who is bestiality personified, devoid of all redeeming

qualities like Mercy, Compassion and Kindness, which set human beings

apart from their four-legged cohabiters on earth.

Thus, we fail to find any redeeming features in this clan of people,

who appear at best to be a burden for earth to bear.

 

However, when we scan our Scripture for information on Hunters, we

find that several worthies from this much-maligned profession have

made it to the loftiest heights of spirituality and won acclaim on

several counts. Surprised? Please do read on for details.

 

The first and foremost name that comes to our mind at the mention of

hunters is that of Sri Valmiki. Though born the son of the

distinguished Bhrigu Maharshi, the boisterous boy Haareeta (as he was

originally known) incurred the wrath of some sages, who cursed that he

would lose the sterling qualities of his distinguished lineage and

become a bestial hunter. Haareeta duly became a hunter, with all

attendant cruelty, brutality and lack of consideration for life and

limb of men and beasts alike. He killed whatever he could lay his

hands on, robbed and plundered wayfarers and, in general, led an

inhuman and brutish life. He married a girl of another huntsmen

tribe, begot children and forgot all about his destined life of

penance and purity. After a long spell of such loutish existence, due

to the grace of the Lord, who had planned quite a distinguished career

for Haareeta as His (the Lord’s) own chronicler, Haareeta came across

the Seven Holy Men (Sapta Rishis), who, through a clever strategy,

made him realise the folly of his ways. They instructed him to recite

the exalted Rama naama.

 

Due to the boundless compassion of his Acharyas, Haareeta discovered

the extremely delectable avocation of naama smaranam and bhajanam and

lost himself in the contemplation and chanting of the Lord’s name. He

forgot himself, the surrounding world and everything else and gave

himself up, heart and soul, to his newfound delight. Years passed

without Haareeta stirring from the spot he sat at, in contemplation,

resulting in termites building their residence all around and over

him.

 

Aeons passed. Deciding that it was time Haareeta assumed his assigned

role, Brahma came to the seeker. The four-headed Brahma sprinkled

holy water on Haareeta, who immediately emerged from the mass of

muddy spires the termites had built, giving him the name “Vaalmeeki”

(“Valmikam” in Sanskrit refers to such abodes of termites, etc.).

With the blessings of Brahma, Haareeta became Vaalmeeki and resumed

his ascetic existence as if without any break, with such

distinguished disciples as Bharadvaaja.

 

It is perhaps paradoxical that the hunter-turned-holy-man should have

been inspired to compose his magnum opus, due to an incident with

another hunter as the hero (or villain, perhaps). While returning to

his Ashramam one day after finishing his ablutions, Sri Valmiki was

witness to the heart-breaking scene of a hunter shattering the

conjugal bliss of a couple of lovebirds, with a single, well-aimed

arrow, felling and killing the male bird. The Maharshi’s heart bled

for the female bird, which fluttered about helplessly, watching its

mate in the throws of death. Angered at the hunter’s brutal act,

which had dealt a devastating blow to the blissful life of the birds,

the Maharshi cursed him. To his surprise, however, the curse emerged

from his lips not in the form of a prosaic sentence—it took the form

of a beautiful couplet, the first ever known to mankind—

 

“Maa nishaada! pratishttaam tvam agama: saasvatee: samaa:

yat krouncha mithunaat ekam avadhee: kaama mohitam”

 

And so commenced the composition of the great epic Ramayanam,

chronicling the life and times of the greatest of men, kings and

Gods, which has remained a guidebook for all mankind for thousands of

years.

 

It is again Srimad Ramayanam which narrates the tale of another

hunter, who is extremely close to Sri Rama—so much so that the Prince

embraces him at sight. This, however, is a hunter with a difference,

with a keen and innate sense of right and wrong. And he is no

ordinary hunter, but a chief of hunters—“Nishaadha adhipati:”,

characterised by immeasurable love and affection for the Prince of

Ayodhya and prepared to lay down even his life in the Prince’s

defence. He is so enamoured of Rama that he spends an entire night

awake and alert, fully armed, along with his entire clan, fearful

that some danger might befall Raghava, despite knowing full well that

not even an ant could enter the environs without his knowledge and

consent. Rightfully, Sri Valmiki describes this gentleman as Rama’s

soul mate—mind you, not merely a friend, but a soul mate—“Ramasya

aatma sama: sakhaa”—one whom Rama Himself regarded as His equal.

Their closeness is such that Sri Raghava is absolutely unmindful of

the differences in their respective social status and bestows on the

lowly hunter the best compliment possible—a bear hug reflecting fully

the depth and strength of love and affection that each has for the

other. His devotion to Sri Rama makes Guha suspect the motives of

even Lakshmana and Bharata and apprehend danger from them to his

beloved Prince.

 

Another of the hunting clan, about whom Sri Valimiki has much to say,

is Sri Sabari. Though a huntress by birth, she had given up all the

outward and inward characteristics of the profession and had devoted

herself to the service of sages. In time, she herself was ripe not

only in age, but also in wisdom and penance. She is a standing

example of the lofty status that service to one’s Acharyas can

confer. Having spent her life in selfless service to her Gurus, she

lives on only to have her eyeful of Sri Rama. And once that object is

achieved, she departs to the immortal worlds above, to join her Gurus

in their blissful existence. Justifiably, Sabari is described as wise

in the nuances of correct conduct—“Dharma nipunaam”.

 

It is clear from the aforesaid that the Lord is extremely enamoured of

hunters—so much so that He is not averse to assuming the role one

Himself, from time to time. Not only does He don the dress and

demeanour of a hunter, He persuades His Consort too to do the same.

However, like all His assumed roles or avataras, the one as a hunter

too is for the protection of the innocent.

 

Sri Ramanuja accompanied his guru Yaadavaprakaasa to Kasi. Angered and

jealous at Ramanuja’s growing glory and fame, Yaadavaprakaasa planned

to ensure a premature and watery grave for the illustrious disciple,

once they reached the shores of the Ganga. Getting scent of this

nefarious plan, Sri Ramanuja trailed behind the guru’s party and

managed to escape. However, left alone in the dense and inhospitable

jungles of the Vindhyas, Sri Ramanuja despaired of ever returning

alive to civilisation, when a hunter and his wife appeared before him

suddenly. Glad at the sight of human beings, Sri Ramanuja asked them

about their origin and destination. Providentially, the hunter couple

appeared to be travelling to Kanchi and offered to lead Ramanuja too

there. As soon as they approached Kanchi, the hunter and huntress

disappeared as suddenly as they had materialised. When the bemused

Ramanuja thought back, he realised with a start that it had indeed

been the Lord and His Consort who had saved him from certain and gory

death and led him back to safety, almost to his doorstep. Tears ran

down his cheeks and his entire body tingled, at Emperuman’s boundless

mercy that made Him assume the garb of a lowly hunter, solely for

saadhu paritraanam (protection of the innocent).

 

Swami Desikan paints another picture of the Divine Hunter. The Lord,

with a lot of punishing arrows in His quiver, directs them at us,

dealing out just punishment for our various acts of commission and

omission. As the impartial arbiter, it is indeed His duty to ensure

that we undergo appropriate retribution for our sins. However, we too

have a single but extremely potent arrow in our possession, with which

we can not only stave off the Lord’s punitive arrows, but also floor

Him completely, so that He is never again able to shoot any more

arrows at us.

 

And what is this magnificent missile, which can render even the

omnipotent Emperuman absolutely helpless? Swami Desikan says that it

is nothing but a folding of our hands in a gesture of absolute

surrender—an “Anjali”. This single and simple signal of surrender,

the embodiment of Prapatti, makes the Lord so beneficially inclined

towards us that He forgets all about punishing us and, instead,

hastens to confer on us all that is good. Even hard-to-attain

salvation can be easily achieved through this potent gesture of

Sharanagati, says Swami Desikan. Here is the beautiful couplet from

Sri Varadaraja Panchaasat--

“Hasteesa! Du:kha visha digdha phala anubandhini

AaBrahma keetam aparaahata samprayoge /

Dushkarma sanchaya vasaat duratikrame na:

Pratyastram Anjali: asou tava nigraha astre//”

 

The Skanda Upapuraanam has another interesting tale to tell about the

Lord as a hunter. We saw how Sri Valmiki flung a curse at the hunter

who killed one of the lovebirds engaged in conjugal bliss. The Purana

tells us that the accursed hunter was none other than the Lord

Himself. Shankhukarna was an asura who had somehow survived Sri

Rama’s annihilation of the fourteen thousand raakshasas at

Janastthaanam, having run away prior to commencement of hostilities.

This raakshasa was plaguing the sages at Dandakaaranyam. Having made

up His mind to eliminate this nuisance, the Lord took the form of a

hunter and felled the raakshasa, who had taken the form of the male

bird. It was this act, which Sri Valmiki witnessed and which moved

him so much as to sow the seeds of the Epic in his mind. And the

moment the curse, in the form of a beautiful slokam, emerged from his

lips, the hunter, the crying female bird, the slain male bird and the

tree on which they had perched—all these disappeared, much to

Valmiki’s bewilderment. Apparently, it was another drama enacted by

Emperuman, firstly to ensure that His life and times were chronicled

by an eminent Maharshi and secondly, to do away with a raakshasa.

 

If you think that only the Lord takes birth as a hunter, you would be

mistaken—for, even Sri Mahalakshmi is reported to have been born into

a hunting tribe. If you don’t believe me, you just have to refer to

the Ahobila Maahaatmyam, which chronicles the glory of the Ahobila

Kshetram and the manifestation the Lord in the magnificent and

awesome man-lion form. We are told that the Divine Consort too was

born as “Chenchulakshmi”, in the huntsmen tribe called Chenchus. The

Lord wooed Chenchulakshmi and married Her in due course. This tale of

romance between Emperuman and a huntress is depicted on many a pillar

in the Ahobilam temples housing the nine Narasimhas.

 

To bring the tale of the hunter to an end, who would you say is the

greatest of hunters, who never despairs even if the prey tends to

escape, but perseveres till he is ultimately able to secure the same?

 

 

It is Emperuman’s ardent wish that all of us escape from this mundane

world of distress and despair and reach Him, to enjoy eternal bliss

in His exalted company. With this object, He spreads His net far and

wide for catching souls ripe for redemption. His incredible beauty

and His magnificent and endearing attributes represent this net, with

which He tries to ensnare us. It is this net which Sri Nammazhwar

describes as “Manivannan Vasudevan valaiyule”.(When the Arayar was

enacting this pasuram, he spread his hands wide to indicate a net.

Sri Ramanuja, who was looking on, corrected the Arayar by indicating

that it was Emperuman’s captivating eyes that represented the net.

Sri Nampillai confirms this with the words, “ennai tappaadapadi smita

veekshanaadigalile agappadutthi”).

 

However, with our long-standing wile and an incurable infatuation

with matters mundane, we either evade His net or, if we indeed fall

into it, try to wriggle out to “freedom”. The ever-optimistic Lord,

with His boundless love, compassion and mercy, never gives up, but

continues His uphill task of saving souls, never despairing and

considering it a great reward if He is able to reclaim even a single

soul for Himself. As one Acharya says, the Lord goes to extraordinary

extents, sometimes spreading His net over an entire locality, to catch

a single soul. The only thing that is required of us is to abandon all

resistance and to throw up our arms in surrender—once we do this, we

come to realise how pleasurable it is to be this Divine Hunter’s

“victim”.

 

Srimate Sri Lakshminrisimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri

Narayana Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

dasan, sadagopan

 

 

 

 

 

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