Overseas travel

[Guest guest]

SRIMATHE RAMANUJAYA NAMAHA.

 

This issue usually comes up to explain why Rama chose

to build a bridge instead of flying on the shoulders

of Hanuman. Hanuman promised Sita to carry both the

brothers on his shoulder to bring them to fight with

Ravana. Infact Rama's army comprising of vanaras would

not have had much problem in flying over the seas with

2 to 3 stop-overs in the way, say on mynaka parva or

some other parvam coming up to help in RAma-karyam.

One explanation given is that one is not supposed to

cross the seas. That is why Rama first tried to make

the Samudra rajan to give way and later decided to

build a bridge. But this explanation does not hold

water(!) if we were to ask why then RAma chose to

return by flying the Pushpaka vimana on his return

journey.

 

Another issue I notice is that the prohibition seems

to be for flying over the oceans only, not to travel

to foreign countries. I think these two should not be

mixed, mainly because continuous travel was the norm

for many in those days. People walked to places far

and wide and there were quite many foreign desam for

them in those days. This brings to us the question of

what is a foreign country? If the countries of Europe

and American continent are foreign to us today, even

the far off Hardwar and Kedarnath must have been

foreign to travellers of those days. The people,

habits, climate and environs are different in

different places such as these and travellers would

have had a dose of exposure to foreignness in these

places which are not part of their native places. It

is said that Videha is in Nepal and Kegaya is part of

today's caucasus. But people had travelled very far,

to any place which had been possible to visit to.

 

So I deduce that the prohibition is for moving over

the oceans and not for visiting countries that were

foreign to one's place. Here again the popular adage

'thirai kadal odiyum diraviyam thedu' does not support

this view.

 

Since both these notions had been prevalent in those

days, let us deduce further to say that materialistic

people were not barred from crossing the oceans (in

other words, people were not barred from crossing the

seas in search of material benefits) and only the

spiritually inclined ones were barred. Why single out

the spiritually inclined is the next question.

 

My attempt to answer this may look bizarre. Still I

wish to write it here, in the thought that there might

be some truth in it and some one reading this may be

able to elaborate on this.

 

This explanation was heard by me in one of our

week-end sessions on Hindu philosophy and spirituality

during my student years. It was told by the guru( a

yogin)of one of the participants, that the prana (one

of the 5 gaseous products in our body -refer also BG

V-14)which has a tendency to move upwards is very

strong for a spiritual person. During regular activity

this upward movement is put in balance without our

realization of it. This zooms up when we see an elder

or one with high pranic shakthi due to his spiritual

abhyasa. Ordinary people like us prostrate before them

to control the sudden upsurge and bring in equilibrium

with respect to other gases like apana.The complete

saashtaanga namaskara in front of the Lord in the

temple is also to bring in equilibrium as prana is

elevated by the shakthi enshrined in the temple. That

is also why we need not prostrate in front of human

beings inside a temple. (the all powerful deity has

more sway on our paranic energy than the ordinary

beings ).

 

Similarly, a spiritual person with high level of

pranic energy will experience a continuous upsurge

while moving on / flying above huge water bodies. That

is why the prohibition. This is the explanation we

heard.

 

As has been my habit, let me add kaN, mUkku, kAdu etc.

 

Apah (water)is Brahman, according to sruti. The vast

ocean (in comparison to rivers and lakes, for crossing

which there is no prohibition)may be a source of

energy of highest kind, in such a way that the pranic

energy of a spiritual person may be continuously

moving up. In contrast, over land when one prostrates

or when one is closer to ground, some thing like

gravitational energy helps the person to rest in

equilibrium. This effect will be less on him on water,

as the land is far below. Since the depth of the

oceans is more than that of rivers or lakes, the bar

came to be applied to oceans. What strikes my mind on

thinking on these lines is the death of Sri Krupananda

Warriar while in flight.

 

To explain why RAma chose to return by Vimana to cross

the seas may be that the body would have by then got

accustomed to adjusting to the changes. Flying over

land has not been a bone of contention, may be due to

closeness to land in helping to bring the prana into

equilibrium.

 

The above explanation may look odd. Still I wish to

share this with others as our texts and rules are more

scientific than what we know as science today. One

instance is that somewhere in sruti texts it has been

said that birds donot stay on the ground at night

because the ground looks to them as red-hot coal. It

is true owing to the loss of heat from the ground at

night (infra red radiation). It therefore means that

birds see infrared radiation. What science says about

this?

 

Regards,

jayasree saranathan.