Guest guest Posted March 1, 2006 Report Share Posted March 1, 2006 The Story of Tondar-adipOdi: Conquest of “kaama” --------------- through Reduction (“unification”) of Desire -- ------------- “karma yOga” (continued from Part 19) ---------- It took a miracle to wean Vipranarayana away from his new-found "kaama" or passion in life: the beautiful but treacherous Devadevi. The Divine Will had to exert itself on earth on his behalf before the delinquent desire of the AzhwAr (his "maRRu Oru kaamam", to use the Tamil phraseology of AndAl's TiruppAvai) could be transformed and restored to its former pristinity, to its original state of 'yogic' excellence. ************** One day, as if out nowhere, a handsome couple, lady and nobleman, arrived at Devadevi’s door and asked to see her. Devadevi could not help noticing especially how breathtakingly beautiful the lady visitor was. However, it was the gentleman in question who spoke: “Dear lady, my name is Ranga and this is my wife Ranganayaki. We are distant but very dear relatives of Vipranarayana, who lies here on your doorsteps. We travelled to SriRangam hoping to see him but we learn of his rather sorry condition now. We understand he has much affection for you and wishes to co-habit with you. But then he lacks, it seems, the necessary means to make his dreams come true. "Dear lady, as I said, Vipranarayana is very dear to us. We are like father and mother to him. We desire his happiness and well-being at all times, at any cost. So we have come here to offer you this precious gift. Here take this, it is a goblet of pure gold studded with priceless gems. Please accept this from us treating it as payment made on behalf of the lovelorn lad, Vipranarayana. We trust you will now take him back into your house and offer him your affections and services exactly as of old. We assure you we shall regularly keep sending you more gifts and payments --- anything at all you may desire as compensation for letting our beloved Vipranarayana live with you”. Devadevi was astonished by the visitors. She had not been aware Vipranarayana had such affluent relatives! She took one avaricious look at the priceless goblet and decided there and then to accept it. Inwardly, she rejoiced. Vipranarayana had rich relatives! What luck! He would now ensure a steady and ample stream of future income for her! Grabbing the goblet and helping Vipranarayana to his feet, she put her arms around him and led him into her house. She turned back to smile at the handsome couple, as if to say, "Farewell! Do not worry anymore. Your Vipranarayana is going to be safe in my arms!". ************ The next morning, in the SriRangam temple, when the priests opened the doors to the sanctum of the Deity they were in for a rude shock. There had been a break-in and a precious temple-utensil had been burgled. They immediately raised a great outcry! "The gold goblet of Lord Ranganatha is missing! There's been a break-in! Someone has stolen the Lord's pricelss sacramental vessel! Call the royal guards! Tell the King! Ring out the alarm in the city!". ************ In those days kings were extremely solicitous of the religious interests of society. So the king of SriRangam on hearing about the theft in the temple of Sri Ranganatha, promptly sent out his guards and spies to apprehend the culprits before they fled too far away from the city. The spies spread out far and wide, combing street after street, searching dwellings and quarters and questioning suspects and known criminals. Soon enough the guards discovered the golden goblet of Sri Ranganatha in Devadevi's house. She was hauled up to the King's presence, interrogated and asked to explain. A chastened Devadevi related to the King the exact circumstances under which she had come into possession of the precious utensil. But rather wickedly, she added too that it was probably Vipranarayana himself, maddened by lust for her, who had arranged for some of his relatives to plan and execute the heinous theft. Finding Devadevi's account of events to be substantially true, the King decided it was Vipranarayana who was the main culprit. Letting Devadevi go free with a small fine, the King forthwith threw Vipranarayana into jail. The AzhwAr found himself once again a hapless victim of yet another of Fate's cruel conspiracies. The slow but sure decay of Vipranarayana's personality -- from the gentle, inveterate "karma-yOgi" he had been to the debauchee, destitute and common felon that he became -- was complete at last. The handiwork of "kaama" -- the power of selfish human Desire -- was done. ************** The consequences of unquelled "kaama" are unquestionably unpredictable and unsavory. Although the Sanskrit word "kaama" denotes the whole range of human desires -- from the appetites of common society in a consumerist world to the bacchanalian voracity of 21st-century "high"-society -- in common parlance, however, it is to Man's sexual excess that the term has come to be most closely associated. The tragic events in the life of Vipranarayana indeed help one to draw grim, moral lessons on human sexuality. But if we think those lessons are only about human sexual excess we would be very mistaken. They are really about higher themes of human "kaama" that are far above the problem of mere carnal desire. They are really about all human Desire that are self-centred, self-gratifying and which act as great obstacles in the way of Man's spirit advancing towards freedom. Yet, even if one were to regard the example of Vipranarayana as simply an object lesson warning us of the perdition to which sexual excess leads, one may still draw very great profit from it. From a universal perspective, and even in our own modern times, the AzhwAr's life-example stands out as a most valuable lesson on the whole troubled question of the morality of human sexual behaviour. ************** As we all know, in the 21st-century, the greatest threat to the very existence of humanity --- barring all-out nuclear-war between nations --- is not poverty, not climate-change, not Katrinas or tsunamis but the dreaded disease called HIV/AIDS. According to a United Nations study the spectre of this disease now hangs over half the world's continents in USA, Africa and Asia. Close to half-a-billion in the world are affected by HIV/AIDS and the number is projected to grow alarmingly in the coming decades. It is said much of Africa is a time-bomb ticking away slowly but inevitably to a great humanitarian catastrophe called HIV. The world agonizes about this dreaded disease. World-governments know that if they fail in their fight against this disease, it will simply bring to nought all of the economic might and prosperity of the nations of the world. Governments, the UN, international health organizations, NGOs, private medical foundations, philanthropic centres etc. all therefore spend billions of dollars in fighting against HIV/AIDS on and through several fronts --- medical research, pharmacology, medical aid, education, public awareness, volunteer group efforts, media-campaigns, news-channel reports, rock-concerts, cinema, art etc, etc. Now, we should ask ourselves: What is the root cause however of this disease that has put the whole of humanity in such a desperate tizzy? The answer simply stares us in the face, doesn't it? It is "kaama" -- unbridled sexual desire gone simply haywire. ************* Now, if only world-governments spent but a tenth on teaching and enlightening peoples on how to control, in the first place, their sexual desire through sheer spiritual or religious discipline, it would perhaps be unnecessary to spend all the rest that is presently spent on hundreds and hundreds of HIV/AIDS-control programs undertaken across the world? If enough effort has been spent making sure the stable-doors are well secured, no effort would be required at all in chasing the horses after they have bolted. If the cultural awareness of the young of the world were expanded to include not only class-room workshops on human sexual physiology and on the use of condoms but also ennobling stories, parables, lessons and examples too --- such as those of Vipranarayana, for instance, which is a cultural lore inherited across generations of religious history with its powerful theme designed to impact and instruct the minds of the young --- if only enough was done to broad-base and heighten such cultural awareness amongst the young of the world, might not the disease of HIV/AIDS perhaps be more effectively prevented than we see it being cured? *************** If "kaama" were to be conquered in its causal state, would there arise any need at all for the world to deal with the ugly scourge of its painful consequences? The life-story of Tondar-adi-podi AzhwAr serves to make us all sit up and reflect deeply indeed over such a question. ************** (to be continued) (to be continued) Regards, dAsan, Sudarshan ________ India Matrimony: Find your partner now. Go to http://.shaadi.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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