Shri Swamiji's Ramayana Pravachanam

[Guest guest]

Jai Srimannarayana!

 

Sri Sri Sri Tridandi Srimannarayana Ramanuja Chinna Jeeyar Swami

Thiruvadigale Saranam!

 

Continuing the recollection of Shri Swamiji's wonderful lectures

on Ramayana, here is another tiny portion:

 

Narada has narrated the entire Ramayana Story to Valmiki as it

happened, as requested by him. Valmiki was doing japam of Sri Rama

Manthram and he wanted to know if there was any human living at

that time with all the kalyana gunas and named a sample 16 of them.

Narada started to narrate the kalyana gunams of Rama one after

another and even after the list crossed 64 he was not able to stop.

With great effort he contained the listing of gunams and gave the

whole story in a tell-tale manner. He was not satisfied by stopping

at 64 gunams only so he added the kalyana gunams as adjectives of

Lord Rama whenever he mentioned His name in the story. Who can count

the gunams, as our Acharya Ramanuja said His kalyana gunams are

'Niravadhika'(limit less) 'Asankhye:ya'(innumerable) in his

gadya thrayam.

 

Valmiki's heart filled with happiness and ecstasy on listening to

the story. After departure of Narada, he started for the river

Tamasa ( a tributory of Ganga) to take bath and perform afternoon

rituals. As he reached the river bank, there was still some time

left for the appointed hour to take bath, so he was just recollecting

the story he learnt from Narada, and was experiencing the pleasant

nature. The scenic beauty of the nature was marvellous and he was

enjoying the wholeness of it. He was stroding along the river bank

with his sishya Bharadwaja following him. He saw two 'Krouncha' birds

one male and another female wandering around making love, chirping

and cooing happily. And from somewhere suddenly a hunter shot an arrow

at the male bird. The male bird with its blood-wet wings fell on

ground,

swirled in pain and died. The female bird was struck aghast by this.

She was hopping and circling around the dead male bird wailing

'aartha nadams' with lot of karuna in its voice. Valmiki saw that

pathetic scene and his heart filled with 'Karuna'. The following words

came out from his mouth unexpectedly.

 

"Ma: Nisha:da Pratishtha:m Twam Agamah Sa:swati:h sama:h !

Yat Krouncha Midhuna:th E:kam Avadhi:h Ka:ma Mo:hitam !!

 

(Means : Hey Hunter! As you have killed one of those pairing and

loving

krouncha birds, let you not live for many years!)

 

These words came so unexpectedly from his mounth that he was also

surprised by them. He is a sage, and it is expected that all sages and

Rishis will have a control on their senses. And whatever this hunter

has done is for his regular living. That is his kula dharmam. He is

just

discharging his natural dharma when he killed a bird. Is it

appropriate

to get angry on such an issue? Is it appropriate to curse him for that

and that too with death penalty? Valmiki was himself amazed how this

happened. He never had any intention in his mind to do any such thing

and

still it happened. He was not happy. He again repeated the words to

himself. And he was struck by the compostion of the words he just

spoke.

There is a rhythm in those words. Total those are 32 letters,

with 4 equal parts and 8 letters in each part and when you read,

it has a laya, there is a chandas (grammatical symmetry) and there is

some inspiring power in those words. In regular day to day

conversations

during those days no one was aware of such nice rhyming words so far.

The words became a slokam. Till then only Vedas got some chandas and

verses which have this magical rhyme. Now this was first such verse

outside Vedas to have all those qualities of grammer, syntax,

symmetry,

power, depth of meaning, rhyme and beauty in it. He felt happy.

Is that an occassion to be happy because of this new discovery of

verse

or is it a sad occassion because he cursed the hunter? He did not

know.

He was thinking about it and after taking bath, he discussed it with

his

Sishya Bharadwaja. Bharadwaja also thought about it and repeated it to

himself. He also got amused and felt joy in repeating those words.

Both went to the ashram and told the other inmates. All of them

wondered

at the slokam and were discussing about this episode and the beauty of

the slokam. Let us enjoy the beauty of this slokam before learning

next

part of Shri Swamiji's pravachanam. It is truly said, true to every

letter and syllable that Ramayanam is so sweet and enchanting .. as

rightly said in the Valmiki Prarthana slokam

 

Koojantham Ra:ma Ra:me:thi Madhuram Madhura:ksharam!

A:ruhya Kavitha: Sa:kha:m Vande: Va:lmi:ki Ko:kilam!!

 

Aptly Ramayanam itself by Valmiki was started with a bird song!!

 

Jai Sriamannarayana!!