Crows on a Wire

[Guest guest]

Namaskar,

 

My hearing of Krishna Das' hauntingly wistful, majestic and poignant

offering of the Rudrashtakam (Shiva Stuti) in his new Door of Faith CD led

me to search out the original text in the closing pages of Uttara Khanda

of Tulsidasa's Ramayana.

 

The Rudrashtakam (the Guru's Prayer, or Eight Stanzas on Shiva) is part of

the story of Kakabhusundhi, a crow.

 

Kakabhusundhi is telling the story of Rama to Garuda, the golden-winged

vehicle of mighty Vishnu the Preserver. Garuda is the King of the

Feathered Realm, and Lord of Eagles. Garuda listens and engages in

stately discourse with Kakabhusundhi, but eventually wonders how a lowly

crow came to know all of the acts of Rama.

 

Kakabhusundhi explains how he came to be a crow, and tells how he was once

an ardent worshipper of Shiva. He had a very kind guru, a worshipper of

Ram, who loved him very much even though he was arrogant and full of

pride. He received the mantra of Lord Shiva from his guru.

 

One day he was meditating in a Shiva temple and his guru passed by.

 

Even though the disciple was aware, he refused to acknowledge his guru.

Lord Shiva manifested to him out of the Lingam and cursed the foolish

disciple to a lowly birth for thousands of lifetimes.

 

The kindly guru heard the disciple wailing and lamenting. The guru

hastened to offer a prayer - the Rudrashtakam - that so pleased Shiva that

he offered the guru a boon. For his boon the guru asked Lord Shiva to

remove the curse from his disciple.

 

Shiva replied that he could not remove the curse without undermining the

fundamental vedic dharma that establishes the honor of gurus, but Shiva

promised that Kakabhusundhi would be fully enlightened in all his

lifetimes. He would live each life as long as he wished. He would have

full memory of all lifetimes, but would suffer none of the pains of birth

and death.

 

And most solemnly Shiva further ordained that the love of Rama would

awaken in Kakabhusundhi's heart, that he would witness all of Sri Ram's

incarnations in all the many universes, and that he would tell always of

the glories of Ram.

 

That's how a crow came to know all the glories of Rama.

 

Ramlal