Guest guest Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 Post 27 Dear Sri vaishnava perunthagaiyeer, In the previous 26 posts, we saw 'lakshmaNa' donning 10 roles. The 10th role as a great warrior is continuing. Just for recollection, we have completed lakshmaNa's role as a warrior in - thaatakaa vadham, - maareecha ambush and subhaahu killing, - viraadha vadham, - soorpanakaa punishment, - khara dhooshaNa vadham - maareecha vadham - vaali vadham - with virupaaksha vadham – in the lanka war Before continuing, we will see four slokams, which give evidence of the time duration of war. On the full moon day the commanders of the raama's army viz, raama, lakshmaNa, sugreeva and vibheeshaNa, with hanumaan and other chiefs stayed at the hill top or resort of suvEla mountain – that day it was a full moon day as stated by vaalmeeki. See slokam thathO astham agamath sooryah sandhyayaa prathiranjitha: || 6-38-18 poorNa chandra pradheepaa cha kshapaa samabhivarthathE | meaning: Then, the sun reddened with evening-twillight went down and the night, shining with full moon arrived. [evening sun went off and full moon arrived in sky – means - that day is pourNami] thaam raathrim ushithaas thathra suvElE hari pungavaa: | lankaayaam dhadhru*s*ur veeraa vanaany upavanaani cha || 6-39-1 meaning: The valiant army-chiefs of monkeys stayed on SuvEla mountain for that night and saw the garden and groves in Lankaa. *Point:* so the next day being the first day – prathamai thithi – war did not start on that day. While enjoying the scenes of lankaa from SuvEla Mountain, they could see raavaNa coming to the balcony of his palace. Seeing him sugreeva rushed to raavaNa, had a fight with him for a long time – this long time is stated in two places as chira kaalam – means during the entire day perhaps. When raavaNa was going down in strength, he started to resort to 'maaya war' – trickstering – since generally these raakshasaas do that in the night - we can presume the duel was slipping into the evening. Realizing about the maayaa war, sugreeva left. So that was the incident during the daytime. The evening came – and raama told lakshmaNa about the sakunams – good and bad oomens – one of the sentences indicate the time also. That slokam is raktha chandhana sankaa*s*aa sandhyaa parama dhaaruNaa | jvalach cha nipathathy Ethadh aadhithyaadh agni maNDalam || 6-41-15 meaning: raama says, 'The dusk, red as sandal, is full of horror and from the sun, this blazing mass of fire falls." *Point:* That description about dusk indicates the evening also arrived – meaning that the whole day was spent taking rest in the mountaintop and prathama thithi was spent. On dvithiya thithi, the war started by dividing the army into parts and sending to each gate in all 4 directions of the fortified city of lanka. Next -When the war is progressing, in sargam 93 of yudhdha kaaNdam, raavaNa is being advised by supaarsvan – his minister - as to -- abhyuththhaanam thvam adhya Eva krishNa paksha chathurdhaseem | kruthvaa niryaahi amaavaasyaam vijayaayam balair vruththa: || 6-93 -68 meaning: oh king, rise today itself in the krishNa paksha chathurdhasee, and start [fighting] to achieve victory on the amaavaasyaa day. *point:* As said by this minister, raavaNa sends his 'core army' or commandos - 'that moola balam' – to do the yudhdham – on the chathurdhasee day – 14th day and on seeing that moola balam is destroyed, he himself starts the fight on that day itself – the 14th day – on seeing raavaNan getting tired raama sends him back. So raavaNa returns on amavaasya day and gets killed. So the time stretch of the 'raama – raavaNa war' is a '14 day affair'. Now let us continue on our topic of lakshmaNa's contribution in the war. On the night of that day, viz. 2nd day, see lakshmaNa doing the damage along with raama on the raakshasaas – raavaNa's son indhrajith was leading the contingent at that time – [during the day time war virupaaksha was killed by lakshmaNa as seen already] lakshmaNa*s* cha api raama*s* cha *s*aarair aa*s*ee visha upamai: || 6-44-9 dhru*s*ya adhru*s*yaani rakshaamsi pravaraaNi nijaghnathu: | meaning: Raama and LakshmaNa killed the foremost of the demons, both, those who were visible and those who were invisible, with their arrows resembling venomous snakes. *Story:* Seeing the raakshasaas being killed indhrajith also fought fiercely killing many vaanaraas. Angadha, the son of vaali, fought valiantly with indhrajith and killed his charioteer and damaged the chariot. So indhrajith resorted to maaya war – since night darkness and being invisible indhrajith struck heavily - all these covered in slokams 9 to 35 – next raamam cha lakshmaNam chaiva ghOrair naagamayai: *s*arai: | bibhEdha samarE krudhdhha: sarva gaathrEshu raaghavou || 6-44-36 meaning: Being enraged in battle, Indrajith bursted out serpent-like terrible arrows into all the limbs of Raama and LakshmaNa, who were born in Raghu dynasty. maayayaa samvruthasthathra mOhayan raaghavou yudhi | adhru*s*yo ni*s*aitaan baaNaan mumOcha a*s*aani varchasa: || 6-44-37 babandha *s*arabandhEna bhraatharou raamalakshmaNou | meaning: Enveloped by illusion, indhrajith sought to confuse Raama and LakshmaNa in the struggle there. And being invisible to all beings through his magic arts, Indhrajith, the ranger of the night, bound those two brothers Raama and LakshmaNa with a network of arrows [sarpa asthrams]. *Story:* When this was happening raama ordered 10 of his monkey chiefs to locate indhrajith in the sky – when tried they were beaten by indhrajith because of his invisibility - but see what he did - raama lakshmaNayOr Eva sarva marma bhidah *s*araan | bhru*s*am aave*s*ayaamaasa raavaNih samithinjaya: || 6-45-7 meaning: Indhrajith, the victorious in battle, transfixed Raama and LakshmaNa with those arrows that lacerated their flesh in great measure. As a result of this mesmerizing and being hit by lot of arrows and losing of blood, raama and lakshmaNa became unconscious and fell flat on ground – raama falling first - papaatha prathamam raamO viddhO marmasu maargaNai: | krOdhaadh indhrajithaa yEna puraa *s*akro vinirjitha: || 6-45-22 meaning: Raama fell first, his vital parts pierced by arrows of the wrathful Indhrajith, who had formerly vanquished Indhra, the Lord of celestials. baaNa paatha antharE raamam pathitham purusha rishabham || 6-45-25 sa thathra lakshmaNO dhrushTvaa niraa*s*O jeevithE abhavath | meaning: Seeing Raama, the excellent man, fallen at a distance of an arrow's range, LakshmaNa became hopeless about his own life. [hopeless about his own life - meaning – unconscious] *Point:* See here – even though lakshmaNa was also hit badly – seeing his brother falling down made lakshmaNa feel for that sOkham more – about his brother's condition – that made him become unconscious. That love for his brother shines at every moment – oh great. *Story:* Seeing that both brothers have fallen the monkeys were a little desperate. But vibheeshaNa consoled all. Inspite of indhrajith's invisibility due to his powers, vibheeshaNa could identify him standing nearby. Seeing both raama and lakshmaNa fallen flat on ground, indhrajith claimed victory and wanted to announce that to his father – see dhooshaNasya cha hanthaarou kharasya cha mahaa balou || 6-46-12 saadhithou maamakair baaNair bhraatharou raama lakshmaNou | meaning: The exceedingly strong brothers Raama and LakshmaNa, the killers of Khara and Dhooshana have been killed by my arrows." [of course this slokam is announcement at the battle filed itself, to give a morale boost to his army, and not to raavaNan but later when he entered the palace similar message was given] *story:* RaavaNa was very happy to receive that message from his son. RaavaNa sent message to the servants around seethaa, to airlift her in pushpaka vimaanam to the battlefield and show her raama and lakshmaNa flat. Thus seethaa also became very sad thinking they were dead. When seethaa wept on seeing the brothers fallen, her knowledge on the lakshaNa saasthram came out – for she said, "my body has this this marks and shaped like this this – which are indications of a nithya sumangali – and a super personality - and as such I cannot be a widow" etc – [dear readers, we enjoyed all that - in another article – of course by MGV]. Then thrijata who gave hopes to seethaa earlier [by telling about her dream in sundhara kaaNdam] gave hopes again saying 'this divine pushpaka vimaanam itself will not carry a widow, if you are really so, [since raama has fallen] and as such, oh seethaa, you need not worry'. Thus she got consoled to some extent and returned to asOkha vanam. When all vaanaaraas were standing anxiously surrounding raama and lakshmaNa, after a while raama gained consciousness. Seeing lakshmaNa having fallen raama started weeping - kim nu mE seethayaa kaaryam kim kaaryam jeevithEna vaa | *s*ayaanam yO adhya pa*s*yaami bhraatharam yudhi nirjitham || 6-49-5 *s*akyaa seethaa samaa naaree praaptum lOkE vichinvathaa | na lakshmaNa samO bhraathaa sachiva: saamparaayika: || 6-49-6 meaning: raama weeps, "Of what use to me is the recovery of Seethaa or even life itself, since my brother now lying, before my eyes, has been struck down in the fight?" raama continues weeping, "It can be possible, if I were to look for her, to find a consort equal to Seethaa in this world of mortals but not a brother, a friend and a comrade in a hostile war, such as LakshmaNa!" *point:* that title of our friend coimbatore sadagopan swamy comes to mind – 'made for each other' – on raama and seethaa – but raama himself says 'I can find another seethaa but not a lakshmaNa'. So the question arise 'who is better than who?' Answer- no comparisons please. We have to accept that all three were made for each other and no equals can be found elsewhere. parithyakshyaamy aham praaNaan vaanaraaNaam thu pa*s*yathaam | yadhi panchathvam aapannah sumithraa aanandha vardhana: || 6-49-7 meaning: If LakshmaNa returned to the five elements, he, the increaser of Sumithra's joy, I will give up my life-breaths while the monkeys stand looking on." – [returning to 5 elements - meaning if he is dead really – the usage of words here is a linguistic beauty] thvam nithyam suvishaNNam maam aa*s*vaasayasi lakshmaNa | gatha asur na adhya *s*aknOshi maam aartham abhibhaashithum || 6-49-13 meaning: O, LakshmaNa! You always used to console me, whenever I was in a great sorrow. You, having lost your life now, are not able to allay my sufferings with your words." surushTEna api veerENa lakshmaNEnaa na samsmarE | parusham vipriyam vaa api *s*raavitham na kadhaachana || 6-49-19 meaning: I do not remember to have heard any harsh or hateful words from that valiant Lakshmana, even if he is deeply provoked." Point: see the appreciating words of raama on his brother – thinking that lakshmaNa is dead. point to learn for us, from this 19th slokam is – here - from the words of raama – 'whenever a person is dead even though he is a bad man really, praise him at his death bed'. Of course 'That bad man' really does not apply to lakshmaNa. And this is not a flattery or false praise by raama. As we have seen already, whenever lakshmaNa is hot and strong in his words, it is due to his extraordinary love of his brother. *Story:* Then vibheeshaNa returns back – seeing him, thinking that he is indhrajith, the vaanara army runs away. After realizing it is so and so, they return. [perhaps vibheeshaNa having identified indhrajith might have gone to find out what indhrajith is doing next – for that is not described by vaalmeeki – otherwise where is the need for his returning to the proximity of raama lakshmaNa – for earlier he was there by the side of raama and lakshmaNa] Seeing the condition of raama and lakhsmaNa, Sugreeva suggested to retreat to kishkindha, SushEna, the doctor, suggested to bring the sanjeevakaraNi and visalyaa Oshadhi herbs – medicinal herbs by that names – to be done by hanumaan. In the meantime garuda appeared and all serpents tying raama and lakshmaNa vanished in seconds. Raama and lakshmaNa returned to normalcy. [because the tying ropes were sarpa asthrams]. [Earlier we have seen thyaagaraja krithi in garudadhvani – thathvameruga tharama - was refrred to at this stage of garudan's appearance]. So let us continue in next post on what next is lakshmaNa's contribution - Dhasan -- Vasudevan MG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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