TiruppAvai flavoured sundara-kaandam: pOginraarai pOgAmal kaatthu...-Part 4

[Guest guest]

Dear friends,

 

If one reads the "sundara-kaandam" seriously, one can

quite easily see that the canto deals with one

predominant theme -- human Despair: loss of hope, the

onset of black despondency in the human heart and its

desperate struggle to regain and cling to hope.

 

Against the overall dramatic setting of the Ramayana,

and even at the very beginning of the

"sundara-kaanda", we see that all the main characters

in the story are floundering about in a morass of

black despair.

 

First we see the hero Lord Rama himself -- an

exile-king wandering about aimlessly in the desolate

woods of Dandakaranya and Kishkinda in search of a

spouse he has lost under circumstances that reflect

upon him or his brother, Lakshmana, none too

favorably.

 

We see Rama plunged in sheer, searing, unending pain.

His heart aches for Sita. He is full of guilt at

having deserted her in the moment she was abducted. He

is filled with all manner of fear for her safety ---

fears real and imagined. What was her plight? Where

was she? How was she? Was she harmed? Was she alive?

These are the questions that haunt, plague and torment

Rama's heart.

 

Deep in the nights he weeps thinking of Sita. Visions

of Sita float around him. Everywhere he casts his eyes

about in the forest--- the trees, the streams, the

hills and valleys, the rain and the mist ---

everywhere and everything reminds him of her, her

lingering, fragile beauty, her gentle steps, her

mellow words, her soft touch, her ethereal grace of

body and spirit...

 

Rama's despair, his blackest moods, the "dark nights"

through which his tortured, hopeless soul passes

though every day is best described in stark, graphic

detail by Hanuman to Sita herself in the

'sundara-kaandam' (Chapter 36 ShlOkas 37 to 46). These

are exquisite Sanskrit 'shlOkas' on the theme of

"shOka" (human despair) that every one of us who is a

serious student of Valmiki Ramayana should read,

reflect upon and savor as translation even if not as

original text.

 

Sometimes, as ordinary mortals that we all are, we are

find ourselves victims of all manner of grief in life.

For any number of reasons. It may be the sudden tragic

death of a near and loved one. It may be an unhappy

marriage that is going slowly going to pieces. It may

be cruel separation from kith and kin. It may be news

about a fatal illness of a child or wife and imminent

death.... The reasons in life for which our hearts may

bleed with despair are many indeed... There is no need

to recount any more examples.

 

Now, it may be seen in those particular moments of

distress, that very often we find we are unable to

fathom the true depth and degree of our own inner

despair. It remains all simply bottled up within us.

We are unable to give vent or expression to it. In

such moments a great pall of oppression descends upon

us making it difficult to share our despair with our

selves let alone with someone else. Mute despair

simply resides unmoved within the recesses of our

heart, weighing and wearing it down down little by

little until in the end we can stand it no more...

 

It is in those moments when stone-mute, rock-heavy

despair drags us down deeper and deeper into the still

abyss of hopelessness that a reading of a few

"shlOkAs" from the "sundara-kaandam" helps provide a

therapeutic outlet to us.

 

It helps give some sort of psychological vent or

expression to our innermost grief. By re-enacting

within our own minds the scenes of agony Lord Rama

underwent, by re-living the moments of despair he

endured, by merely repeating the words of Hanuman --

an eye-witness to Rama's dire plight -- as he narrated

to Sita the state of wretchedness to which the Prince

of Ayodhya had been reduced on account of his

separation from his lady love.... to read and reflect

on these poignant passages of the "sundara-kaandam" is

verily to apply soothing balm to the mangled

lacerations upon our own soul.

 

"O mother Sita", says Hanuman in the

"sundara-kaandam", "O noble lady, on account of the

separation from you, Rama is extremely distressed! How

is one to describe his state? Shall I say he is like a

lion that has been terrorized by an elephant". (38-39)

 

"Rama does not feed well anymore. He has ceased eating

wholesome meat fit for a royal prince. He eats no

honey. Every day at the fifth watch on vigil, he eats

but a frugal mouthful of wild roots and raw vegetables

-- food fit only for the consumption of an aged

"vaanaprastha", a forest-dwelling anchorite. (41)

 

"Lady, he is always brooding about you. He behaves

sometimes like a mad-man. Because of his

pre-occupation with you, he fails to notice even the

files, mosquitoes, worms and insects of the wild

forest that swarm over him, creep and crawl upon his

body". (42)

 

"We find Rama ever in the grip of sorrow. He is lost

in his own morose thoughts most of the time. He is

oblivious to his surroundings." (43)

 

"Your Lord, O Sita, has known no sleep too for many,

many months now. He sleeps in fits and starts. He

dozes for a while and then in the middle of the night

suddenly wakes up with a startle and cries out like a

child "Hey Sita! Hey Sita!" (44)

 

"Sometimes he sees a scented flower in a forest-wood,

or a little bird, deer or butter-fly, any little thing

that one might expect would take the fancy of a woman,

and instantly he is reminded of you and he then breaks

down and sobs uncontrollably "Sita, my Sita" (45)

 

"sa dEvi nityam pari-tapya-mAnas-tvAm-Eva

seethEth-yabhi-bhAshamANah:

"DhrutavratO rAja-sutO mahAtmA tavaiva laabhaaya

kruta-prayatnah:"

 

Hanuman ends by telling Sita:

 

"O noble lady, know this to be true from me, that the

great prince Rama is ever calling out your name and

crying out for you -- out of the immense grief and

despair caused by separation from you".

 

*****************

(to be continued)

 

Regards,

daasan,

Sudarshan MK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Warm Regards,

Sudarshan

 

" A life is perhaps worth nothing; but nothing certainly is worth as much as life".

(Andre Malraux)

 

 

________

India Answers: Share what you know. Learn something new

http://in.answers./

[Guest guest]

tiruvenkatam, sudarshan madabushi

<mksudarshan2002 wrote:

 

 

Dear friends,

 

If one reads the "sundara-kaandam" seriously, one can

quite easily see that the canto deals with one

predominant theme -- human Despair: loss of hope, the

onset of black despondency in the human heart and its

desperate struggle to regain and cling to hope.

 

Against the overall dramatic setting of the Ramayana,

and even at the very beginning of the

"sundara-kaanda", we see that all the main characters

in the story are floundering about in a morass of

black despair.

 

First we see the hero Lord Rama himself -- an

exile-king wandering about aimlessly in the desolate

woods of Dandakaranya and Kishkinda in search of a

spouse he has lost under circumstances that reflect

upon him or his brother, Lakshmana, none too

favorably.

 

We see Rama plunged in sheer, searing, unending pain.

His heart aches for Sita. He is full of guilt at

having deserted her in the moment she was abducted. He

is filled with all manner of fear for her safety ---

fears real and imagined. What was her plight? Where

was she? How was she? Was she harmed? Was she alive?

These are the questions that haunt, plague and torment

Rama's heart.

 

Deep in the nights he weeps thinking of Sita. Visions

of Sita float around him. Everywhere he casts his eyes

about in the forest--- the trees, the streams, the

hills and valleys, the rain and the mist ---

everywhere and everything reminds him of her, her

lingering, fragile beauty, her gentle steps, her

mellow words, her soft touch, her ethereal grace of

body and spirit...

 

Rama's despair, his blackest moods, the "dark nights"

through which his tortured, hopeless soul passes

though every day is best described in stark, graphic

detail by Hanuman to Sita herself in the

'sundara-kaandam' (Chapter 36 ShlOkas 37 to 46). These

are exquisite Sanskrit 'shlOkas' on the theme of

"shOka" (human despair) that every one of us who is a

serious student of Valmiki Ramayana should read,

reflect upon and savor as translation even if not as

original text.

 

Sometimes, as ordinary mortals that we all are, we

find ourselves victims of all manner of grief in life.

For any number of reasons. It may be the sudden tragic

death of a near and loved one. It may be an unhappy

marriage that is going slowly to pieces. It may

be cruel separation from kith and kin. It may be news

about a fatal illness of a child or wife and imminent

death.... The reasons in life for which our hearts may

bleed with despair are many indeed... There is no need

to recount any more examples.

 

Now, it may be seen in those particular moments of

distress, that very often we find we are unable to

fathom the true depth and degree of our own inner

despair. It remains all simply bottled up within us.

We are unable to give vent or expression to it. In

such moments a great pall of oppression descends upon

us making it difficult to share our despair with our

selves let alone with someone else. Mute despair

simply resides unmoved within the recesses of our

heart, weighing and wearing it down down little by

little until in the end we can bear it no more...

 

It is in those moments when stone-mute, rock-heavy

despair drags us down deeper and deeper into the still

abyss of hopelessness that a reading of a few

"shlOkAs" from the "sundara-kaandam" helps provide a

therapeutic outlet to us.

 

It helps give some sort of psychological vent or

expression to our innermost grief. By re-enacting

within our own minds the scenes of agony Lord Rama

underwent, by re-living the moments of despair he

endured, and by merely repeating the words of Hanuman --

an eye-witness to Rama's dire plight -- as he narrated

to Sita the state of wretchedness to which the Prince

of Ayodhya had been reduced on account of his

separation from his lady love.... to read and reflect

on these poignant passages of the "sundara-kaandam" is

verily to apply soothing balm to the mangled

lacerations upon our own soul.

 

"O mother Sita", says Hanuman in the

"sundara-kaandam", "O noble lady, on account of the

separation from you, Rama is extremely distressed! How

is one to describe his state? Shall I say he is like a

lion that has been terrorized by an elephant". (38-39)

 

"Rama does not feed well anymore. He has ceased eating

wholesome meat fit for a royal prince. He eats no

honey. Every day at the fifth watch on vigil, he eats

but a frugal mouthful of wild roots and raw vegetables

-- food fit only for the consumption of an aged

"vaanaprastha", a forest-dwelling anchorite. (41)

 

"Lady, he is always brooding about you. He behaves

sometimes like a mad-man. Because of his

pre-occupation with you, he fails to notice even the

flies, mosquitoes, worms and insects of the wild

forest that swarm over him, creep and crawl upon his

body". (42)

 

"We find Rama ever in the grip of sorrow. He is lost

in his own morose thoughts most of the time. He is

oblivious to his surroundings." (43)

 

"Your Lord, O Sita, has known no sleep too for many,

many months now. He sleeps in fits and starts. He

dozes for a while and then in the middle of the night

suddenly wakes up with a startle and cries out like a

child "Haa Sita! Haa Sita!" (44)

 

"Sometimes he sees a scented flower in a forest-wood,

or a little bird, deer or butter-fly, any little thing

that one might expect would take the fancy of a woman,

and instantly he is reminded of you and he then breaks

down and sobs uncontrollably "Sita, my Sita" (45)

 

"sa dEvi nityam pari-tapya-mAnas-tvAm-Eva

seethEth-yabhi-bhAshamANah:

"DhrutavratO rAja-sutO mahAtmA tavaiva laabhaaya

kruta-prayatnah:"

 

Hanuman ends by telling Sita:

 

"O noble lady, know this to be true from me, that the

great prince Rama is ever calling out your name and

crying out for you -- out of the immense grief and

despair caused by separation from you".

 

*****************

(to be continued)

 

Regards,

daasan,

Sudarshan MK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Warm Regards,

Sudarshan

 

" A life is perhaps worth nothing; but nothing certainly is worth as

much as life".

(Andre Malraux)

 

 

________

India Answers: Share what you know. Learn something new

http://in.answers./

 

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