AcArya rAmAmRtam - (from SrI ra’nganAtha pAdukA dt. November 06. Part 3)

[Guest guest]

SrI:

SrImate ra’ngarAmAnuja mahAdeSikAya nama:

SrImate SrInivAsa rAmAnuja mahAdeSikAya nama:

SrImate vedAnta rAmAnuja mahAdeSikAya nama:

SrI ra’nganAtha divya maNi pAdukAbhyAm nama:

SrI ra’ngarAmAnuja mahAdeSika divya pAdukAbhyAm nama:

 

AcArya rAmAmRtam - (from SrI ra’nganAtha pAdukA dt. November 06. Part 3)

 

Translation of

SrImad rAmAyaNa upanyAsam in tamizh by SrImad tirukkuDandai ANDavan

 

As published in SrI ra’nganAtha pAdukA by

SrI u.ve. nATTEri kiDAmbi rAjagopAlAcAriyAr (Editor of SrI ra’nganAtha

pAdukA)

 

SrImad ANDavan tiruvaDi,

kalyANi kRshNamAcAri

=====================================

 

a’ngushTha mAtra: purusha: a’ngushTham ca samASrita: | (mahA nArAyaNa. 128)

 

a’ngushTha mAtrah purusho madhya Atmani tishThati | (kaTho. 4.12)

 

ISAno bhUta bhavyasya sa evAdya sa u Sva: | (kaTho. 4.13)

 

He who is the ISvaran for all worlds, He who is the master and controller of

all things in the past, present and future, resides in our hearts with the size

of a thumb. If you ask, “Who has seen Him?”, our AzhvAr has seen Him.

 

kaNgaL Sivandu periyavAi vAyum Sivandu kanindu uLLE

veNpal ilagu SuDar ilagu vilagu magara kUNDalattan

koNDal vaNNan SuDar muDiyan nAngu tOLan kuniSAr’ngan

oNSa’ngadai vAL AzhiyAn oruvan aDiyEn uLLAnE (tiruvAi. 8.8.1)

 

A vyAkhyAna kartA is giving interpretation for “aDiyEn uLLAnE”. In

tiruvAimozhi, we can find the word “aDiyen” in several pASuram-s. The

vyAkhyAnam is done extensively for the “aDiyEn” only in this pAsuram.

 

aDiyEn uLLAnE - Such a paramAtmA is not understood and recognized by the

jIvAtmA. Why not?

 

manmAyA mohitam jagat – [The Lord declares] “This world is under the influence

of My mAyai - the three guNa-s that constitute the prakRti.

 

kAntaste purushottama: phaNipati: SayyAsanam vAhanam vedAtmA vihageSvaro

yavanikA mAyA jaganmohinI

 

mAyai – it is a screen. It conceals what is inside. vAlmIki reveals to us

through the ‘pAyasam’, the viSishTadvaita siddhAntam (philoshophy) that has

been concealed.

 

It was that divine pAysam – bhagavAn – pAyasArdham narapati: kausalyAyai dadau

tadA – daSarathar gave half of that pAyasam to kausalyai.

 

ardhAt ardham dadau cApi sumitrAyai narAdhipa : (bAla. 16.29)

 

Half of half – what is half of half? It is one-fourth. Half of half is ¼.,

right? He gave that one-fourth part to sumitrai.

 

kaikeyyai cAva SishTardham dadau putrArtha kAraNAt – he gave half of the

one-fourth portion that was left over, to kaikeyi. ava SishTasya ardham, or

avaSishTe ardham. Half is gone, and then one-fourth is gone; what is left is ¼.

He got half of that part to kaikeyi. That is how it seems if you read the

book.

 

anucintya sumitrAyai punareva mahIpati: | (bAla. 16.27-29)

 

In the end, there is some left. Half of the ¼ is left. Who did he give it to?

He gave it to sumitrai. vAlmIki says at this time, for sumitrai only -

pAyasasya amRtopamam – the left-over pAyasam that was like nectar. Was it sour

for the other two? Was it sweet because it was the end portion? If one says

the bottom-most portion will taste great, what if you give the end portion of

SAttumudu? [aDi portion of SAttumudu will be thick!] (laughter in the

audience). vAlmIki does not say this [amRtopamam] when the pAyasam portions

were given to the first two wives.

 

pradadau cAvaSishTArdham pAyasasya amRtopamam |

anucintya sumitrAyai punareva mahIpati: || (bAla. 16.30)

 

If you look at all this, it seems that half part is rAman, one-fourth part is

lakshmaNan, one-eighth part is bharatan and one-eighth part is Satrughnan. That

is how it all seems at this point. But, it does not compute if we read what

comes next. He says - vishNo: amSa: caturbhAga: bharata: (bAla. 18.13) He

says that bharatan came as one-fourth of the pAyasam. All this is there. What

did they do to reconcile all this? govindarAjar has interpreted the word –

ardham to mean ‘equal parts’. It is said in the koSam – “ardhe amSe same

bhAge”.

 

[According to this interpretation] daSarathar smartly distributed one-fourth of

the pAyasam each time skillfully. You can see in temples how prasAdam

distribution is done so that everyone gets some depending on how many there

are. Only if we accept this interpretation, the meanings for Slokams come out

correctly.

 

It is said in bhojacampU :

 

kausalyAyai prathamam adiSat bhUpati: pAyaSArdham

paScAt ardham praNaya madhuram kekayendrasya putryai |

ete devyau tarala manasa: patyu: Alokya bhAvam

svArdhAmSAbhyAm svayam akurutAm pUrNakAmAm sumitrAm ||

 

What did daSarathar do? He gave half to kausalyai, half to kaikeyi. He felt

bad that he did not give any to sumitrai. Looking at his face, kausalyai gave

half of hers to sumitrai and kaikeyi gave half of hers to sumitrai. Kaikeyi was

good at that time, right? She became bad only after coming home! So, she also

gave. laksmaNan was born from the part that belonged to rAman and he did

kaimkaryam for rAman. Satrughnan, who was born from the part that belonged to

bharatan, did kaimkaryam for bharatan; that is what bhoja campU says.

 

Let us look at vAlmIki’s Slokam. That is what is causing the difficulty.

Listen carefully. kausalyAyai narapati: pAyasArdham dadau , right? He gave a

part of the pAyasam. ardhAt ardham dadau cApi sumitrAyai – he gave half of the

half to sumitrai. kaikeyyai cAvaSishTardham dadau putrArtha kAraNAt – he gave

the rest to kaikeyi – Why? - so that a son will be born. What about the

others? putrArtha kAraNAt comes only here. He gave to kaikeyi so that a son

will be born. Doesn’t kausalyai have putrArtha kAraNAt? Did he give to

sumitrai because he did not want her to have a son? Why did vAlmIki write

‘putrArtha kAraNAt’ only for kaikeyi? What is the underlying principle or

inner significance? vyAkhyAnam is – What is said in the end must be added for

the beginning also. There is a rule called simhAvalokana nyAyam. You know what

it is? Lion will start from its cave. It will kill all the animals it sees in

one blow; then it will look back to see if it left out anything. Even after

they have finished performing their uttara ApoSAnam [final parishecanam – amRtA

pidhAnamasi svAhA), some people will look back at their leaf again to see if

they have completely finished everything or if they left out anything!

(laughter in the audience). Like that simhAvalokana nyAyam means looking back.

That means, if something is said in the end only, it should be applied to the

earlier parts also.

 

kausalyAyai narapati: dadau putrArtha kAraNAt, sumitrAyai dadau putrArtha

kAraNAt, kaikeyyai ca dadau putrArtha kAraNAt – that is how it should be read.

Is that okay now? One naughty person asks – why should we add what is said for

kaikeyi for the others also? Why don’t we apply what is said for others to

kaikeyi?

 

What if one writes a vyAkhyAnam like this here - daSarathar is a weird person.

He gave to kausalyai; he gave to sumitrai; when he gave to kaikeyi, he thought

– the others may or may not get sons, but kaikeyi will definitely give birth.

Can you see why? The other two have become old. It does not matter if he is

old! Nobody will think about his own being old. If someone points out that a

person has white hair, that person would say that is because he worked

underneath the light. daSarathar would say his hair was white because he was

sitting under the ‘white umbrella’ (one of the insignia of royalty).

 

pANDurasya Atapatrasya chAyAyAm jaritam mayA (ayodhyA. 2.7) - daSarathar says

in ayodhyA kANDam – [My body has lost its strength because I have been sitting

under the ‘white umbrella’ for a long time and administered the kingdom];

otherwise my hair would have been black for a few more days. I was under

pearl-umbrella for a long time; so my hair became white. No one wants to accept

that they are old. One person can say that this is why daSarathar gave the

pAyasam like that.

 

Someone else gives another beautiful meaning.

kaikeyyai cAvaSishTArdham dadau putrArtha kAraNAt – vAlmIki knew rAmAyaNam

before he wrote it. nAradar has already instructed him through sa’nkshepa

rAmAyaNam. Then brahmA came and told him he will know the whole rAmAyaNam:

 

rahasyam ca prakASam ca yat vRttam tasya dhImata: | (bAla. 2. 34)

 

taccApyaviditam sarvam viditam te bhavishyati || (bAla. 2.35)

 

Because vAlmIki knew the story even before writing rAmAyaNam, he says that

daSarathar gave to kausalyai, then sumitrai; then kaikeyi; he says that

daSarathar gave pAyasam to kaikeyi specifically for the benefit of a son –

putrArtha kAraNAt, because vAlmIki knew that the purpose of the son was going

to be fulfilled only by kaikeyi’s son. Only bharatan had to do the carama

kriyai (the final duties when his father died). rAman was not available.

lakshmaNan was not available. bharatan was it. What is the meaning of a

putran? Why does anyone want a son? It is only for the final karma. Instead

of the final duty being performed by someone else who is delegated in place of

the son, the expectation is that the son will perform the final rites in

person, and thereby lift up the father [parents] to the higher worlds even if

the father had been deficient in his anushTAnam-s. That is why vAlmIki said

‘putrArtha kAraNAt’ when it came to kaikeyi.. The benefit from a son is only

karmA. Who is going to do carama kaimkaryam for daSarathar? Only bharatan.

vAlmIki had that in mind when he used the term “putrArtha kAraNAt”. It is a

nice explanation.

 

yAgam has ended. pAyasam has been given. What do the women do immediately?

sammAnam menire sarvA: (bAla. 16.32) - Those wives thought of that as a great

blessing. They drank the pAyasam with great happiness. Why is that word here?

To show that they had belief in SAstram. Only belief and faith will lead to

fulfillment of the desired result.

 

yasya yAvAmsca viSvAsa: tasya siddhiSca dhAvatI |

 

[someone asked a person] “Did you do Ayush homam?” “Yes! The priest did Ayush

homam; he took [lot of] money for it”. If one replies like that, the Ayus

(longevity) will also be like that. If one does not have faith, there will be

no fruit.

 

------------

 

(End of translation of AcArya rAmAmRtam as it appeared in the November 2006

issue of SrI ra’nganAtha pAdukA)

 

To be continued …..

 

 

 

 

______________________________\

____

Expecting? Get great news right away with email Auto-Check.

Try the Mail Beta.

http://advision.webevents./mailbeta/newmail_tools.html