AcArya rAmAmRtam - (from SrI ra’nganAtha pAdukA dt. March 07 Part 4)

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SrI:

SrImate ra’ngarAmAnuja mahA deSikAya nama:

SrImate SrInivAsa rAmAnuja mahA deSikAya nama:

SrImate vedAnta rAmAnuja mahA deSikAya nama:

SrI ra’nganAtha divya maNi pAdukAbhyAm nama:

 

AcArya rAmAmRtam - (from SrI ra’nganAtha pAdukA dt. March 07 Part 4)

 

English 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

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

 

Why did he walk silently for such a long time? daSarathar had said, “naiva

dAsyAmi putrakam (bAla.20.25) . I got angry at him! When I got angry,

vasishThar imparted instruction to him using only four or five Slokams. When

he imparted instruction, he instructed that rAman is none but paramAtmA

Himself. None of the Rshi-s present there knew that [he was imparting

instruction]. Those who were standing close by did not know that either.

daSarathan alone understood. As soon as he realized that, his ignorance was

removed, and he understood that rAman was not just his belonging; this rAman is

a wealth belonging to devotees. He is a tattvam that should be with the

bhaktas. He realized how he had incorrectly thought that He was just his son!

He immediately gave rAman to me”.

 

“I asked for Him for seven days”; adya prabhRti shaDrAtram – it is going to be

dIkshai for six days for viSvAmitrar, and he will observe the vow of silence

for six days – so vAlmIki will say later (bAla. 30.4). “When I asked for Him

for just seven days - dadau kuSika putrAya suprItena antarAtmanA (bAla. 22.3) –

he gave Him without constraints to me, saying, “ I give Him unconditionally to

you with extreme delight”. I asked in the Sixth Case. I asked in the sense of

shashThI vibhakti. He gave with the sense of caturthI vibhakti. What a

surprise! This is the way an AcAryan should impart instruction through his

presence. This is the way an AcAryan should instruct. AhA! What superb

instruction! What superb instruction! Can any instruction be comparable to

this! What svAmI! No matter how much I shout, the boy does not understand

anything. I have given so much in writing; I have explained so much; I have

bought Notes for him; after doing all this, he is still not able to grasp it

correctly. All said and done, there is nothing that can beat the instruction

imparted by one who has descended from a Brahmin lineage. He (vasishThar) is

a Brahmin who has come from a traditional Brahmin heritage, and he is giving

instruction in the role of AcAryan. I am not like that. I only have an

‘acquired Brahminhood’ from somewhere on the way. So, vasishThar’s upadeSam is

superb! What an excellent instruction! He only said four or five Slokams. He

did it in such a way that even though others were present in the audience who

did not understand it; he gave the instruction to his disciple as prescribed in

the SAstra-s, so that the disciple alone understood it immediately, and no one

else knew anything about it - ‘ashaTkarNamAga upadESittu’ (without the

instruction falling in a sixth ear inadvertently). The disciple was

immediately blessed with clarity in his knowledge, and because of this clear

knowledge, he sent his child with me right away. What a fine teaching! What a

brilliant teaching! Everyone imparts instructions these days. There is no

one who does like this”. So thinking, viSvAmitrar is extolling in his mind the

instruction imparted by vasishThar, and is rejoicing in that thought. “Do I

know how to impart instruction like this? As soon as AcAryan instructed with

four or five Slokams, the person who said, ‘ I will not give my son’, got his

ignorance cleared, understood that his son is not his property alone, and gave

Him saying “I give Him exclusively to you”. vasishThar imparted knowledge so

exquisitely”.

 

guruvin vAcakam koNDa koRRavan – “This is the way instruction should be given

to impart knowledge. What a great upadeSam! What a great AcAryan!” – so

wondered viSvAmitrar.

 

Anybody else (except viSvAmitrar) would have brushed it aside, saying, ‘Ah!

What is the big deal about this upadeSam?’ There is only conflict between

viSvAmitrar and vasishThar described in all the 18 puRANa-s ; even then,

viSvAmitrar could not stop uninterruptedly admiring vasishThar’s upadeSam in

his mind, and kept walking while feeling happy with this thought. One is

reminded of the parallel experience of sa’njayar – samvAdam ubhayoh SrutvA, as

we see in the gItA - rAjan! samsmRtya samsmRtya hRshyAmi (18.76) ( In gItai,

sa’njayar who narrated gItai to dhRtarAshTran says that he keeps feeling

immense joy by constantly remembering the conversation between kRshNan and

arjunan). viSvAmitrar kept wondering about vasishThar’s instructions and how

daSarathan listened and got rid of his ignorance and sent rAman with him, and

kept walking while continuously rejoicing how great vasishThar’s instruction

was, and fifteen miles had passed just like that. There was no time for him

to talk. And, the river came in sight already. adhyardha yojanam gatvA sarayvA

dakhsiNe taTe! ((bAla.22.10) He looked back only after reaching the banks of

sarayU river. Till then, he kept marveling at vasishThar’s upadeSam with great

esteem. As he was feeling ecstatic just keeping on thinking about it, he did

not even think about talking to the boys. And fifteen miles had passed by.

 

Someone asked, “Did the happiness last only for fifteen miles? Was there no

happiness after that?” He would have continued his joyous contemplation, but

as he was walking, the river’s embankment obstructed his path, and disturbed

his deep thought. sarayvA: dakhshiNe taTe – vAlmIki says “dakhshiNe taTe” –

if it is a river that has water flowing, then the embankment is always high.

There are no embankments for the rivers in our areas (everyone laughs). Look

at cAvEri river. In SrIra’ngam, to get into the river, you have to first climb

up quite a bit – because there is the barrier for the flowing river. If one

asks: ‘Wasn’t there any other uneven ground as he was walking towards the

sarayU river [that distracted his concentration of thought]?’ recall that

vAlmIki has already said earlier during the description of ayodhyA - sama

bhUmau niveSitAm (bAla.5.17) – ayoddhi does not have ups and downs like

Kerala and Mysore. The roads are all uniform and level. If you look at some

houses, they are constructed such that you can walk from the front entrance to

the back of the house on level ground without stumbling anywhere while walking.

Like that, the whole of ayoddhi was on level ground – samabhUmau niveSitAm. So

viSvAmitrar was walking without stumbling anywhere as he kept walking up to the

sarayU river embankment. When his legs hit the tall embankment, only then he

turned back to see if the boys are following him, and then he called, ‘rAma!’

sarayvA: dakshiNe taTe rAmeti madhurAm vANIm viSvAmitro’bhyabhAshata | So,

there was no other reason; that was the only reason for the delay in his

talking to the boys. PurvAcArya-s explain that it is because viSvAmitrar was

rejoicing about vasishThar’s upadeSam in his mind as he was walking, there was

no time for him to talk

 

Another AcAryar gives a different reason –

 

adhyardha yojanam gatvA sarayvA dakshiNe taTe |

rAmeti madhurAm vANIm viSvAmitro`bhyabhAshata || (bAla.22.10)

 

viSvAmitrar took the boys from the palace and started. daSarathar came to send

them off up to the entrance of the palace. viSvAmitrar took leave. The boys

took the bows elegantly. They threw in a collection of arrows in the quiver.

They were wearing gold chains around their necks. They wore protective gloves

on their hands, sword in their waist, dhoti that a brahmacArin (the first order

or stage of religious studentship) wears; they were having jilpA tuft [the type

of tuft that a kshatriya has]. Thus they left elegantly with viSvAmitrar. His

desire was to keep calling , ‘rAma!’ and keep telling Him stories. His first

thought was: “By what name should I call Him?” May be ‘rAma’ is the name that

has to be used. But why should the name ‘rAma’ be used to call Him? I will

give a different name for Him. Why should I use the name that vasishThar

gave?” vasishThar is an enemy of viSvAmitrar.. There is only contention

between vasishThar and viSvAmitrar in all the 18 purANa-s!

 

Traditionally, while naming children, names that are beautiful with meaning are

chosen. Compare that with the naming in current times – it is truly amazing.

All kinds of names – such as indran, candran, sUryan, and all kinds of such

names! It seems the name ‘yaman’ has not yet been given (laughter in the

audience). For girls also, astounding names are given, without using any of

the names of tAyAr. There are names of tAyAr from 108 tirupati-s; instead of

using those, they give unique names, such as names of flowers – this flower,

that flower, etc. All these are considered a display of their ‘smartness’!.

 

Like that, viSvAmitrar thinks: “vasishThar is my foe; why should I call by the

name he has chosen?” If you see in some houses, if a baby is born, they will

say –“I kept this name; my in-law sent a letter; so, I am keeping that other

name also to please them”. There is no unity between the two families even in

giving names - that is what it seems. Why do they do that? Because that is

their desire.

 

Similarly, “Why should I call by the name that vasishThar gave? As if there is

no other nAmam?

 

yAni nAmAni gauNAni vikhyAtAni mahAtmana: |

Rshibhi: parigItAni tAni vakshyAmi bhUtaye || (vishNu sahasranAmam)

 

perumAL has a thousand names. devo nAmasahasravAn.

 

Odi Ayira nAma`ngaL uNarndavarkku uRu tuyar aDaiyAmal

EdaminRi ninRu aruLum nam perum tagai iru`nda nal imayattu

tAdu malgiya piNDi viNDu alarginRa tazhal purai ezhil nOkki

pEdai vaNDugaL eriyena veruvaru piridi SenRaDai ne’njE (periya tirumozhi 1.2.9)

 

devo nAmasahasravAn

pErAyiram uDaiyAn enRAL (SiRiya tirumaDal)

pErgaLAyiramE pidaRRi (SiRiya tirumaDal)

 

He has a thousand names. They all talk about bhagavAn’s guNams” (attributes).

viSvAmitrar thought – “Let me look at the thousand names, and call Him by a

name other than ‘rAma’. This boy has come. He is extremely beautiful. Shall

I call Him ‘viSvam’? vishNu:, vashaTkAra:, bhUta-bhavya-bhavat-prabhu: etc”.

He thought about the name ‘viSvam’, and thought about its meaning. He thought

about rAman’s rUpam (form). He concluded that this name was not good enough.

Okay, next name is vishNu: - that denotes ‘being everywhere’. It means ‘being

in all places and in everything’. That is not right here. vashaTkAra: that

talks about the havis samarpaNam (sacrificial offering) in the yAgam . How can

I use that here? bhUta bhavya bhavat prabhu: - thus he thought about all the

thousand names on the one hand, and he looked at rAman’s form on the other

side; “Unfortunately nothing else fits”.

 

parardhi: paramas-spashTa … rAma: (sahasra nAmam – Slokam 42) - only this

fits His beautiful rUpam – that is the inner meaning here). Shouldn’t a name

be fitting? It would be nice if there is a name that fits. rAkshasA-s are

called ‘puNya janA:’ – those who know no puNyam have the name puNya-janAh. In

amarakoSam, we find “rAkshasa: …puNya jana: (1.60, 61) Is that the way to

name? Shouldn't there be some correlation? Remember I told you the other day.

It is common in this world to have names that do not correlate to the person’s

qualities. There will be no relation between the person and the name.

 

A person went to a doctor. He waited for a long time. The doctor said, ‘Come

in’. The person said, ‘No, let everyone go, then I can let you attend to me’.

Doctor said, ‘It will be another two hours. Let me see you’. He said, ‘No, it

is okay. I have too many illnesses. I want to report everything; we can do

this at leisure’. He let the doctor examine him after everyone was gone. It

was 12 o’clock by the time the queue cleared. Then he went in. The doctor

asked him, ‘What is your problem?’ The person said: ‘My head is aching. My

eyes are watering. My stomach is hurting. I cannot hear. I have kept cotton

in my ears. There is stuffiness in my nose. I cannot breathe. There is pain

in the waist. I have chest pain. My whole body is burning – I have all the

problems you can find in the dictionary”. The doctor tested him. He said he

would write a prescription, as is common practice. Half of that prescription

will usually have the advertisement for the pharmacy! (laughter in the

audience). The doctor asked him. ‘What is your age?’ He gave his age. ‘What is

your name?’ “ArOgyasAmi” (the audience laughs). He has so much sickness, look

at the appropriate name for him! There are a lot of such cases of naming in

this world.

 

“In sahasra nAmam, perumAL has viSvam vishNur vashaTkAra:

bhUta-bhavya-bhavat-prabhu: loka-bandhur loka-nAtho mAdhavo bhaktavatsala:,

etc. All these are there; they talk about his guNams. This rUpam (rAman’s) is

so beautiful; shouldn’t the name reflect the rUpam?” viSvAmitrar finally

reconciled: “All said and done, the name given by vasishThar alone is

befitting the rUpam. AhA! What a beautiful name! vasishThar has chosen the

name only after deep thinking. He has really thought about this well. Even if

I don’t want to call by this name, I do not have a choice; nothing else fits.

ramayati iti rAma: ramante yogino yasmin – the rUpam (form) is so divine that

even yogi-s quit doing yogam and get immersed in meditating on this beautiful

form. Even those who perform intense penance where their body becomes

completely dried out, they renounce all nourishment, detract their five senses

completely from external diversions – such intense tapas - Un vADa uNNAdu uyir

kAval iTTu uDalil piriyAp pulan aindum nondu tAm vADa vADat tavam (periya

tirumozhi 3.2.1) - His rUpam is such that even they become immersed in it.

What an enchanting name he has kept for this divine form! I have to call by

the same name. I should not call Him by any other name”. He kept thinking

about the sweetness of the rAma nAmam. “AhA! What a name! What a name! The

other nAmams do not fit this rUpam”. Fifteen miles had passed.

 

adhyardha yojanam gatvA sarayvA dakshiNe taTe |

rAmeti madhurAm vANIm viSvAmitro`bhyabhAshata ||

 

madhurAtvAt rAmeti vANIm viSvAmitro`bhyabhAshata – he was completely submerged

in the enjoyment of the sweetness of rAma nAmam; when the sarayU embankment

obstructed his walk, he regained awareness, all the sweetness in his mind took

shape through his words, and he uttered the sweet word :rAma!” and called Him

by the name “rAma” in a sweet voice.

 

==========

(End of translation of AcArya rAmAmRtam as it appeared in the March 2007

issue of SrI ra’nganAtha pAdukA)

 

To be continued …..

 

 

 

 

 

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