AcArya rAmAmRtam - (from SrI ra’nganAtha pAdukA dt. Aug 07 Part 3)

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divya maNi pAdukAbhyAm nama: AcArya rAmAmRtam - (from SrI ra’nganAtha pAdukA

dt. Aug 07 Part 3) English Translation of SrImad rAmAyaNa

upanyAsam in tamizh by SrImad tirukkuDandai ANDavan As published in SrI

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

SrI ra’nganAtha pAdukA) SrImad ANDavan tiruvaDi,kalyANi

kRshNamAcAri===================================== SrImad

tirukkuDandai ANDavan’s SrImad rAmAyaNa upanyAsam ViSvAmitrar was very sad

like that girl’s father. Because, he had done penance for so many years and

earned these astrams; and he went and taught them to this person who does not

feel the slightest happiness. That is why it is said that one should not teach

without being sought. Be it rAmAyaNam or

anything else…without being asked, they should not be given. At least,

someone may be persuaded to ask, and then it may be given; but it should not be

given without being asked for. If given without being asked, it will not earn

any respect. “na apRshTa: kasyAcit brUyAt†- [Nothing should be given out

without being asked]. ViSvAmitrar felt: “If I call His brother lakshmaNan for

teaching him, he says, ‘My elder brother is there; that is enough for me’.

See how this has turned out!†rAman realized that ViSvAmitrar was suffering.

prekshitaj~nAstu kosalA: - rAman knew by facial signs; He said, “MahaRshe! Do

not feel sad. You did something that I do not have any desire for, and now you

are lamenting that I have not said thanks.†astrANAm tu aham icchAmi samhAram

munipu’ngava ! (bAla.28.2) said rAman. This is only half of the Slokam.

“Oh Great Rshi! Best among sages! You said earlier: ’aham vedmi

mahAtmAnam’.. Don’t you

know about Me? Why have I come to this Earth? You taught Me something that is

contradicting the reason for which I came; and then you complain that I have not

thanked you. Do you realize why I have come?†astrANAm tu aham icchAmi

samhAram munipu’ngava - “There should be no astrams in this world. I have

come to destroy all weapons. Understand?†The interpretation normally given

is different. What I am giving is vaishNava vyAkyAnam. astrANAm samhAram –

this has been interpreted as astrANAm upasamhAram – that is, “Withdrawing

the astram that has been releasedâ€. That is not the correct interpretation.

astrANAm tu aham icchAmi samhAram – There should not be any weapons or arrows

left in this world. I have come here to call for a huge conference for

eliminating all weapons (Ayudha pariharaNa mahA nADu). How do you say that in

English? (AcAryar asks; AcAryar himself replies) Disarmament Conference. All

the existing weapons must

be thrown into the ocean. Everyone should be good, and should correct other

people by their good behavior. There should be no need for the use of weapons

to correct anyone. tuyaril….tuyaril maliyum maniSar piRaviyil tOnRik kaN kANa

vandutuyara’ngaL Seidu tan daiva nilai ulagil puga uykkum ammAntuyaramil SIrk

kaNNan mAyan pugazh tuRRa yAn Or tunbam ilanE

(tiruvAimozhi 3.10.6) “There should be no weapon. I have come to declare –

all the weapons, bombs etc should be thrown into the ocean. And you expect Me

to ‘thank’ you for teaching Me weaponry! That is strange. Great! It is

like a person giving poison to someone, and asking for thanks in return. What

you are expecting is exactly like that.â€. This is my opinion. That is why,

deSikan said, “karuNAkAkutstha†– The Compassionate Lord rAma (daSAvatAra

stotram 12). There should be a topic “karuNA kAkutsthaâ€- rAma pirAn who is

karuNA mUrti – the incarnation of Compassion; The whole rAmAyaNam must be

described, and this will be one of the incidents. rAma is saying: “There

should be no weapons at all, and you are teaching Me the art of weaponry.â€

“Okay, at least teach me the method of annihilation – withdrawing the

astram.. If I release the astram, the intended target will surrender, and what

if I struggle not knowing how to withdraw the astram, like abhimanyu? At

least teach me how to negate the astra-s.†So, ViSvAmitrar taught Him that.

PerumAL’s nature is like this. rAman is kAruNya mUrti – Compassion that has

taken a human form. ViSvAmitrar kept happily thinking about how noble His heart

is. Then, they went to the ASramam. ViSvAmitrar said – “ayam siddhASrama: -

this is siddhASramam. This is where VAmanAvatAram took placeâ€. All the

Rshi-s came and prostrated before viSvAmitrar. ViSvAmitrar also had some of his

own students there. They all

came and prostrated before him and said, “We have committed apacAram! Please

pardon us! Please pardon us!†ViSvAmitrar asked what happened that needed to

be pardoned. “No! Please pardon us. We know; we heard about it; we learned

that you taught astrams to rAman. Pardon us! Pardon us!†“What do you

want me to pardon?†The disciples said: “We are making the requestâ€.

viSvAmitrar asked what they wanted to convey. There was a sanyAsi. He used to

do kAlakshepam very well. When he delivers SrI BhAshyam upanyAsam in the

morning, it will be excellent. When he gives kAlakshepam on rahasya traya sAram

in the afternoon, it will again be very good. If he talked about bhagavad

vishayam, he did an extraordinary job. Fifty or sixty students attended his

kAlakshepam. If that sanyAsi started doing kAlakshepam, even trees would be

moved. But he had one bad habit. As soon as the sun set and it was nine o’

clock, he would take some

flowers, fold them into his saffron dress and say, “Students! I am going

out. You all be in the ASramam†and then leave. The students got together

and called for a meeting. When the AcAryan goes away, what other work do the

students have except to call for a meeting and find fault with the AcAryan

svAmi? This happens everywhere. (AcAryar and the whole audience laugh). What

did they do next? They talked. “Our AcAryan does so many kAlakshepams. They

are extraordinary. It is great when he talks about bhagavad vishayam! Same is

the case with rahasya traya sAram. It is equally true with SrI bhAshyam! But,

every day he is going away at nine in the night with a flower bunch! Where is he

going? If only he did not have this habit, we can call him a good AcAryan! He

is a sanyAsi! But he is taking the flower in his saffron dress! This is

atrocious. It is okay if he goes during daytime. He goes in the nights

somewhere! There is something

going on! If only this habit is not there, it will be good! It is all our

fate. We cannot leave him in the middle and go to someone else. When he says

kAlakshepam, it is nice. But, if we look at svAmi’s character, it is not

good.†One of the students said, “What is wrong in this - We can see where

he goes! Let us see where he takes the flowers! We should not guess anything

based on what our mind dictates; let us go and seeâ€. Others agreed. They all

decided to go on the caturdaSI before the amAvAsyA day. “It will be dark.

Let us go on that dayâ€. The night came. At nine o’ clock, AcAryan took

the flowers and said, “Disciples! Look after the ASramam; I am leavingâ€.

One of the disciples, who was a naughty guy, followed him wearing a dirty dhoti,

removing the white tirumaN (mark on forehead, so that it will not show in the

dark). He followed him thinking, “He is going slow! Let me see where he

goes!†Where was he going?

He went for a long distance. He crossed a lot of gardens. Beyond them was a

forest. He crossed that. There was a temple – a temple for Lord VishNu. The

Lord was present in the temple as Laksmi nArAyaNan. The AcAryan offered the

flowers to perumAL and then prostrated. He then sat for meditation. After

three o’ clock, he completed his meditation and came back to the ASramam. He

took his bath in the morning. Finished giving his kAlakshepam. The boys held

another meeting in the evening. (The naughty boy who had followed the teacher

the previous night said) “What we did was wrong! I followed him last night.

Since he was taking the flowers after sunset, I thought he was going somewhere!

He goes to the temple and decorates perumAL in the temple and feels happyâ€.

Immediately, others said, “We should not trust this. Our AcAryan is very

smart. He would have known that you were following. So, he would have gone to

the temple. (Loud

laughter in the audience). Can you imagine what kind of person he is? He has

so many students, and he goes out at 9 o’clock in the night! What type of

person he is! We will watch another day. Okay, let us watch on another new

moon day.†It was very dark. It was raining too. The student followed the

AcAryan. He saw him go to the same temple and decorate perumAL with flowers.

The student came back and reported, “Tonight, he went back to the same

temple! I was not visible throughout. I was wearing black shirt. I wore the

black shirt of the E.V.R. party. I wore black dhoti around me, like people do

when they go to worship aiyyappan. Pitch black dress. Pitch dark. No one

could have known. AcAryan went only to the temple. What I did was a sinâ€.

The next day, he gathered all the students and prostrated before the AcAryan and

said, “We thought wrong of you because you were taking flowers in the night!

Please pardon us! We

found out you go to the temple; so for that, you should pardon usâ€. AcAryan

said, “Yes, I go alone to present flowers to perumALâ€. “Couldn’t you go

in the daytime? Why were you going in the night time, leading us all to develop

suspicion about you?†“In the morning, many people of all kinds come. The

senses are bad. They see everything. No one comes to that temple after sunset.

Since I can meditate in peace, I go in the nightâ€. Like that, all the

students came and prostrated before ViSvAmitrar. Because, when ViSvAmitrar did

kAlakshepam, it was very nice. But every day, he would wake up early morning at

3 and he would apply coconut oil to the astrams so that they won’t rust; At

sunset, he would keep on repeating some astra mantrams, and saying things like

“daha daha, paca paca, phaT phaT, dhvamsaya dhvamsaya, mAraya, mAraya†etc.

“We used to think: ‘We came and got stuck with you! Everything else is

good.†We

thought: ‘He was a kshatriyan earlier and so he is still remembering the old

habits.’ We couldn’t leave you and go somewhere else also, because you

cursed VasishThar’s sons and your own sons; so we were afraid what you would

do to us. We used to feel that it would be nice if you did not keep

replenishing the power of the astra-s; you kept polishing the old weapons all

the timeâ€. Soldiers would be polishing even their batons; they would all rust.

All the guns and other weapons have to be taken through processions, to

meetings, etc. So, they would sit around and keep polishing them all one by

one. Like that, ViSvAmitrar used to polish all the weapons and keep them back

inside. Then he would chant the mantrams. It did not look good in the eyes of

the disciples. They told ViSvAmitrar that they used to struggle within

themselves and suffer, thinking: “He is a BrAhmin, but he is chanting these

astra mantrams all the time! He keeps

on saying “mAraya, khAdaya, dhAkinI, hAkinI!†We made a mistake by not

going to an actual brAhmin for kAlakshepam. We committed a mistake by coming to

someone who is just a converted brAhmin, and who was really a kshatriyan

earlierâ€. They continued: “Now, we know. We committed apacAram (sin);

please forgive usâ€. ViSvAmitrar asked them how they knew anything different

now. They replied: “Now we understand that you were trying to protect the

power of the astrams so that you could submit them all in good condition to

bhagavAn. We now realize that you were doing allthe astra japa-s daily with

this purpose. We are very happy. We learned that you taught all the astrams to

rAman. Now, our doubts are cleared.†perumAL said, “ yajjuhoshi ..

tatkurushva madarpaNam†(gItai 9.27). Everything should be submitted to

ISvaran. If the japam is stopped, the powers will all be lost. One should

chant daily … Didn’t I tell you in the

kAlakshepam yesterday – japam apekshate? Even if the mantrams have been

chanted before for ten thousand times, even a lakh times… if one day of

chanting is missed, the benefit accrued from the chanting of the mantra-s will

be lost the next instant itself. At least one AvRtti (repetition) must be done

every day. Only then, the mantra will be effective. One should only impart

mantra-s that have their accumulated power; there is no point in imparting

mantrams that do not have accumulated power. The students said to ViSvAmitrar:

“You did japam everyday! We now understand that it was because you wanted to

submit them to PerumAL. You taught rAman! Only now, we understood why you were

chanting every day. Please forgive us; please forgive us.†ViSvAmitrar said,

“I was doing japam only with the intent of submitting them to sarveSvaran. I

wanted to do ISvara arpaNam. That was why I was chantingâ€, and blessed his

students. “I have brought

rAma and lakshmaNa here. I am going to start the yAgam. I should get into

dIkshai. They will have to protect the yAgam very carefully. subAhu and

mArIcan will come. rAman and lakshmaNan have to take care of the yAgam.â€

Tomorrow, the kAlakshepam will continue with yAga samrakshaNam, dhanur

bha’ngam (breaking of the bow) etc. svasti prajAbhya: paripAlayantAm nyAyyena

mArgeNa mahIm mahISA: |gobrahmaNebhya : Subhamastu nityam lokA : samastA :

sukhino bhavantu ||ma’ngaLam kosalendrAya mahanIya guNAbdhaye |cakravarti

tanujAya sArvabhaumAya ma’ngaLam ||

ma’ngaLASAsana parai : madAcArya purogamai : |sarvaiSca pUrvai : AcAryai :

satkRtAyAstu ma’ngaLam || =========== (End of translation of AcArya rAmAmRtam

as it appeared in the August 2007issue of SrI ra’nganAtha pAdukA) To be

continued …..

 

 

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