AcArya rAmAmRtam - (from SrI ra’nganAtha pAdukA dt. June 09 Part 1)

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SrIH

SrImate ra’ngarAmAnuja MahA deSikAya namaH

SrImate SrInivAsa rAmAnuja MahA deSikAya namaH

SrImate VedAnta rAmAnuja MahA deSikAya namaH

SrI ra’nganAtha divya maNi pAdukAbhyAm namaH

 

AcArya rAmAmRtam - (from SrI ra’nganAtha pAdukA dt. June 09 Part 1)

 

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)

 

A short note on the letter scheme used for samskRtam and tamizh words in these

postings:

 

Grammar dictates that all proper names should begin with capital letters. Both

saMskRtam and tamizh have small [mellinam in tamizh] ‘ra’ and capital

[vallinam in tamizh] ‘Ra’, this distinction will be made wherever

appropriate. Because of the necessity to show this distinction [rAma begins

with small letter ‘r’, not ‘R’ for RAma], all proper names will begin

with small letters to avoid confusion, sometimes justifiably. Same logic applied

for ‘na’ and ‘Na’ (nArayANa instead of NarAyaNa).

 

saMskRtam –

- has only elongated ‘e’ [neDil in tamizh]; no separate short ‘e’

[kuRil in tamizh]. kaikEyi will be written as ‘kaikeyi’;

only elongated ‘o’ [neDil]; no separate short ‘o’ [kuRil]. Hence,

capital ‘O’ will not be used for saMskRtam words [‘rAmo na paSyati’].

 

tamizh –

- has both short ‘e’ (‘ettanai’) and elongated ‘E’

(‘kaikEyi’);

- has short 'o' (‘tol’) and elongated 'O’ (‘pOip pukku’).

 

Use of letters – ‘A†and ‘a’, ‘D’ and ‘d’, ‘T’ and

‘t’, ‘U’ and ‘u’, ‘S’ and ‘s’, ‘I’ and ‘i’, ‘L’

and ‘l’, ‘M’ and ‘m’, ‘H’ and ‘h’ - is self-explanatory.

 

The theme used for letters in these postings makes it easier to transliterate

into International saMskRtam notations (using softwares for both saMskRtam and

tamizh) when they are published in book format.

 

(Please set your encoding to Unicode UTF-8).

 

SrImad ANDavan tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam,

kalyANi kRshNamAcAri

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

SrImad tirukkuDandai ANDavan’s SrImad rAmAyaNa upanyAsam

 

Immediately, rAma says to kaikeyi – “Mother!

 

gacchantu caivA nayituM dUtAH SIghrajavaiH hayaiH |

bharataM mAtulakulAt adyaiva nRpaSAsanAt || (ayodhyA.19.10)

 

Discharge messengers to your home place. bharata has gone to yudhAjit’s place

to see king aSvapati. It has been a while now. Ask them to ride speedy horses

and bring him here. I will leave after seeing bharata’s coronation.â€

 

kaikeyi thinks now – what will happen later? What if bharata refuses?

 

“yAvat tvaM na vanaM yAtaH purAt asmAt abhitvaran |

pitA tAvanna te rAma snAsyate bhokshyate’pi vA || (ayodhyA.19.16)

 

rAma! It is not like that! You can be asked to go later. But, it is not like

that. Your father is a believer in truth. Belonging to ikshvAku clan, he will

not go back on his word. He will not deny his own word. He is a great

protector of truth. There is no one else like him. If You do not leave this

place, he will not brush his teeth, he will not drink water, he will keep crying

like this. That is what I see. He will not even take a bath or brush his

teeth.

 

pitA tAvanna te rAma snAsyate bhokshyate’pi vA ||

 

He will not bathe. He will not eat. This is the nature of truthful people.

You have to go to the forestâ€.

 

She is very careful in her talk; what will happen when bharata comes? What if

they divide the kingdom in half?

 

Even then, rAma does not get angry. daSaratha cakravarti who was listening to

this, swooned.

 

mUrcchito nyapatat tasmin paryanke hemabhUshite | (ayodhyA.19.17)

 

rAma asks kaikeyi -

 

“yAvan mAtaram apRcche sItAm ca anunayAMyaham |

tatho’dyaiva gamishyAmi daNDakAnAM mahat vanam || (ayodhyA.19.25)

 

nAham arthaparo devi lokam Avastum utsahe |

viddhi mAM RshibhiH tulyaM kevalaM dharmam Asthitam || (ayodhyA.19.20)

 

nAham arthaparo devi – Mother – do not think I am interested in material

wealth. I do not want to live in this world with that name.

 

arthaparaH lokam Avastum nAham utsahe |

viddhi mAM RshibhiH tulyaM kevalaM dharmam Asthitam ||

 

Think of Me as only as one of the Rshi-s [sages] who protect dharma.â€

 

In those days, Rshi-s did not have any love for material things. So, they wrote

a Slokam like this (audience laughs; SrImad ANDavan also laughs).

 

viddhi mAM RshibhiH tulyam kevalaM dharmam Asthitam ||

 

Rshi, muni – these Sabdams belong to gRhasta-s [householders] and sanyAsI-s

(saints) too. In those days, they did not have any desire. Who? Most

importantly, the saints. If they desire money, ‘patatyeva na saMSayaH’

[will fall down from their position].

 

yat kAncana paraH yatiH patatyeva na saMSayaH |

 

But all this changed from deSikan’s time.

 

[The references from sa'nkalpa sUryodayam, SrI P.B. aNNangarAcAriar and

viSvaguNadarSa campU were all kindly provided and spellings checked by Sri

SaThakopan tAtAcAr of kAncIpuram; adiyEn would like to thank him for his prompt

response in clearing the doubts].

 

From the day of araSANip pAlai svAmi, three hundred years back, that was when

saints started desiring [for money]. Seven hundred years back, deSikan wrote -

 

bhiksheti Sishya janarakshaNa dakshiNeti

SATIti SASvatamaThopadhi kalpaneti |

granthopa sangrahaNa mUlyamiti bRuvANAH

sanyAsino’pi dadhate satatam dhanAyAm ||

 

( sa'nkalpa sUryodayam, 5.27)

 

sanyAsI-s come. They ask for one hundred or one hundred and fifty [rupees] every

day. Why? ‘bhiksheti’ - they say – give money in the name of alms.

Does a saint need one hundred rupees for eating? Is he going to eat that much?

What is he going to eat? We do not know what. He is asking so much.

 

Not just for him. It is for his sishyA-s [followers] too. Sishya-s must be

given dhoti-s; SATIti – one should give for their garments too. They will say

that they are to build an ASramam. SASvatamaThopadhi kalpaneti | What will they

say if they are told, “Okay, I will give you all that; do not ask for more

after that’?

 

deSikan says – ‘granthopa sangrahaNa mUlyamiti bRuvANAH’ [they say that

they have to buy books for a cost].

 

Ancient granthams must get printed. They are all disappearing. So, they should

be printed. Even if no one reads, at least the grantham will exist, right! How

much difficulty did deSikan undergo to write these.

 

paraH SataM vApi paraH sahasram

SrI venkaTAcArya kRtAH prabandhAH |

tatrAlam ekaH kila bukti muktyoH ….

(saptati ratnamAlikA  by SrI  P.B. aNNangarAcArya svAmi)

 

SrI deSikan has done hundreds of these. All those must get printed.

 

granthopa sangrahaNa mUlyamiti bRuvANAH

sanyAsino’pi dadhate satatam dhanAyAm ||

 

arasANIp pAlai svAmi writes –

 

sanyasASramam ASritopi sakala vyApAra lopAtmakaM

kaiMkaryaM capalo harer apadiSandrAgrAjadhAnIM viSan |

 

(viSvaguNadarSa campU, kurukesa saThakopa prakaraNam)

 

Why should we talk about this now? People may say something.

 

nAham arthaparo devi – I am not interested in wealth. I am like the Rshi-s.

 

Will Rshi-s desire wealth? There is vaSishThar; he is the king’s priest.

gautamar is the priest for janaka vamSam. He built an ASramam at the outskirts

of mithilA and he was serving as janaka’s priest. In those days, priests use

to serve as ministers. They were like AcAryar, priest, minister etc.

 

ikshvAkUnAm kulasyAsya vaSishThaH paradaivatam ||

 

He is the priest for all the kings in ikshvAku clan. He is not interested in

wealth, right? rAma is like him.

 

rAma said, “viddhi mAm RshibhiH tulyam kevalam dharmam Asthitamâ€; I am not

interested in wealth. I will leave immediatelyâ€.

 

With this half line - “viddhi mAm RshibhiH tulyam kevalam dharmam Asthitamâ€,

there is so much matter, one can do upanyAsam for ten days.

 

“yAvan mAtaram apRcche sItAm ca anunayAMyaham |

 

I will console mother kausalyA and take leave. I will also console sItA. Bear

with Me till then. I will leave for the forest immediatelyâ€.

 

rAma circumambulates both of them with folded hands and leaves.

 

lakshmaNa is very furious. muttaNNA [elder brother] is stupid. He says

‘yes’ for everything. So, he is extremely angry.

 

rAma leaves kaikeyi’s palace and goes to the coronation hall that is decorated

with festoons and banana trees and there are kumbam-s [water-pots], akshadai

[yellow rice] and other auspicious articles.

 

Abhishecanikam bhANDaM kRtvA rAmaH pradakshiNam |

SanaiH jagAma sApekshaH dhrshTiM tatra avicAlayan ||

(ayodhyA.19.31)

 

dhrshTiM tatra avicAlayan – what does avicAlayan mean? rAma looked at all the

auspicious articles collected for the coronation, without even blinking His

eyes, with a single mind. Why the use of sApekshaH? He was looking at them

with apekshai [desire/hope] and circumambulated them without a wink of the eyes

thinking – ‘look what happened to the coronation’. [ AcAryAn is indulging

in a little humor here using a local slang – ‘paTTAbhishekam ippaDi pUDuttu

pArttayA’ – pUDuttu is a slang for ‘pOi viTTadu’ – tamil phrase for

'gone astray'] ‘pUDuttu is a slang used in Chengalput district – ‘ippaDi

pUDuttu pAr’ – see, it has happened like this.

 

sApekshaH – He looked at them with apekshai. Why? kaikeyi is asking Him to

leave immediately. She says otherwise, His father will not eat or take a bath.

He is going to leave without seeing bharata’s coronation. That is why He is

looking at the things with apekshai. He has apekshai in bharata’s abhishekam

and also His well wish that bharata must get coronated. – thus, there are two

meanings.

 

He looked at all the materials collected for abhishekam with apekshai. Why was

He seeing? With those things, bharata is going to be coronated. He had a desire

to see that; that is all, nothing else. He has that much brotherly affection.

 

Is He that desirous of seeing bharata’s coronation? Doesn’t He have

anything in His mind as He is going to leave the kingdom and go?

 

na vanaM gantukAmasya tyajatas ca vasundharAm |

sarvalokAtigasyeva lakshyate citta vikriyA || (ayodhyA.19.33)

 

If you look at perumAL’s character trait, it pervades all the worlds and is

like a great yogi’s heart. He has no sorrow.

 

He has been asked to go the forest. He has been denied the kingdom. It is okay

if the kingdom is gone. He can stay in a corner in the palace somewhere.

 

na vanaM gantukAmasya tyajatas ca vasundharAm |

 

If He has to renounce the kingdom and go into a deep forest, it would be

melancholic, but, rAma’s face looks surprisingly pleasant.

 

He refuses to have the cAmaran [royal insignia made of yak's hair], catram

[royal umbrella], chariot etc and walks to kausalyai’s palace.

===========

To be continued …..