seethaa raama kalyaaNam 9

[Guest guest]

Post 9

 

Dear sri vaishNava perunthagaiyeer,

 

While dwelling more on seethaa's birth, in mahabharatham, vana parvam - droupadhi haranam –sub-parvam - part when dhroupathi was abducted and then after a fight released, yudhishtira laments 'why such thing happen?' [abducted by jayadratha, the brother-in-law of dhuryOdhana]. Since sage maarkandEya was there with the paaNdavaas then, the sage describes raamaayaNam to yudhishtira - sage maarkandEya says dhasaratha raama also suffered similar situation so it is not something new to you only. So in both the major ithihaasams situations are similar.

 

 

That portion is given below – and there is an interesting point about seethaa's birth.

 

Quote –

 

Yudhishthira said, 'In what race was Rama born and what was the measure of his might and prowess? Whose son also was Ravana and for what was it that he had any misunderstanding with Rama? It behoveth thee, O illustrious one, to tell me all this in detail; for I long to hear the story of Rama of great achievements!'

 

 

Markandeya

said, 'Listen, O prince of Bharata's race, to this old history exactly as it happened! I will tell thee all about the distress suffered by Rama together with his wife. There was a great king named Aja sprung from me race of Ikshwaku. He had a son named Dasaratha who was devoted to the study of the Vedas and was ever pure. Dasaratha had 4 sons conversant with morality and profit known by the names, respectively, of Rama, Lakshmana, Satrughna, and the mighty Bharata. Rama had for his mother Kausalya, and Bharata had for his mother Kaikeyi, while those scourge of their enemies Lakshmana and Satrughna were the sons of Sumitra.

 

Janaka was the king of Videha, and Sita was his daughter. Tashtri himself created her, desiring to make her the beloved wife of Rama. I have now told thee the history of both Rama's and Sita's birth. Now, O king, I will relate unto thee birth of Ravana.

 

 

 

Unquote –

 

 

Now a doubt comes who is this tashtri – as per Monier Williams – tashtri means a carpenter who makes chariots.

See page 441 – 1999 edition. That means seethaa is daughter of a carpenter?

 

So a little more search was made – tashtri, tvashtri tvashtaa are all same words – meaning – we have to go to sree Vishnu sahasra namam - the

 

52nd naama - Tvashtaa - One who makes gross things of huge dimensions into minutest particles. At the time of the world's dissolution, the entire gross-world folds back into its subtler elements until at last pure objectless space alone comes to remain.

 

 

Who this can be except that supreme lord – he sends his wife to the bhoo lOkam – again to marry her in front of us – to show the benign grace of the couple to us – to shower that on all.

 

So again this portion of story in the valmikiramayan website in same seethaa kalyaNa sargam is worth quoting. – quote

 

Janaka said, " Narayana obviously knows that Lakshmi is here. He is not going to leave her unmarried. She is not going to take some woman sannyasa or anything. No. Narayana must come here. " So everyone was shocked. They were saying, " What is this man doing? This is as good as saying, `No-one can marry my daughter.' " Anyway, this was going on, and a yajna was performed. The special feature of this yajna was that they were going to bring the bow and put it for darshana, and the kshatriya kings could try. So Vishvamitra knew this, so he told Rama and Lakshmana, " This is the bow used by Lord Shiva, and if you want to see it I will take you there. " " We must see it, " they said. Rama and Lakshmana came there, and the rest of the story is known. We are only dealing with those parts of the story that are not well-known.

 

All the kshatriyas came and they were seeing the bow and Janaka told Vishvamitra, " You must call your young student to come and have a look at this. " So Ramachandra came and saw it, and Lakshmana said, " Try it. "

 

Unquote –

 

Dear raama bhakthaas, perhaps you will have a doubt – why all these – going round and round – but not the main topic of kalyaaNam of seethaa raama – this is to go into detail about those 2 great lines of thyaagaraaja –

mellani maaTalu abhaya karamu livi

mella sahajamaina nee guNa – intha

 

extending that 'abhya karam', and that great 'sahajamaina nee guNam' - your basic nature - oh raama' – is it possible for even brahma indhran and et al to describe – inthanuchu varNimpa tharamaa,

 

 

dhasan

Vasudevan MG