wave of love 2

[Guest guest]

Dear sri vaishNava perunthagaiyeer,

 

When I said the very first 'LOVE LETTER', perhaps somebody may have an objection on following grounds --

– is it the first love letter of the world?

– earlier to that, did nobody fall in love and exchange letters of love?

– if nobody has fallen in love, then why Manu, [who formulated the rules – called manu smrithi] should categorize 8 types of marriages, in which one is gaandharva vivaaham – which is nothing but falling in love and immediately marrying and uniting?

– Hey, you have forgotten the 'sakunthala dhushyantha' episode of love, which lead kaalidhasa to write that love story of 'abhignaana saakunthalam'.

– Also time wise saakunthalam is prior to rukmiNi krishNa love marriage – for visvaamithra and his thapas were all in thrEthaa yuga or even prior to that - so that raama in thrEthaa yugam is told about visvaamithra's life history by sathaananda when he went to mithila for the dhanur yagnam of janaka.

 

So when you have so many points to answer, how can you say rukmiNi's is the 'first love letter'?

 

Dear all, if you cite any 'recorded love letter' in any of our puraaNams or kaavyams prior to the 'recorded version' of rukmiNi's love letter, I will stand corrected. Now taking cognizance of the first 'love letter', let us proceed further.

 

RukmiNi wrote the letter and she sent through a braahmaNa.

Now just compare the 3 marriages – seethaa kalyaaNam, rukmiNi kalyaaNam and aaNdaaL kalyaaNam – in all 3 marriages – the frontal person who served in bringing about the marriage to fusion is a 'braahmaNa' –

 

for seethaa it is visvaamithra – he only brought raama to mithila and made him break the siva dhanus and thus united the supreme lord and his dhEvi.

for rukmiNi it is an unnamed braahmaNa – who did the 'kaadhal thoodhu' by delivering the love letter of rukmiNi to my beloved krishNa.

for aaNdaaL it is her father vishNu chiththa – who conveyed her flowers to her lord and thus paved the way for their congress.

 

 

From this, one can understand for a successful marriage of a pair of lovers, a braahmaNa must be in the forefront or approached.

 

But why a braahmaNa should be there in the forefront? Why not others? That means others do not help lovers to unite? Will they be stumbling blocks?

 

I feel the following reasons may be apt –

· Because he commands respect from both sides – that too easily – the bride's side and as well the groom's side,

· his intentions will be for the welfare of the 2 persons involved, by saying 'asthu' with the 'vEdham Odhina vaai' – that mouth reciting vEdhaas blessing the two saying asthu – as aaNdaaL says as 'vaai nallaar' – for she and rukmiNi know better than anybody else.

· he has 'easy access' to any courtroom - the royal palace – or durbaar. [not the present day courtrooms] [just recall the way visvaamithra entered dhasaratha's royal court]

· he has more diplomacy – does not get easily provoked and hence more suitable as ambassador – particularly in the love marriage affairs

· even if situation becomes tough – he can come out easily – means – he will not be considered as 'spying' for this king or that king etc – for they were traveling in those days and sang in praise of kings and got land, wealth etc – so will not be suspected whether on a particular mission of love or not.

 

Readers can add to this list or counter these with their own / other points.

 

We will continue in next post.

Dhasan

Vasudevan m.g.-- Vasudevan MG