raama's food habits 4

October 13, 2007

Post 4

Dear sri vaishNava perunthagaiyeer,

We are on the topic of 'food habits' of raama. Meanwhile I received 2 reactions from Sri

Narender P. Reddy swamin, and sri Sudarsan parthasarathy swamin. I hope sri reddy and sri sudarsan will not mind me responding to these mails thru the lists to all.

First – mail of Sri Reddy - That mail states – quote -- I believe, Srimadh Raamaayanam does not explicitly say that Sri Raama ate meat. The concept of Sri Raama eating meat has been put forward from various sages giving directions to Sri Raama and LakshmaNa regarding the route to be taken (during Vanavaasam). In the service of Lord Sri Venkateswara, I remain, Sincerely Narender P. Reddy – unquote.

My reactions on his points are

Sreemadh raamayaNam does explicitly says raama ate meat. That is in uththara kaaNdam. When he returned to ayOdhyaa, after taking back seethaa from the capture of raavaNa, and being crowned in ayOdhyaa, he enjoyed both wine and meat – that statement is also true, since same sage vaalmeeki writes in sargam 42 of uththara kaaNdam [gorakhpur version] about that. That too - it is for 10000 years, - not one or two years. See a translation taken from internet – [here the sargam number is given as 52]. I can give the slokams also.

Quote:

"After recovering his kidnapped wife Seethaa from Lankaa, Raama's coronation is performed upon returning to ayOdhyaa.

Both Raama and Seethaa spend their evenings enjoying wine as well as succulent well-cooked meats in the asOkaa grove. The following quote which captures this regal scene is from

Uththara kaaNda sargam 52 (or sargam 42 in some editions) of Vaalmeeki RaamaayaNam:

" All the trees in the forest were filled with flowers. And the rocks there, covered with flowers falling down from trees, appeared like welkin beautified with stars. And Raama's asOkaa forest was like unto Indhra's Nandhavanam and KubEraa's Chithraratha made by Brahma. Having entered the rich asOkaa forest abounding in many seats and houses and creepers Raama sat on an excellent seat, covered with a beautiful coverlet and well constructed. Like unto Purandhara with Sachi he took Seethaa by the hand, made her sit and drink the wine distilled in the province of Mira. And in no time the servants brought for him well-cooked meat and various fruits. Being inebriate the beautiful apsaras, well-skilled in the art of singing and dancing, began to dance before Raama in the company of Kinnara women [the author says as kinnaris]. The virtuous-soul Raama, the foremost of those who know how to please, satisfied those beautiful damsels adorned with various ornaments. And Seethaa sitting by him, he appeared like the effulgent VasishTa in the company of Arundhati. Being greatly delighted the celestial-like Raama pleased every day Seethaa resembling a celestial damsel. Seethaa and Raaghava (Raama) thus spent their days happily. And thus was spent the delightful winter giving all enjoyments.

Enjoying various things the high-souled Raama and Seethaa spent ten thousand

years. Once on a time, having performed all the religious ceremonies, in the fore part of the day, Raama, to spend the evening, entered the inner apartment. Seethaa, too, having performed all religious ceremonies, at first attended to the service of her mothers-in-law. Thereupon wearing a beautifully coloured cloth and being adorned with various ornaments Seethaa appeared before Raama like unto Sachi approaching the king of celestials in heaven. And beholding the auspicious signs of pregnancy in his spouse Raama attained to excessive delight. " -- RaamaayaNa 7:52.

[Dutt, Manmatha Nath. The Ramayana: translated into English prose from the original Sanskrit of Vaalmiki.

Calcutta: Deva Press, 1889-94. Vol. III. pp.1716-1717].

Unquote

[Of course I changed the spelling in pronouns to suit my style. Not the name of author – Content – not a word I changed].

2.

Perhaps Sree Narender reddy may or can come out with another point - uththara kaaNdam [itself] is not written by vaalmeeki. It is by somebody else and inserted into raamaayaNam under vaalmeeki's name. So quoting from uththara kaaNdam is not valid.

3.

On this I have nothing to say -- since I am not a researcher on that topic or lines, and I do not have any material as such on the authorship of uththara kaaNdam. [On the other hand I also read few comments like that and heard from learned srivaishNavaas also. Now I do not have any material to quote].

4.

So it is not a 'concept' that raama is eating meat – but a fact as above. Even while commenting about guhan offering food to the trio – that word 'aadhi' after 'anna' means 'maamsam' says govindaraja – the commentator – in sargam 50 slokam 37 ayodhyaa kaaNdam.

5.

"the sages gave directions to raama" - Refer bharadhvaaja giving feast to bharatha and his army – sargam 91 slokam 21 ayodhyaa kaaNdam. So it is not something prohibited and sages do not touch meat – in fact we will see more details on this meat when we deal with 'agasthya' meeting raama.

Dhasan

Vasudevan m.g.

PS: will take up sri sudarsan's mail in next. Also since www.valmikiramayan.net

is easily available to all I just quote the slokam and for details you can always refer the website. When I deal the point at appropriate place, I will cover the points once again.-- Vasudevan MG

October 30, 2007

Jai Sriman NarayanaKalikalmashaVinaasham Sri Venkatesham aham bhajaamiSir Rama did not eat meat and Srimath Ramayanam does NOT mention that Rama ate meat. There might be an isolated statement in Uththara kandam which perhaps was added later. At the time of Ramayanam, humans were not eating meat; Only the rakshasas were eating meat. Sri Valmiki mentioned about various kinds of meat (derived from various animals) available in the markets of Lanka; He does not mention anything like that in Ayodhya. If Sri Rama or other kshyathrias would have eaten meat, Sri Valmiki would have described various animal foods in Ayodhya. Any reference to meat in Uthara kandam perhaps means protein foods which nourish the growth of the muscle (mamsam), as protein foods are classified as mamsaharam (not nesessarilyderived from animals). It is well known in modern communication theory that during transmission of signals, the signal often

gets corrupted (polluted) with noise. The transmitted signal has to be filtered to remove the noise. Srimath Ramayanam occurred in Thrthayugam (26th) and the present yugam is 28th kaliyugam. Therefore, Srimath Ramayanam has to be filtered to de-noise, using the help of Sathvik puranas. According to Sri Valmiki, Sri Rama is Sathvik. It is clearly mentioned in Srimath Bhagavtham and all other sathvik puranas, that only the thamasik(ignorant) people consume meat. Sathvik and Rajasik individuals do not eat meat. In fact, animal killing is forbidden even in Yagnas and yagas. For instance, Srimath Bagavatham, Sri Narada Maha Muni instructs Prachina Barhi to stop animal sacrifices as the sacrificed animals get elevated and wait for the sacrificer to die.such that they can pears and punish the yathana shariram of the sacrificer. All the sathvik puranas say that eating meat leads to karmik reaction and significant suffering in narakam. As Ramayanam

(and all other puranas) mentioned that Sri Rama is sathvik, any statement about Sri Rama should be interpreted using Sathvik point of view. Interpretations leading to the idea that Sri Rama ate meat was perhaps injected during the muslim invasion period when hindu kings were loosing. The religious advisers at that time (under the influence of kali, and thamasic gunas) might have interpreted to provide such a meaning so as to authenticate the kings eating meat. In conclusion, Sri Rama did NOT eat meat. Certain amount of chanting of 'Sri Rama" namam (to get rid of kalidosham) is needed before reading or trying to interpret Srimath Ramayanam.In the service of Lord Sri Venkateswara, I remain,SincerelyNarender P. ReddyHari Sharanam, Sri Hari SharanamJai Sriman Narayana