Of warriors and unguents

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Of Warriors and unguents

The little lad asked his grandpa " Thatha why is Hanuman covered with

this dirty ointment? Does he have rashes like our little baby? "

The kid had seen his younger sibling being anoninted with some gooey

stuff when the infant was feasted upon by the ferocious flying

predators of sub urban Trichy, mosquitoes.

His grandpa said " Nigamanth your question deserves a story. " Unlike

most grandpas of today Sri. U.Ve SriRangarajacharya was a master story

teller and this child was his favorite because he loved stories about

Narayana and His entourage which includes all:Sri,the nityasooris,

azhwars and acharyas and bhagavthottamas.

The modern and the not so modern scions of Athreya gothra repaired to

the shaded benches outside Kattuazhagasingar temple and the old man

started off.

" Nigamanth " he said avoiding the use of the lad's pet name Nikku,

" Thiruvadi is the most fortunate of all bhakthas of Perumal. "

" Thatha, you mean siriya thiruvadi... " The boy had heard his

grandmother say so of Hanuman.

" No, No! " said the venerable old man. " there is nothing siriya,

small, about Anjanaeya. It is improper to call him siriya thiruvadi.

Our great acharyas never referred to him so. He is thiruvadi and

Garuthman is periya thiruvadi... "

" But, thatha, patti only told me ... "

" What does that old woman know " said SriRangarajacharya with that fine

contempt that is characterstic of men of his generation, " Anjaneya is

almost equal to Garuda ... "

The lad burst out " Thatha who do you think will win if they fight each

other? "

Boys of that age cannot resist such questions.

The old man did not dismiss the child's question as foolish and

answered after due consideration " I think Garuthman is stronger

because he is a nithya soori and Hanuman is just a chiranjeevi. But

they have never fought each other so we will never know... Wait a

minute there is a story about Krishna teaching a lesson to quell

Garuda's pride by asking him to bring in a monkey who was actually

Hanuman and Garuthman was bested by Hanuman... "

" Thatha Thatha tell me that story no... "

Good naturedly his grandpa asked him " Nigamanth which story do you

want to hear about Hanuman's ointment or about Garuthman... "

The boy wavered and then settled down for the ointment story as the

image of Hanuman fully covered with yellowish white butter was still

fresh in his mind. The slightly rancid smell of old butter was still

tickling his olfactory sensors.

" You must tell that story later and not cheat me... "

" Have I ever gone back on my word? "

The little boy who, unlike manipulative adults was just, agreed, " No

you have never cheated me of stories. "

" Actually it is not ointment that is applied on Hanuman but butter.

Devotees bring fresh butter from their houses, which they have

themselves got from churning curds and give it to the archaka who

applies it on Hanuman. "

" But Thatha it looks so dirty and smells so... "

" Child over the years Hanuman has been covered with butter so

naturally the place smells so. "

" Why butter? "

" Rama applied it on Hanuman and we still do that in memory of what the

Lord of Lords did for his best devotee. It just shows that our Lord

will do any thing for you if you are devoted to him like Anjaneya. "

" Why did Rama apply butter on Hanuman? "

" That is what Iam trying to tell you but you keep interrupting me "

" Finger on my lips " said the boy and did as he had said.

The old man leaned back and said, " It was during the Rama Ravana war.

Valmiki says that there will never be a fight like that. Ravana was

trying his best to defeat Rama. But each of his weapon was squashed by

Rama's arrows. Rama was being carried by Hanuman as at that time He

did not have a war chariot like Ravana, whose ratha was magnificient.

Ravana was becoming frustrated.A smiling Rama was able to block all of

the ten headed rakshasa's arrows. Ravana thought that if only he could

disturb Rama's equilibrium by making Him angry he could win. When your

enemy is angry he makes mistakes and can be defeated. "

The boy couldn't keep quiet for long.He piped, " But thatha every one is

angry while fighting, how come Rama was calm? "

" Rama is called purushottama, the best among men. He never lost His

temper but that was about to change. Ravana changed his tactics.

Instead of attacking Rama he started to shoot at Hanuman who was

carrying Rama. Hanuman had got the boon of immortality from Brahma but

that did not prevent him from getting injured. Hanuman whose ability

to bear pain was incomparable was being torn to shreds by Ravana. Rama

saw this and became angry. He said " Now all of you are going to see

the Ramathva of Rama. " Valmiki says that during that period Rama

became a slave of wrath. He began to fight like a whirlwhind and soon

made Ravana run from the battle field. Our Lord tolerates any amount

of hardship but cannot see His bhaktas being troubled. When they

retired to their camp Rama made Hanuman to lie down and inspite of his

protests called for cool butter applied it Himself on Hanuman's

burning wounds. His lotus like hands gently and lovingly applied the

balm and Hanuman became well immediately. To remember that, we still

apply butter on Hanuman. Anjaneya is great beyond comparision because

1. Rama embraced him when he returned from Lanka after finding Sita's

location, 2. Rama applied a balm on Hanuman's wounds and 3. Sita

walked four steps towards Hanuman during the pattabhishekam and gave

him her pearl necklace. Nigamanth if some one asks you why Anjaneya is

the greatest of all bhaktas you must tell these three reasons. No one

else has been honoured in such a way by Bhagavan and Piratti. "

The boy did not speak for a while as he thought about Hanuman's

greatness. If his grandfather said that Hanuman was the greatest,

Nigamanth believed it implicitly.

" What about Rama thatha? Who applied ointment for His wounds? "

" For that, child we must go back to the time when Rama and Sita along

with Lakshmana were in Janasthana. Soorpanaka had had her nose and

ears cut by Lakshmana and she went running to her brothers to

complain. Khara and Dushana came with 14000 rakshasas to finish off

Rama and Lakshmana. Rama handled them singlehandedly after asking

Lakshmana to look after Sita. As Swami Desika says with indomitable

courage and incomparable and limitless valour Rama finished all these

people within a period of one muhurta. When it was over He stood like

a huge tree with red flowers all over. Those were the wounds from

which blood flowed. Sita was thrilled by her Husband's heroism and ran

and embraced Him, " ... bhartaaram parishvejey... She is considered to

be the place from were all medicines originate, after all Sita and

Mahalakshmi are one and the same. As soon as she hugged Him all His

wound's were healed, there was no need for any ointments. "

Both were silent for a while and then Nigamanth heard his grandfather

heave a huge sigh. He asked " Why are you sad now thatha? Hanuman's and

Rama's cuts were healed no? "

" I was thinking about Krishna, child. Even today He stands as

Parthasarathy in Triplicane, Chennai. His body is full of war wounds

He got when He was the driver of Arjuna's chariot.Just like Ravana

attacked Hanuman to make Rama angry, Bhishma attacked Krishna to make

Arjuna fight better.But there was nobody to apply ointment for

Krishna. To remind us that He happily bears all sorts of difficulties

for His dear bhaktas He is still showing to us His wounds of war as

Parthasarathy in Tiruvallikeni. Why didn't Rukmini or Sathyabhama or

any one of His 16,000 wives come and apply some salve to our Lord... "

The pensive old man thought of all the discomforts of Krishnavatara

which He had laughingly and uncomplainingly accepted.

The child couldn't sit silent for long.

" Thatha did Krishna have 16,000 wives " he asked wonderingly, " tell me

that story no, please... "

Sri. U.Ve SriRangarajacharya got up and taking Nigamanth by hand told

him " Come lets go home. You decide which story you want to hear...

about Garuda and Hanuman or Krishna's 16000 wives... "

Well, thats another story.

 

Dr.S.Sundar Rajan MS ortho

Trichy 20 Jun 2008.