Sankshiptaparayana (Sundarakanda) Part - 8.

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Dear friends and devotees,

 

Bhakti is eternal.

(Part – 8)

 

The resplendence of Sundarakanda

 

namOstu ramaaya salakshmaNaaya,

dEvyai ca thasyai janakaatmajaayai,

namOstu rudrEndraya maanilEbhyO,

namOstu candraarka marudgaNEbhyaha.

 

Sri Ram who is with Lakshmana - Namaskaram

To Mata Janakee Devi - Namaskaaram

To Rudra, Indra, Yama, and Vayu - Namaskaaram

Chandra and Surya and other Devata Gana

I give my respectable Namaskaarams

 

In Mahabharata which is considered as panchamaveda (Fifth veda), Bhagavad-Gita

is considered as Upanishad and noted for daily parayana (recitation). Likewise

out of all the kandas of Srimadramayana which is considered as vedasara,

Sundarakanda is noted for its elegancy and daily parayana.

 

Of all the other Kandas (chapters) in the epic Sri Ramayana, the Sundarakanda

is one which has earned its special place and being treated as most beautifully

narrated and unquestionably have proven discoveries by which the devotees can

gain unlimited bliss as well as they will be taken and guided to the other side

of the sea. As we are well aware each Chapter's name is defined by that

chapter's main subject - like the birth and the days of the infant stage of Sri

Rama is called Baala Kaanda; Right from the idea of Sri Dasaratha and its

planning on Sri Rama Pattaabhishekam, the immediate aftermath, consequently Sri

Rama's exile to forests and then the Paaduka Pattabhishekam - all these

incidents are clubbed in the Ayodhya Kanda; The life in the forests, killing of

cruel demons and then abducting of Sri Seetha and the death of Jatayu - brings

the Aranyakanda. Then comes the friendship of Sugreeva, killing of Vaali,

keeping Sugreeva as the head of kingdom Kishkinda - is

called Kishkinda kaanda. Entire episode explaining the war between Ravana and

Sri Rama, ultimate killing of Raavana and making Vibhishana as the King of Lanka

- is called Yuddha Kanda. Though all these chapters were named based on the

situation and theme of the episodes, the fifth one " Sundarakanda " name is

something extraordinary and do have possible inner meanings in naming that

chapter as SUNDARA (beautiful) Kaanda (Chapter).

 

The axiom of naming it as Sundara from the beauty of every part of the episode

by Maharshi Valmiki and his sweet writing is utmost beautiful.

In this episode, the flow of language with its elegance and sound is really

divine. Here, in accordance with the reference to the context, all rasas

including Srungara (Vipralambha) are inundated and worshiped by every Hindu.

 

Seetha’s face was like the full moon; her eyebrows were beautiful; her breasts

were lovely and full. With her radiance that lady banished the darkness from all

directions. Her hair was jet black; her lips like Bimba fruit. Her waist was

lovely, and her posture was perfect. Her eyes were like lotus petals, and she

looked like Rathi, wife of Manmatha, god of love. That lovely woman—as

cherished all living things as the radiance of the full moon---was seated on the

ground like an ascetic woman practicing austerity. Sighing constantly, that

timorous woman resembled a daughter-in-law of a serpent lord. By virtue of the

vast net of sorrow, spread over her, her radiance was dimmed, like that of a

flame of tire obscured by a shroud of smoke. She was like a blurred memory or a

fortune lost. She was like faith lost or hope dashed; like success undermined

by catastrophe or intellect dulled. She was like a reputation lost through

false rumors. She was distraught at being

prevented from rejoining Rama and anguished by her abduction by the rakshasa.

That delicate fawn eyed woman was looking about here and there. Her sorrowful

face with its black-tipped eyelashes was covered with a flood of tears.

She sighed again and again”

 

These passages and the others leading up to her sudden joy at the sight of

Rama’s signet ring indeed the heart of the chapter and epic, and no doubt they

account for the enormous esteem in which the former is held.

Central though the karunarasa is to the epic and the chapter, it cannot, in

keeping with the canons of the alamkarasastra, be unrelieved and it is in

aesthetic terms, no doubt in order to provide such relief that the poet has

placed his gem of the piteous in a larger setting crafted of an amalgam of the

adbhuta, sringara, bhayanaka, vira, and hasya rasas—that is, the expressed in

Hanuman’s leap, the description of Ravana’s harem, the threats of the grotesque

rakshasa women, Hanuman’s martial exploits, and the comical drunkenness of the

monkeys in the clumsy, jarring, or spurious additions to the Sundarakanda, but

rather integral narrative, structural, and poetic elements essential to the

architecture of this fascination epic within an epic.

 

Contd . . . 9.

 

With love and regards,

 

Sastry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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