RAMARPANAM-27

File 27.

Dated 07-05-2012.

The beauty and bounty of Sarayu.

Ravana invoked Lord Brahma in penance and took a boon not to be killed by the Devas or the three Gods of creation, sustenance and annihilation. So, to end his barbarity Lord Vishnu incarnated as human, enshrouding all His Godly powers.  Ravana missed that boon, as though human could not ever get to him to end his life.

But Rama is figured out as God by a few and Mandodhari, wife of Ravana, is one among them. She at the death of her husband breezed in to the war field to have a look at his slain-body. Out of bereavement and anguish she wanted to curse Rama, the Victor. But ended in a sthudhi about Him, in the form of Mandodhari chatusloki. 

In that she seizes His Godly form with four arms holding the disc, conch, the bow and the arrow and was all praise for Him. Ravana, had he also realised this, his penitence would have saved his life and those of his kith and kin together, but that never were to be.

The same Rama, when Brahma and Shiva accolade Him as Narayana, He rebuffed and wished to be known as the kin of Dasaratha. It means He feels great about His mAnushE Paratvam than His paratvE Paratvam.

Coming to Kamba Ramayanam and his depiction of Ayodhya and the Sarayu river, He is all praise for its richness and glory.

There are 5 fold classification of the geographical vastness of a country. They are:

1. Agriculture fields (marudam)

2. Sea and fishery land (naidal)

3. Mountains and gracing expanse (kuRunchi)

4.  Forest and jungle region (mullai)

5.  Arid deserts (pAlai)

Sarayu enriches the Ayodhya in that there is only 4 way classification obliterating the 5th. The other 4 divisions are overlapping in the sense marudam is enshrouded by mullai and it embanked by kuRunchi, pAlai on the other hand is full of oasis to appear as mullai and no more pAlai.

The Sarayu is elegant and its waters pure and clear. It joins the Ganges like many other tributaries quelling her identity to enjoin the ocean waters of Bay of Bengal. There are several Ghats on the banks of Sarayu, like Ram ghat, Lakshman ghat, HanumAn ghat, gupta ghat etc. where people take on the river for bathing and performing the holy rituals like nitya, nemityaka karmAs. 

Kambanattalwan draws a parallel to this philosophically, in that the religious faiths and paths may be many but the Brahman who is to be obtained by each of them is One and unique and not many or of equals.

So believe in your own and respect others.

--K S S.