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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00012 Aug 2004

 
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Dear Members,

I have received a number of comments from you all,
both privately and through the main-list.

I welcome all comments/views so long as they are based
on "pramANam", sound reason and intelligibility. Sri
M.Krishnaswami's feedback below quoting Srinivasa
Sastry's lectures are well taken. It is true I'm very
deeply influenced by the 'Sastri Approach' to the
understanding of the Ramayana.

Many of you have sent in comments which I find are
rather emotional. You have taken me to task for daring
to be critical of Sri Rama. Some of you have simply
used convenient labels such as "nAstikam" and
"tAmasam" to characterize my viewpoints. But labels
are not arguments. 

You find it so terribly hard to digest that on the
basis of "pramANam" the Ramayana makes available, we
can indeed put forward reasonable and credible grounds
of argument to say the conduct of "pirAtti", and the
standard of "dharma" she demonstrated in the
"agni-parIksha" episode, stands head-and-shoulders
above the conduct and "dharma" of Rama. 

But I do not blame you at all. I can and do understand
why some of you react that way. It is an emotional
reaction born of "bhakti" which, like Sri Sadagopan
Iyengar, is trained by long, blind habit of mind to
say almost reflexively, "If Rama did it, it must be
correct". 

Rama has a special place in all our hearts (mine
included) -- as AndAL says in her TiruppAvai he is
"manatthukku iniyan", a Tamil phrase so eloquent and
evocative it is impossible to translate. The best one
can do is to say Sri Rama is everyone's
"prince-charming". The word Rama itself, as Parashara
Bhattar says in his commentary on the
Vishnu-Sahasranamam, means "ramayatAm shrEshtah:" --
i.e. one who spreads happiness and cheer wherever he
goes, and to whomsoever encounters him.

But after reading the Ramayana, do we ever ask
ourselves why this 'Prince-charming', the spreader of
happiness ... why did such a great one make exception
of his own beautiful wife, causing her so much
heart-burn, so much grief, every now and then,
throughout their avataric sojourn on earth? 

We find it extremely difficult to explain it, isn't?

SriVaishnavite theologists often explain it away (as
Sri Sadagopan Iyengar did) using convenient but
specious pretexts. They explain that Sita got what she
deserved for what she did to Lakshmana in the
"mArIcha" episode -- i.e. her so-called sin of
"bhAgavata-apachAram". 

I do not accept this theory of my learned
SriVaishnavite brethren. I reject it totally. I'd like
to believe I demolished it in my postings.

If it is offense to question the position "If Rama did
it, it must be right", then I say it is equally
offensive not to extend the same rule to "pirAtti"
too. If I came up to you and said, "If Sita did it, it
must be right", how many of you would dare be willing
to accept that statement? None, I'd say, since the
moral, theological and philosophical  questions such a
position would raise would simply overwhelm the best
of you. It would raise a proper furore amongst our
SriVaishnavite theologists.

Which is, I say, why we must avoid taking extreme
positions. It is always wiser to take the balanced
middle-course in all our discourses on the Ramayana.
It is much more sensible, for instance, to look at the
matter this way:

The Almighty and "pirAtti" both merely acted out their
respective human roles in the Ramayana. The roles were
conceived in order to enlighten Man on the many shades
of "sUkshma" that there are in the principle and
practice of "dharmA". In some scenes, Rama looks good
and glorious. In others Sita-pirAtti looks good. But
it so happened that in the "agni-parIksha" scene, only
one of them could look really glorious. Why? Because
the script demanded they should be pitted bitterly
against each other. 

We might want to think that Rama came out better in
the scene... and Sri Sadagopan Iyengar's article
"Ordeal by Fire" was trying to establish that. But in
reality, as I explained in my postings, it was  Sita's
role indeed that stole the show...

                  **************

There is nothing atheistic or heretical in our wanting
to evaluate, or even critique the relative performance
of Rama and SIta as actors in episodes such as the
"agni-parIksha". In doing so we only carry out what is
our sacred duty, called "dharma vichAram" (inquiry
into "dharma"); we are NOT, on that account,
committing the sin of sitting in judgment over the
Almighty Himself.   
                     
Thank you, one and all, for your kind views/comments.
I always enjoy your feedback.

Rgds,

dAsan,
Sudarshan

 --- MK krishnaswamy <krishnaswamy@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Dear Members,
> 
> The discussion on the subject prompted me to read
> again the Lectures on Ramayana given by the late
> Right Hon'ble V.S. Srivivasa Sastri which was
> published in book-form in 1986 by the Madras
> Sanskrit Academy. 
> 
> In his introduction, T.R. Venkatarama Sastri
> observed: "It is well known that particular
> incidents in the story of his (Sri Rama) life have
> been subjected to criticism as not coming up to the
> highest standards ......................  To my
> mind, even these criticisms are not wholly
> purposeless ................" 
> 
> In the concluding paragraphs, Srinivasa Sastri has
> observed: " .... the real coronation is in our
> hearts. Rama and Sita should be crowned in our
> hearts. Let them govern our thoughts and regulate
> our lives.  At all important times remember them,
> and then we cannot go wrong." This last statement is
> inspite of his unreserved criticism of Sri Rama's
> treatment of Sita Piratti after victory over Ravana
> (Chapter XII). 
> 
> As observed by the Lecturer, the Ramayana Epic has
> survived in the hearts and minds of all devotess
> over centuries because of Valmiki making it
> "essentially a human document". I would suggest to
> members to read Srinivasa Sastri's scholarly
> Ramayana Lectures; I hope that copies are still
> available at book-sellers and with the Publishers,
> the Madras Sanskrit Academy.
> 
> Dasan
> Krishnaswamy M K
>  

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