Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:
The Hunter
What image does the word "Hunter" bring to your mind? A strong, muscular
figure, clad in tree bark or deerskin, with a bow and arrow in its hands and a
feather in the cap, with cruel eyes constantly scouring the environs for
prey-this is the common portrait your mind conjures up, at the mention of the
word. Our impression is that of a person who is bestiality personified, devoid
of all redeeming qualities like Mercy, Compassion and Kindness, which set human
beings apart from their four-legged cohabiters on earth.
Thus, we fail to find any redeeming features in this clan of people, who appear
at best to be a burden for earth to bear.
However, when we scan our Scripture for information on Hunters, we find that
several worthies from this much-maligned profession have made it to the
loftiest heights of spirituality and won acclaim on several counts. Surprised?
Please do read on for details.
The first and foremost name that comes to our mind at the mention of hunters is
that of Sri Valmiki. Though born the son of the distinguished Bhrigu Maharshi,
the boisterous boy Haareeta (as he was originally known) incurred the wrath of
some sages, who cursed that he would lose the sterling qualities of his
distinguished lineage and become a bestial hunter. Haareeta duly became a
hunter, with all attendant cruelty, brutality and lack of consideration for
life and limb of men and beasts alike. He killed whatever he could lay his
hands on, robbed and plundered wayfarers and, in general, led an inhuman and
brutish life. He married a girl of another huntsmen tribe, begot children and
forgot all about his destined life of penance and purity. After a long spell of
such loutish existence, due to the grace of the Lord, who had planned quite a
distinguished career for Haareeta as His (the Lord's) own chronicler, Haareeta
came across the Seven Holy Men (Sapta Rishis), who, through a clever strategy,
made him realise the folly of his ways. They instructed him to recite the
exalted Rama naama.
Due to the boundless compassion of his Acharyas, Haareeta discovered the
extremely delectable avocation of naama smaranam and bhajanam and lost himself
in the contemplation and chanting of the Lord's name. He forgot himself, the
surrounding world and everything else and gave himself up, heart and soul, to
his newfound delight. Years passed without Haareeta stirring from the spot he
sat at, in contemplation, resulting in termites building their residence all
around and over him.
Aeons passed. Deciding that it was time Haareeta assumed his assigned role,
Brahma came to the seeker. The four-headed Brahma sprinkled holy water on
Haareeta, who immediately emerged from the mass of muddy spires the termites
had built, giving him the name "Vaalmeeki" ("Valmikam" in Sanskrit refers to
such abodes of termites, etc.). With the blessings of Brahma, Haareeta became
Vaalmeeki and resumed his ascetic existence as if without any break, with such
distinguished disciples as Bharadvaaja.
It is perhaps paradoxical that the hunter-turned-holy-man should have been
inspired to compose his magnum opus, due to an incident with another hunter as
the hero (or villain, perhaps). While returning to his Ashramam one day after
finishing his ablutions, Sri Valmiki was witness to the heart-breaking scene of
a hunter shattering the conjugal bliss of a couple of lovebirds, with a single,
well-aimed arrow, felling and killing the male bird. The Maharshi's heart bled
for the female bird, which fluttered about helplessly, watching its mate in the
throws of death. Angered at the hunter's brutal act, which had dealt a
devastating blow to the blissful life of the birds, the Maharshi cursed him. To
his surprise, however, the curse emerged from his lips not in the form of a
prosaic sentence-it took the form of a beautiful couplet, the first ever known
to mankind-
"Maa nishaada! pratishttaam tvam agama: saasvatee: samaa:
yat krouncha mithunaat ekam avadhee: kaama mohitam"
And so commenced the composition of the great epic Ramayanam, chronicling the
life and times of the greatest of men, kings and Gods, which has remained a
guidebook for all mankind for thousands of years.
It is again Srimad Ramayanam which narrates the tale of another hunter, who is
extremely close to Sri Rama-so much so that the Prince embraces him at sight.
This, however, is a hunter with a difference, with a keen and innate sense of
right and wrong. And he is no ordinary hunter, but a chief of
hunters-"Nishaadha adhipati:", characterised by immeasurable love and affection
for the Prince of Ayodhya and prepared to lay down even his life in the
Prince's defence. He is so enamoured of Rama that he spends an entire night
awake and alert, fully armed, along with his entire clan, fearful that some
danger might befall Raghava, despite knowing full well that not even an ant
could enter the environs without his knowledge and consent. Rightfully, Sri
Valmiki describes this gentleman as Rama's soul mate-mind you, not merely a
friend, but a soul mate-"Ramasya aatma sama: sakhaa"-one whom Rama Himself
regarded as His equal. Their closeness is such that Sri Raghava is absolutely
unmindful of the differences in their respective social status and bestows on
the lowly hunter the best compliment possible-a bear hug reflecting fully the
depth and strength of love and affection that each has for the other. His
devotion to Sri Rama makes Guha suspect the motives of even Lakshmana and
Bharata and apprehend danger from them to his beloved Prince.
Another of the hunting clan, about whom Sri Valimiki has much to say, is Sri
Sabari. Though a huntress by birth, she had given up all the outward and inward
characteristics of the profession and had devoted herself to the service of
sages. In time, she herself was ripe not only in age, but also in wisdom and
penance. She is a standing example of the lofty status that service to one's
Acharyas can confer. Having spent her life in selfless service to her Gurus,
she lives on only to have her eyeful of Sri Rama. And once that object is
achieved, she departs to the immortal worlds above, to join her Gurus in their
blissful existence. Justifiably, Sabari is described as wise in the nuances of
correct conduct-"Dharma nipunaam".
It is clear from the aforesaid that the Lord is extremely enamoured of
hunters-so much so that He is not averse to assuming the role one Himself, from
time to time. Not only does He don the dress and demeanour of a hunter, He
persuades His Consort too to do the same. However, like all His assumed roles
or avataras, the one as a hunter too is for the protection of the innocent.
Sri Ramanuja accompanied his guru Yaadavaprakaasa to Kasi. Angered and jealous
at Ramanuja's growing glory and fame, Yaadavaprakaasa planned to ensure a
premature and watery grave for the illustrious disciple, once they reached the
shores of the Ganga. Getting scent of this nefarious plan, Sri Ramanuja trailed
behind the guru's party and managed to escape. However, left alone in the dense
and inhospitable jungles of the Vindhyas, Sri Ramanuja despaired of ever
returning alive to civilisation, when a hunter and his wife appeared before him
suddenly. Glad at the sight of human beings, Sri Ramanuja asked them about
their origin and destination. Providentially, the hunter couple appeared to be
travelling to Kanchi and offered to lead Ramanuja too there. As soon as they
approached Kanchi, the hunter and huntress disappeared as suddenly as they had
materialised. When the bemused Ramanuja thought back, he realised with a start
that it had indeed been the Lord and His Consort who had saved him from certain
and gory death and led him back to safety, almost to his doorstep. Tears ran
down his cheeks and his entire body tingled, at Emperuman's boundless mercy
that made Him assume the garb of a lowly hunter, solely for saadhu paritraanam
(protection of the innocent).
Swami Desikan paints another picture of the Divine Hunter. The Lord, with a lot
of punishing arrows in His quiver, directs them at us, dealing out just
punishment for our various acts of commission and omission. As the impartial
arbiter, it is indeed His duty to ensure that we undergo appropriate
retribution for our sins. However, we too have a single but extremely potent
arrow in our possession, with which we can not only stave off the Lord's
punitive arrows, but also floor Him completely, so that He is never again able
to shoot any more arrows at us.
And what is this magnificent missile, which can render even the omnipotent
Emperuman absolutely helpless? Swami Desikan says that it is nothing but a
folding of our hands in a gesture of absolute surrender-an "Anjali". This
single and simple signal of surrender, the embodiment of Prapatti, makes the
Lord so beneficially inclined towards us that He forgets all about punishing us
and, instead, hastens to confer on us all that is good. Even hard-to-attain
salvation can be easily achieved through this potent gesture of Sharanagati,
says Swami Desikan. Here is the beautiful couplet from Sri Varadaraja
Panchaasat--
"Hasteesa! Du:kha visha digdha phala anubandhini
AaBrahma keetam aparaahata samprayoge /
Dushkarma sanchaya vasaat duratikrame na:
Pratyastram Anjali: asou tava nigraha astre//"
The Skanda Upapuraanam has another interesting tale to tell about the Lord as a
hunter. We saw how Sri Valmiki flung a curse at the hunter who killed one of
the lovebirds engaged in conjugal bliss. The Purana tells us that the accursed
hunter was none other than the Lord Himself. Shankhukarna was an asura who had
somehow survived Sri Rama's annihilation of the fourteen thousand raakshasas at
Janastthaanam, having run away prior to commencement of hostilities. This
raakshasa was plaguing the sages at Dandakaaranyam. Having made up His mind to
eliminate this nuisance, the Lord took the form of a hunter and felled the
raakshasa, who had taken the form of the male bird. It was this act, which Sri
Valmiki witnessed and which moved him so much as to sow the seeds of the Epic
in his mind. And the moment the curse, in the form of a beautiful slokam,
emerged from his lips, the hunter, the crying female bird, the slain male bird
and the tree on which they had perched-all these disappeared, much to Valmiki's
bewilderment. Apparently, it was another drama enacted by Emperuman, firstly to
ensure that His life and times were chronicled by an eminent Maharshi and
secondly, to do away with a raakshasa.
If you think that only the Lord takes birth as a hunter, you would be
mistaken-for, even Sri Mahalakshmi is reported to have been born into a hunting
tribe. If you don't believe me, you just have to refer to the Ahobila
Maahaatmyam, which chronicles the glory of the Ahobila Kshetram and the
manifestation the Lord in the magnificent and awesome man-lion form. We are
told that the Divine Consort too was born as "Chenchulakshmi", in the huntsmen
tribe called Chenchus. The Lord wooed Chenchulakshmi and married Her in due
course. This tale of romance between Emperuman and a huntress is depicted on
many a pillar in the Ahobilam temples housing the nine Narasimhas.
To bring the tale of the hunter to an end, who would you say is the greatest of
hunters, who never despairs even if the prey tends to escape, but perseveres
till he is ultimately able to secure the same?
It is Emperuman's ardent wish that all of us escape from this mundane world of
distress and despair and reach Him, to enjoy eternal bliss in His exalted
company. With this object, He spreads His net far and wide for catching souls
ripe for redemption. His incredible beauty and His magnificent and endearing
attributes represent this net, with which He tries to ensnare us. It is this
net which Sri Nammazhwar describes as "Manivannan Vasudevan valaiyule".(When
the Arayar was enacting this pasuram, he spread his hands wide to indicate a
net. Sri Ramanuja, who was looking on, corrected the Arayar by indicating that
it was Emperuman's captivating eyes that represented the net. Sri Nampillai
confirms this with the words, "ennai tappaadapadi smita veekshanaadigalile
agappadutthi").
However, with our long-standing wile and an incurable infatuation with matters
mundane, we either evade His net or, if we indeed fall into it, try to wriggle
out to "freedom". The ever-optimistic Lord, with His boundless love, compassion
and mercy, never gives up, but continues His uphill task of saving souls, never
despairing and considering it a great reward if He is able to reclaim even a
single soul for Himself. As one Acharya says, the Lord goes to extraordinary
extents, sometimes spreading His net over an entire locality, to catch a single
soul. The only thing that is required of us is to abandon all resistance and to
throw up our arms in surrender-once we do this, we come to realise how
pleasurable it is to be this Divine Hunter's "victim".
Srimate Sri Lakshminrisimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana
Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:
dasan, sadagopan
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