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From:   jasn sn [jayasartn@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent:   Saturday, November 27, 2004 10:13 AM
Subject: Re: Bow's story - further clarifications on questions raised. 

JASN: SrI: Respected sri Vasudevan swami, Thank you for your mail. I look 
forward to your comments. Meanwhile I thought I can share some more views. 

MGV: Welcome.

JASN: This is about Brahmasthram. On the one side we see that the brahmasthram 
sent by Indrajit could only tie up Hanuman (Sundhara khandam) and on the other, 
we find that Rama delayed (?) the use of it till he got tired (?) of cutting 
Ravana's head. He is said to have weighed the options of what asthra to use and 
then decided to shoot the Brahmasthra. 

MGV: sri hanumaan had the boon by brahmaa, that all weapons including his own 
brahmaasthram cannot do any harm to hanumaan. Just to show respect to 
pithaamahan, the athidhEvathaa for that asthram, that too in front of others, 
hanumaan waited as though he was bound. Also, that was a pretext, so that, if, 
a chance comes in his way, he could see that so called mighty raavaNan. That 
chance eventually came in his way. This is fully explained in sundhara kaaNdam. 

JASN: Also we see repeatedly that Rama always applies discretion as to what 
asthras to use. A blade of grass became his asthra to punish kaakaasura, but 
that he waited for a while to decide on to use brahmasthra is a point to 
ponder. 

MGV: For kaakaasuran - it is immediate punishment - for, he has done physical 
damage to raamaa's wife, that too in front of raamaa and in the vicinity of 
raamaa. Further his identity at that stage may be a point, since he is a 
dhEvaa. For dhEvaas, no hesitation is shown by raamaa in punishing them. 

As said in vaali's slain by sri anjaneyalu, vaali made a heavy mistake of 
making friendship with raavaNan. Similarly the son of king of dhEvaas, 
jayanthan, who is kaakaasuran, has to be severely punished for the crime. 
Further he did not have brahmaa's boons like raavaNan. 

Also as said in manu smruthi the 'punishment levels' for the same type of 
crime, to people among the chaathur varNam vary. The severest is for BraahmaNan 
-1st varnam and lightest for the 4th varnam. Since jayanthan is one more than 
the 1st varnam itself, viz. dhEvaa, the punishment level to him has to be 
naturally higher than braahmaNan. He has to receive severest punishment, that 
too immediately, that is what happened in jayanthan's case. 

For raavaNan it is with a hesitation. For brahma only had given the boon to 
raavaNan. Perhaps raama had the doubt of whether brahma's own asthram will work 
against brahmaa's own 'boon recipient', the raavaNan. 

But since shooter is somebody else, presently raama, who is the super lord of 
brahma himself, the servant brahma has to do his duty / job, as well his 
asthram. Or otherwise also brahmaasthram is forced to do that assigned job of 
killing raavaNan, since command is by the supreme lord.

JASN: I deduce that in the case of Hanuman [irrespective of the curse (or 
boon?) (or I consider the boons and curses only to reinforce the already 
pending result)] had that he would be bound by Brahmasthra for 1 muhoortha 
kaalam, the Brahmasthra was powerless against him, in view of his being 
protected by Dharma and exalted virtues. Applying the same yardstick, the 
Brahmasthra, if used earlier on Ravana would not have vanquished him, with some 
dharma still sticking to him and protecting him. Rama seemed to have waited for 
the right moment to use it.

MGV: comment already given above.

JASN: A corollary can be found in Karna's demise. Again Karna's use of 
Brahmasthra on Arjuna, would not have resulted in the demise of Arjuna even if 
the Lord were not to be physically present, by the logic that arjuna was still 
shielded with dharma. This may also be the reason why the asthra could not meet 
the target (Arjuna) (Dharma in the form of Krishna protected him). Because we 
get to hear that these asthras are precision-driven not by physical aiming but 
by some manthras. Once shot, the asthra would certainly find its target. But 
that it could not in Arjuna's case (though by the curse that karna had) may be 
primarily to do with the strength of the target and the kind of protection that 
the target enjoys. I wish to see you take up a write-up on Brahmasthras as 
found in the two epics for better understanding for all of us. regards, 
jayasree saranathan

MGV: as stated I will take up this separately.

Dhaasan
Vaasudevan m.g.






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