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--- In tiruvenkatam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, sudarshan madabushi 
<mksudarshan2002@...> wrote:


Dear friends,

If one reads the "sundara-kaandam" seriously, one can
quite easily see that the canto deals with one
predominant theme -- human Despair: loss of hope, the
onset of black despondency in the human heart and its
desperate struggle to regain and cling to hope.     

Against the overall dramatic setting of the Ramayana,
and even at the very beginning of the
"sundara-kaanda", we see that all the main characters
in the story are floundering about in a morass of
black despair.

First we see the hero Lord Rama himself -- an
exile-king wandering about aimlessly in the desolate
woods of Dandakaranya and Kishkinda in search of a
spouse he has lost under circumstances that reflect
upon him or his brother, Lakshmana, none too
favorably. 

We see Rama plunged in sheer, searing, unending pain.
His heart aches for Sita. He is full of guilt at
having deserted her in the moment she was abducted. He
is filled with all manner of fear for her safety ---
fears real and imagined. What was her plight? Where
was she? How was she? Was she harmed? Was she alive?
These are the questions that haunt, plague and torment
Rama's heart. 

Deep in the nights he weeps thinking of Sita. Visions
of Sita float around him. Everywhere he casts his eyes
about in the forest--- the trees, the streams, the
hills and valleys, the rain and the mist ---
everywhere and everything reminds him of her, her
lingering, fragile beauty, her gentle steps, her
mellow words, her soft touch, her ethereal grace of
body and spirit...

Rama's despair, his blackest moods, the "dark nights"
through which his tortured, hopeless soul passes
though every day is best described in stark, graphic
detail by Hanuman to Sita herself in the
'sundara-kaandam' (Chapter 36 ShlOkas 37 to 46). These
are exquisite Sanskrit 'shlOkas' on the theme of
"shOka" (human despair) that every one of us who is a
serious student of Valmiki Ramayana should read,
reflect upon and savor as translation even if not as
original text. 

Sometimes, as ordinary mortals that we all are, we 
find ourselves victims of all manner of grief in life.
For any number of reasons. It may be the sudden tragic
death of a near and loved one. It may be an unhappy
marriage that is going slowly to pieces. It may
be cruel separation from kith and kin. It may be news
about a fatal illness of a child or wife and imminent
death.... The reasons in life for which our hearts may
bleed with despair are many indeed... There is no need
to recount any more examples. 

Now, it may be seen in those particular moments of
distress, that very often we find we are unable to
fathom the true depth and degree of our own inner
despair. It remains all simply bottled up within us.
We are  unable to give vent or expression to it. In
such moments a great pall of oppression descends upon
us making it difficult to share our despair with our
selves let alone with someone else. Mute despair
simply resides unmoved within the recesses of our
heart, weighing and wearing it down down little by
little until in the end we can bear it no more...

It is in those moments when stone-mute, rock-heavy
despair drags us down deeper and deeper into the still
abyss of hopelessness that a reading of a few
"shlOkAs" from the "sundara-kaandam" helps provide a
therapeutic outlet to us. 

It helps give some sort of psychological vent or
expression to our innermost grief. By re-enacting
within our own minds the scenes of agony Lord Rama
underwent, by re-living the moments of despair he
endured, and by merely repeating the words of Hanuman --
an eye-witness to Rama's dire plight -- as he narrated
to Sita the state of wretchedness to which the Prince
of Ayodhya had been reduced on account of his
separation from his lady love.... to read and reflect
on these poignant passages of the "sundara-kaandam" is
verily to apply soothing balm to the mangled
lacerations upon our own soul.

"O mother Sita", says Hanuman in the
"sundara-kaandam", "O noble lady, on account of the
separation from you, Rama is extremely distressed! How
is one to describe his state? Shall I say he is like a
lion that has been terrorized by an elephant". (38-39)

"Rama does not feed well anymore. He has ceased eating
wholesome meat fit for a royal prince. He eats no
honey. Every day at the fifth watch on vigil, he eats
but a frugal mouthful of wild roots and raw vegetables
-- food fit only for the consumption of an aged
"vaanaprastha", a forest-dwelling anchorite. (41)

"Lady, he is always brooding about you. He behaves
sometimes like a mad-man. Because of his
pre-occupation with you, he fails to notice even the
flies, mosquitoes, worms and insects of the wild
forest that swarm over him, creep and crawl upon his
body". (42)

"We find Rama ever in the grip of sorrow. He is lost
in his own morose thoughts most of the time. He is
oblivious to his surroundings." (43)

"Your Lord, O Sita, has known no sleep too for many,
many months now. He sleeps in fits and starts. He
dozes for a while and then in the middle of the night
suddenly wakes up with a startle and cries out like a
child "Haa Sita! Haa Sita!" (44)

"Sometimes he sees a scented flower in a forest-wood,
or a little bird, deer or butter-fly, any little thing
that one might expect would take the fancy of a woman,
and instantly he is reminded of you and he then breaks
down and sobs uncontrollably "Sita, my Sita" (45)

"sa dEvi nityam pari-tapya-mAnas-tvAm-Eva
seethEth-yabhi-bhAshamANah:
"DhrutavratO rAja-sutO mahAtmA tavaiva laabhaaya
kruta-prayatnah:"

Hanuman ends by telling Sita:

"O noble lady, know this to be true from me, that the
great prince Rama is ever calling out your name and
crying out for you -- out of the immense grief and
despair caused by separation from you".

                  *****************
                  (to be continued)

Regards,
daasan,
Sudarshan MK


            








Warm Regards,
Sudarshan

" A life is perhaps worth nothing; but nothing certainly is worth as 
much as life". 
(Andre Malraux)


                
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