You are here: SriPedia - Ramanuja - Archives - Jan 2006

Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00045 Jan 2006

 
Jan 2006 Indexes ( Date | Thread | Author )
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]


Dear sri vaishNava perunthagaiyeer,

It is well known that lord raama had a number of virtues and even his 
own father king dhasaratha listed a number of qualities of his son 
and thus recommended that such a raama be coronated as the crown 
prince of ayOdhyaa. The details on what are these guNams or qualities 
are available in first sargam of ayOdhyaa kaaNdam of srimadh 
raamaayaNam. 

[also please refer the series of articles of MGV titled `how could 
such a raamaa do that?'] 

Also known to us is the fact that, there is a protocol that when a 
king [or such a great personality] meets another king [or a great 
personality], somebody else like an assistant or minister or a body 
guard of the two kings [the greats] first meet each other, prior to 
the arrival of the kings, get introduced to each other, then 
finalises the details of the protocol to be used, when these two 
kings meet each other.  
 
Here in this article we are going to see how raama the great, 
observes such a protocol while meeting one great personality ? sage 
agasthya - and simply NOT observe that to the others like sage 
bharadhwaja. 

This simply means raama differentiates between personalities and not 
treat all equally, or may have valid reasons for such differentiation 
[which may be a wrong thing to say so].  First the positive side is 
presented to you..

aagathaa: sma aasrama padham soumithrE pravisa agratha: |
nivEdhaya iha maam praaptham rishayE saha seethayaa || 3-11-94

meaning: We arrived at the threshold of the hermitage, oh, Soumithri, 
you enter first and submit to Sage Agasthya about my arrival at this 
place, along with Seethaa. 

Point: When raamaa is about to meet the sage agasthya in his aasramam 
[place of living], raamaa and seethaa stand at the entrance, and 
observe or follow the protocol of informing the sage through 
lakshmaNa, and seeking the sage's permission to enter his aasramam. 

sa pravisya aasrama padham lakshmaNO raaghava anuja: |
agasthya sishyam aasaadhya vaakyam Ethadh uvaacha ha || 3-12-1

meaning: On entering the hermitage LakshmaNa, the younger brother of 
Raaghava, reached Agastya's disciple and spoke this sentence to him. 

raajaa dhasarathO naama jyeshta: thasya suthO balee |
raama: praapthO munim dhrashtum bhaaryayaa saha seethayaa || 3-12-2

meaning: A king named Dhasaratha was there, his eldest son and the 
dynamic one, Raama has arrived along with his wife Seethaa to see the 
sage.

lakshmaNo naama thasya aham bhraathaa thu avarajO hitha: |
anukoola: cha bhaktha: cha yadhi thE srOthram aagatha: || 3-12-3

meaning: I am his loyal, dedicated, and adherent younger brother 
named LakshmaNa, if ever you have heard of us. 

thE vayam vanam athyugram pravishtaa: pithru saasanaath |
dhrashtum icchaamahE sarvE bhagavantham nivEdhyathaam || 3-12-4

meaning: Such as we are, we entered the awful forest at the decree of 
our father, and we wish to see the godly sage, let this be informed 
to him." Said LakshmaNa to the disciple of agasthya. 

thasya thadh vachanam sruthvaa lakshmaNasya thapOdhana: |
thathaa ithi ukthvaa agni saraNam pravivEsa nivEdhithum || 3-12-5

meaning: On hearing that sentence of LakshmaNa, that disciple, who is 
ascetically rich, replied 'agreed, ' and he entered the sanctum of 
Ritual-fire to submit the same to agasthya. 

sa pravisya munisrEshtam thapasaa dushpradharsaNam |
kruta anjali: uvaacha idham raama aagamanam anjasaa || 3-12-6
yathaa uktham lakshmaNEna Eva sishya: thasya agasthasya sammatha: |

meaning: He, that agreeable disciple of sage, quickly approached the 
irrefutable sage, by his asceticism, made palm-fold, and said this to 
the eminent sage about about the arrival of Raama, exactly as said by 
Lakshmana. 

puthrou dhasarathasya imou raamO lakshmaNa Eva cha || 3-12-7
pravishtou aasrama padham seethayaa saha bhaaryayaa |

meaning: Sons of King Dhasaratha, Raama and also Lakshmana thus have 
entered the threshold of hermitage along with the wife of Raama, 
namely Seethaa. 

dhrashtum bhavantham aayaathou sushrooshaartham arindhamou || 3-12-8
yadh athra anantharam thath thvam aajnaapayithum arhasi |

meaning: Those two enemy-destroyers have come cherishing to see and 
serve you, hence it will be apt of you to order what next is to be 
done in this regard." Said the disciple to the sage. 

Thatha: sishyaath upasruthya praaptham raamam sa lakshmaNam || 3-12-9
vaidhEheem cha mahaabhaagaam idham vachanam abraveeth |

meaning: Having heard from the disciple that Raama has arrived with 
LakshmaNa and with highly fortunate Seethaa the sage said this to the 
disciple. 

gamyathaam sathkruthO raama: sa bhaarya: saha lakshmaNa: || 3-12-11
pravEsyathaam sameepam mE kim asou na pravEsitha: |

meaning: Go forth and make welcome to Raama, Lakshmana and to 
Seethaa, and they be entered here, why you have not invited them as 
yet? 

Point: See here the protocol is observed to the core. First the two 
assistants of the two greats meet. Then each other announces the 
introductory messages between themselves, then the announcement to 
the master host, about the arrival of the master guest along with his 
wife. 

Now, dear bakthaas, you may ask me, what is so great in this, that we 
can also read all these in raamaayaNam. So I am putting the question 
across which is lingering in my mind ? when raama has followed so 
much protocol when he met sage agasthya, why he has not followed same 
protocol when he met other sages in the forest. Is any special reason 
mentioned elsewhere or in commentaries elsewhere? 

You may raise how can you say raama has not observed the protocol? 
The answer I will give by quoting slOkams from raamaayaNam itself in 
next post. 

Before that I want to add one more point. May be, first, when raamaa 
met sage visvaamithra, raamaa did not observe any such protocol, 
since the sage was to be received by king dhasaratha. Also raamaa was 
of less age at that time and perhaps not learnt about these 
protocols. 

When he met other sages in the forest, he was sufficiently aged and 
also followed in one case and did not follow in other cases, as 
evidenced from that very same valmeeki raamaayaNam. That is why I 
want to place this question in the list and would like to seek an 
answer from the learned bhaagavthaas and raamaayaNam experts.  

Dhasan 

Vasudevan m.g.    








Azhvar EmberumAnAr JeeyAr ThiruvadigalE Saranam 
http://www.vedics.net

 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ramanuja/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    ramanuja-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
 



[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index ] [Thread Index ] [Author Index ]
Home Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia
ramanuja-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To subscribe to the list