Swamin, Pardon me if I am wrong. I think the conclusion on the order of greatness is in favour of Lakshmana. But I would like to go as per Kamban "AAYIRAM RAMAR NIN KEEZH AAVARO" for reasons as simple as this. A soul that nayed the offer of kingdom, pleasure of family or the other benefits and lived like his brother wearing matted hair and all. Dasan/raghavan TCA Venkatesan <vtca@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: Dear Sri Vishnu, While it is true that service is as ordained by Him, it is the svarUpa of the soul, and that the younger brother has to serve the elder - the fact remains that Laskhmana refused a direct order from Sri Rama. In fact, he threatened to committ suicide when he was told to stay back - forcing Rama to take him along. On the other hand, Sri Bharata, who too could have threatened some dire action and demanded that Rama come back or that he too be taken along with Rama (and Rama might have obliged, going by past experience), did no such thing and in fact returned happily to Ayodhya ("ArurOha ratham hruShta:"). The key things here is that he did not come back sad thinking that he had failed; he came back happy that he was doing what his brother wanted. It is said that when Guha first saw Lakshamana, he was greatly impressed by him and wondered at the greatness of such a brother. But when he saw Bharata later, he said that 'here indeed is a true brother'. I heard this is in an upanyasam: Guha attempted to explain Lakshmana's greatness to Bharata - Nampillai records this as someone trying to move the water in an ocean with his hands. But, he also mentions that explaining Lakshmana's greatness to Bharata is like explaining the greatness of a 'kazhi' (a small amount of water collected from an ocean to extract the salt) to the ocean itself. As far as my understanding goes, it is our pUrvAchAryas stand that Bharata's greatness far exceeds that of Lakshmana - because of his pAratantryam as opposed to Lakshmana's sEshatvam. The ascending order of greatness amongst the four brothers is - 1. Rama, 2. Lakshmana, 3. Bharata and 4. Shatrughna. The reasons are shown in the vyakhyanam extract that adiyEn posted a couple of days ago. adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan --- Vishnu <vsmvishnu@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > SEshatvam is explained in stOtra ratna. AchArya says: > SarIra bhEdai: tava SEshatAm gatai: which means AdiSEsha > is for Him > in differen forms like cot, pillow etc. So the statement > "aham sarvam > karishyAmi" has to be understood from this perspective, > which means > blemishless service as ordained by Him. Also lakshmaNa is > younger > brother who has to serve the elder one as per his order, > in our Vedic > culture. Kindly correct me if I am wrong. > > Dasan > Vishnu > _______________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Declare Yourself - Register online to vote today! http://vote.yahoo.com azhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyAr thiruvadigalE saranam Yahoo! Groups SponsorADVERTISEMENT --------------------------------- 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 the Yahoo! Terms of Service. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? vote.yahoo.com - Register online to vote today! [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/.itolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> azhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyAr thiruvadigalE saranam 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/
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