SSR Day 4 by HH Sri Datta Vijayananda Teertha Swamiji – January 4, 2014 – Mysore
Jai Guru Datta
Valmiki has written only those words of Rama. Swamiji gave us the 12 Suktis that were given to Him by Jaya Lakshmi Mata. He could have told us as His Suktis but He didn’t do that. This is the greatness of Mahatmas.
Demon Viradha sees Rama and Lakshmana and wonders why they have bows and arrows even when living in hermitage. People called Rama as unlucky since He lost everything. He was seen as an unlucky mascot. They said Rama isn’t good enough for the empire. Rama didn’t expect these kind of people in the forest. He is taken aback.
Rama and Lakshamana used arrows on the demon and after a great battle, Viradha loses in it. He explains his story of how he became a demon due to his lust and begs Rama to relieve him of his demonic form. He asked Rama to place him in a big vessel so he can die in it and gets back his original form.
Out of our ego, we sometimes think that we have the doership of our karmas. We must treat it is all due to the almighty that we are doing. In between your duties you must remember God. That is why Datta is called ‘Smrtrugami Sanovatu’ – Datta feels happy by just uttering His name. Realize that God is the doer and not us.
There was a person who was so much addicted to talking on phone. Once he had to undergo a treatment for his tooth. The doctor performed the surgery without giving anesthesia to him. People around him asked the doctor how could he manage the person’s pain without giving anesthesia. Doctor replied, he was so engrossed talking on phone that he didn’t realise the surgery pain. That is how we are. We forget everything around us sometimes. This is called Moha.
That is why we sometimes perform rituals like Akhanda Parayana as a deeksha for 16 days, 40 days or so on. Even after its completion, it still lingers in our ears for few more days. Its effect is not somethng that is visible to the eyes. It is an invisible protection shield around us.
Similarly, Viraada after seeing Rama recollects his original form. Rama & Lakshmana brings a huge vessel and buried him. Virada got his original devata form and left for his abode.
From there Rama moves towards South from Madhya Pradesh. It is a blessing for us, South Indians that Rama did not move towards North. Else, He would have gone to Himalayas and wouldn’t have returned. He moved towards Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and to TamilNadu and from there crossed the ocean and went to Sri Lanka. All these areas were touched by the holy feet of Rama. You never know, He would have stepped into our houses also.
God comes down for us as we cannot go up. Devotion gives us power to go up but we dont have that much bhakti so God comes down for us. Hanuman keeps praying so Rama is coming down for him.
As Rama approached ashrama of Sharabhanga, He saw a chariot in the sky and Sharabhanga was speaking to someone in the chariot. Rama asks Sharabhanga as to whom he was speaking to. He says he was speaking to a devatha. Seeing Rama, the chariot disappears. Rama speaks to Sharabhanga and gives him salvation.
Then, as they proceeded towards the ashram of Agastya, Sita expressed to Rama some of her serious concerns about the subtleties of Dharma. Sita became worried about the violent and cruel acts of Rama, in His relentless destruction of the demons in the forest. They could become habitual and destroy discretion, she felt.
treenenva vyasananyatra
kamajani bhavatyutha
mithya vaakya
paradharabhi
vina vairancha roudratha
Three types of bad habits exist. One is falsehood. She was not worried about Rama’s adherence to truth. The second is going after other women. She knew that Rama would never look at another woman since His love for His wife was immense. She knew that His senses were well under His control. She was anxious that perhaps Rama was deviating from His Dharma by causing harm needlessly, which is the third vice. She advised Rama, “Why do you kill demons by causing harm to those who have not harmed us? Perhaps You should be careful.”
Once a sage was doing intense penance. Indra, who became alarmed by the intensity of the Sage’s penance, came in the form of a soldier and gave a sword to the Sage for protection. The sage wanted to prove his sense of responsibility to the soldier so he kept the sword with him constantly. But a sage is not supposed to wield a weapon because it always tempts one to inflict harm. When he went to find food items such as fruits and roots, he kept carrying the sword. He began to wonder whether the sword had become blunt. He tried to cut grass. It worked fine. Then he tried the blade on a creature’s neck. It cut off the head. He felt happy that the sword kept its sharpness. Slowly he began to use the sword to kill other animals. He developed a cruel mind, giving up his peaceful nature. He incurred a lot of sin. He forgot all about his penance. He suffered a total downfall. Finally he went to hell by his association with the weapon. “Let us not indulge in this violence Rama. Let us simply live like ascetics.” – said Sita.
dharmadaartha prabhavathi
dharmaat prabhavathey sukham
dharma saaramidam jagat
Dharma gives everything. Dharma gives wealth, pleasure, and everything else. The essence of the universe is Dharma.
aatmavai putra naamasvi – says veda..
Adharma leads to harm. Even if it doesn’t harm you, it will be carried forward to your children. Dharma helps you to attain Moksha even.
Rama appreciates Sita mata’s words and replies her that though He is dressed as an ascetic, He is still a warrior and He has come to the forest on the command of His father. It is a warrior’s duty to wield weapons and protect people of his kingdom. People are not just in the cities. All those living in villages and even in forest are also his people and that all the sages have come and prayed to Him to protect them and hence He is still carrying those weapons. Rama says He would protect all those wo pray to Him even if He may have to renounce Sita, Lakshmana or even His own life. Sita felt happy with these words of Rama.
Rama reaches Agastya ashrama. During Rama’s childhood, Vasishta was His Guru. Then comes Vishwamitra during His education time and now Agastya also becomes His Guru. Rama stands in front of the ashrama and waits for Agastya’s darshan. He felt He would be disturbing the penance of Agastya. In the meanwhile, one of the disciples of Agastya comes and Rama sends a message with him. Agastya becomes furious on his disciple that he has not invited Rama into the ashrama, which means that Agastya was waiting for Rama darshana. Rama enters his ashrama visiting all the temples in the ashrama and taking darshan of all the idols.
Some people say that there were no temples in treta yuga, but that is wrong. This episode is an evidence that there were temples in Treta yuga too. Even in dwapara yuga, in Bhagavata, Rukmini performed Durga Puja in a temple from where she was taken by Krishna to marry her. Agastya ashrama also has may temples and is beautiful like Ganapathi Sachchidananda Ashrama. Agastya then gave a bow called Kodanda to Rama. Since then, Rama is called Kodanda Rama. Mere thought itself will bring arrows and He need not to carry any arrows. Rama felt happy with the new bow. Agastya asked Rama to stay with him until the completion of His exile of 14 years. Rama smoothly refused and requested Agastya to show Him an ideal place to live. Agastya then meditates for sometime and since Rama has taken birth to kill Ravana, suggests that Pachavati is an ideal place. Pachavati is near the current Tyayambakeshwar, Nasik.
As Rama started towards Panchavati, He sees a huge bird. The introduces itself as Jatayu and is the friend of Dasaratha, and pleads Rama to allow it to accompany Rama. Rama agrees and moves towards Panchavati along with Sita, Laxmana & Jatayu.
Laxmana in the meanwhile became an expert engineer in building temporary houses for Rama. He built a beautiful parnashala – house for them to live. Rama was so overwhelmed with Laxmana’s architecture. All was going well till Surpanaka entered.
Surpanaka is a Kamarupi – a demoness who can change her form as she wants. Once a mother took her child to school. Suddenly there was a heavy down pour and they took shelter under a tree. The rain so heavy that the mother hugs her child and gives shade and in this process she gets drenched. After sometime, the rain stops and mother tells her child that they can then leave for home. The child looks at her and asks, ‘aunty, where is my mother’? Such is the power of Makeup. The child never saw his orginal face of her mother. Surpanaka too came in such a makeup, hiding her original demoness appears and covered herself under the make of a beautiful lady.
Surpanaka comes to Rama and asks Him to marry her. Rama wanted to have some entertainment and says, He is already married and that Surpanaka would not be happy living as a second wife and asked her to approach Laxmana as he is more fair in complexion than Rama. Laxmana wondered with Rama’s words and as Rama winks at him, he understood the intention of Rama and says, ‘Surpanaka, I’m a servant to Rama. You will not be happy marrying a servant as you also will end up serving. So go back to Rama and ask Him to marry you.’ Rama again sends her to Laxmana. Surpanaka gets wild between both of them and insists that Rama should marry her. Rama refuses to do so. She then looks at Sita and says, ‘It is because of this beautiful lady you are refusing to marry me. Hence I will eat her, so you will marry me.’ Saying so, Surpanaka jumps on Sita. Rama stops her. It is humourously said that Rama recommended her to Laxmana and writes on her back to chop off her ears and nose as it is a sin to kill a woman. Laxmana does so.
Being insulted such, Surpanaka runs to her cousin Khara, but Khara asks her to let go. She then goes to Ravana and lies that she went to get Sita mata for him and Rama insulted her. Ravana sends 14000 demons to get Sita Mata and they have a huge battle with Rama. Rama uses Sammohana astra. Sammohana astra is that arrow when used, the army appear as Rama to each other and they kill themselves. Sita Mata observes all this from a cave. One demon, to escape from Rama comes in a woman form and Rama leaves that demon. He runs back to Ravana and explains the entire story. Ravana then approaches Maaricha and asks him to take a golden magical deer form and help him get Sita. Maaricha was the same demon whom Rama left without killing during the Yaga time of Vishwamitra. Maaricha talks about Rama’s valour to Ravana and tells him not to go for Sita.
sulabhaa purushaa raajan
satatam priyavadinaha
apriyaschasa patyascha
vakthaa durlabhaha
Maaricha replies, ‘O king ! I don’t know who gave you this advice. I don’t think you know the circumstances of your decisions.’ Only a few give good advices and to such ones you must listen.
When we go to a doctor, he asks us not to eat certain kind of food for the medicine will work effectively. It may not be nice to hear but it does good to your body. Sadguru’s advices are always good. It may not show up results immediately but on a long run, they help us a lot.
sanoonam nanoonam buddhyase ramam
ayuktha darasya chapala mahendra
Maaricha says, ‘Ravana, you must have got wrong information. Maybe, Rama has come just to kill you. Because of Sita, your clan will be wiped away. So please reconsider your thoughts.’
Raamo Vigrahavaan Dharmaha !
‘Rama is the form of Dharma. If Dharma takes a shape, it would be like Rama. He likes Sadhus and innocent people. Ravana, you do not know His greatness. I was once hit by His arrow and since then, I’m enlightened.’
Vrukshe Vrukshecha Pasyami !
‘Ravana, I see Rama in every tree here. Out of fear, I’m chanting His name’ says Maaricha. Sometimes fear in us is helpful. Then only we will bear God in our mind. Maaricha is scared of the sound ‘Ra’ in Rama’s name.
Ravana had a deaf ear to the words of Maaricha. He threatened Maaricha that he would kill him if he doesn’t take the form of Golden deer. Maaricha then thought that it is better to die in the hands of Rama than Ravana.
Finally Maaricha turns into a Golden deer. Sita sees this and wants it. Laxmana warns that it could be Maya. But Rama says, Sita has never asked anything so far. This is the first time she is asking for something. I will go get it. You take care of Sita till I come back.
Rama runs behind the deer. It is so surprising that even Lord is running behind Maya. The deer takes Rama to the interiors of the forest. Rama thinks that the deer is running so fast, yet is not getting tired where as Rama feels tiredness. In the evening, finally He decided to kill the deer and shoots an arrow. Maaricha shouts in the voice of Rama addressing Laxmana & Sita and finally dies.
Here, on the other hand, Sita could here Maaricha shouting in Rama’s voice and asks Laxmana to go and check. Laxmana refuses saying, it could be maya. Sita accuses Laxmana that he might be having ill intentions on her. Laxmana feels sad for this and leaves that place to find the whereabouts of Rama. Both Rama and Laxmana meets each other on the way in the forest and suspects that something could go wrong with Sita. In the meanwhile Ravana comes in the form of bikshu and asks Sita to offer food to him. When Sita mata does so, he holds her hair and abducts her in his flying machine.
Jatayu stops Ravana with his wings and Ravana cuts the wings of Jatayu. Sita abuses Ravana and tell him about the greatness of Rama. Ravana takes her to Lanka and puts her in Ashoka Vana and gives her one year time to marry him.
Here Rama and Laxmana come back and find that Sita is missing. They go in search of Sita and finds Jatayu in his last moments. Jatayu says Ravana has taken away Sita and dies in the lap of Rama. Rama does final rites to Jatayu, gives salvation to him and moves ahead in the forest in search of Sita. When birds also get Moksha by chanting Rama Nama, why can’t we get? Ofcourse we can!
Rama moves in the forest looking for Sita and sees Kabhanda, a demon and chops off his hands. Kabhanda gets his original form with this and tells Rama that he needs a friend and advices Rama to meet Sugriva who is near Pampa Sarovar. A good friend is required for everyone in life. Those who do not have friends need not feel sad as Sadguru is a true friend to all.
Kabhanda also tells about Shabari, an old woman who is waiting for Rama darshan as instructed by her Guru. For ages, she has been waiting to see Rama. Every day she cleans the path, brings fruits and flowers to be offered to Rama. She tastes all the fruits a little and ensures that they taste good for Rama. When we go to buy fruits, we taste one in the bunch and think all others also are good enough. Unfortunately only the one we taste will be good and not the reminaing.
Shabari sees Rama and Laxmana and squints to see clearly. She saw to people walking towards her and as they come closer, she saw the bows and realizes that they are Rama and Laxmana. Rama lovingly asks her about her well being. Shabari takes both Rama and Laxmana all around the ashram and finally asks Rama to give her Upadesha. Rama teaches her nine forms of Bhakthi. Shabari episode is a huge episode and is a great Vedantic part.
Next Rama heads towards Pampa Sarovar and by the beauty of the surroundings, He forget His sorrows. Water has a very close bondage to our minds. Thats why we often find children jump into pools and swim and do not want to come out. Water has healing capacity. There are many birds around Pampa. Rama thinks of Sita here. Next is Kishkinda Kaanda. Tomorrow we shall talk about the same.
Jai Sri Rama !
Compiled by Bala Aati