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Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00093 Apr 2008

 
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Dear sri vaishNava perunthagaiyeer,

 

We saw in the previous post, how raavaNa was advised by maareecha against raavaNa's desire of abducting seethaa. Incidentally it is maareecha who describes raama as 'vigrahavaan dharma'. See slokam --

 

raamO vigrahavaan dharmah saadhuh sathya paraakramah |

raajaa sarvasya lOkasya dhEvaanaam iva vaasavah || 3-37-13

 

meaning: Raama is the embodiment of righteousness, he is an equitable person with truthfulness as his valour, and as with Indhra to all gods, he is the king of entire world.

 

In previous post, when we saw maareecha describing seethaa - that she has her own thEjas, power, - also specific words like 'narasimhasya simha uraskasya bhaaminee' etc, a doubt must arise in reader's mind as to

  1. when and where maareecha saw seethaa?
  2. how maareecha knew raama married her?
  3. how maareecha learnt that she is raama's wife?
  4. how he knew she was so powerful and all that?

 

Does it mean that maareecha had another bout offacing raama's arrows? Or he had the taste of seethaa's pathivratha agni - powerful fire out of her 'pathivratha' vows?

 

Because, after killing and clearing off thaataka, subhaahu and their accomplices, and pushing off far away maareecha, the son of thaataka, with raama's 'maanava asthram', then only, raama helped sage visvaamithra complete his yagnams.

 

After that, rama, lakshmaNa, sage visvaamithra and all rishis went to mythila. And then followed instances of

 

To clear the above 4 questions, we have to look into lakshmaNa's words, when maareecha appeared as the golden deer -

 

charanthO mrugayaam hrishTaah paapEna upaadhinaa vanE |

anEna nihathaa raama raajaanah kaama roopiNaa || 3-43-6

 

meaning: lakhsmaNa says to raama, 'Oh, Raama, when kings engaged in hunting games and were moving delighted in the forest, this Maareecha killed many of them resorting to many disguises, for he is a guise-changer by his wish'.

 

Comment:

point 1. So the kaamam, desire, of hunting of the kings, transformed into kaamam of maareecha in killing the kings themselves. "when you desire to kill somebody for your pleasure, you get killed for same pleasure of killing by somebody else. That is the beautiful lesson here in this one slokam.

 

Point 2. maareechaa was thus roaming in the forest, with his desire to hunt kings, he heard all these stories of raama going to mythila, marrying seethaa etc.

 

Point 3. Also since 12/ 13 years have passed in the forest life of the trio, raama, seethaa, and lakshmaNa, mareecha while roaming in forest have learnt about raama and lakshmaNa killing viraadhan, giving vow to protect the rishis etc, might have seen them without he being noticed by the trio.  That is why he is able to say all these to raavaNa.

 

I invite readers to give any slokam reference available than this inference.

 

Continuation: Incidentally while maareecha was thus advising raavaNa, he also said something about sage visvaamithra. Many a times we presume once seethaa kalyaaNam is over there are no more references on visvaamithra, even as a flash back. Fact remains otherwise. Since that is quite interesting, I want to share that with you all.

 

visvaamithrO atha dharmaathmaa math vithrasthO mahaamunih || 3-38-3

svayam gathvaa dhasaratham narEndhram idham abraveeth |

 

meaning: The virtue-souled great-saint Visvaamithra, who was highly scared of me, then went to Dasharatha in person, that great-saint spoke this to the lord of people.

 

ayam rakshathu maam raamah parva kaalE samaahithah || 3-38-4

maareechaath mE bhayam ghOram samuthpannam narEsvara |

 

meaning: An awesome dismay has befallen on me owing to this Maareecha, oh, lord of people Dhasaratha, let Raama safeguard me by standing alert to the opportune time of the Vedic-rituals.

 

Comment: See the funny desire of maareecha, in claiming visvaamithra is afraid of him and that is why visvaamithra, on his own, ran to dhasaratha and desired raama to stand guard for his yagnam. Since slokam 4 is in first person we have to accept the veracity. But there remains a fact that visvaamithra ran out of that location or place. That is as stated by him – see slokam

 

krutha sramah niruthsaahah thasmaath dhEsaath apaakramE |

na cha mE krOdham uthsrashTum buddhih bhavathi paarthiva ||  1-19-7.

 

Meaning: visvaamithra says to dhasaratha, 'Striven [that much, but on becoming] unenthusiastic, I take to my heels from that place, and to me there is no will, to let loose my anger. Oh! King, [1-19-7]

 

thathhaa bhoothaa hi saa charyaa na saapah thathra muchyathE |

sva puthram raaja sardhoola  raamam sathya paraakramam || 1-19-8.

 

Meaning: Like that, the works of the ritual on becoming thus, [I have to depart,] and no curse can be issued [under that vow, therefore] your son, oh! Tigerly-king, Raama, the virtue-valiant... [1-19-8]

 

Comment: Not because out of fear for maareecha, but visvaamithra did not want to let loose his anger as stated by him. Of course, once a person runs away from the scene, the other can interpret it in many ways to suit his own desire and convenience. That is what is happening here.

 

See the study of human mind in minute details in such situations in raamaayaNam.

 

Or it can be that maareecha desired to give a threat indirectly to raavaNa about raama –"out of fear for me visvaamithra ran, and brought raama at his 12 years of age, and I was diven away like hell, hey raavaNa, now that boy of 12 is fully grown and more experienced in warfare also. Besides I learn sahe agasthya also gave lot of asthrams etc, why do you want to abduct his wife and thus invite his wrath?" 

 

So the desire of one gives twists to the known tales also in different ways. That is the point here. Let us continue in next post.

Dhasan



--
Vasudevan MG __._,_.___

Oppiliappan Koil Varadachari Sadagopan
http://www.sadagopan.org




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