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Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00134 Jul 2008

 
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Kaamam 30

 

Dear sri vaishNava perunthagaiyeer,

 

We are discussing on raama's kaamam – his kaamam to observe dharmam at any cost. Now comes the reader Mr. Harsha simha's point – of 'sva artham' in kaamam – then it is not kaamam etc – see his point – this point of Sri Harsha simha is in reply to MGV's post 3 on classification of kaamam – [and I sent an interim reply to him that I will take his point and reply in appropriate place in the series and time has come now to do that]

 

Quote—

 

Dear Swamin, Its really a great pleasure going through your analysis. Every mail of yours, takes us through complete raamaayaNam. In the current mail "desire -3", I got bit confused about the meaning of "Kaamam". After going through the analysis, am I right in thinking that *Every* Karma (action) is a result of Kaamam"?


Even though, one of the meaning of kaamam is desire, I was in an opinion that all those desires where there is no expectation of fruit (prathiphalam) and not a result of selfishness (swaartham), cannot be considered as kaamam. With this definition / interpretation, I am hesitant to include following points under Kaamam:


1. (Point 7) "kaamam or desire to adhere to his father's 'directions' or 'order'"

2. (Point 10)"kaamam of bharatha – in not accepting crown and wanting himself to be accepted as a true servant of raama"


But we can still have all other points under kaamam, including "(Point 14) The kaamam of people of ayOdhyaa". In a general case, excluding those desires, which are not a result of 'swaartham', I feel that the "limitless love of bhagavaan towards his devotees" will not come under kaamam. Please correct me if I am missing something. dAsan, Harsha Simha –unquote--

 

Yes – every karma or action is a result of 'kaamam' – 'desire'. And Bhagavaan states that in geethaa clearly in chapter 2. [and I stop with that – for my subject presently is not bhagavadh geethaa but raamaayaNam]

 

Even to observe 'dharmam at any cost' is also a desire - that results in actions by raama - by way of his own sufferings – all for the sake of 'dharmam' – is it not 'sva artham' for raama. The intentions behind or in mix with that kaamam have to be good and beneficial to all.

 

In raama's case, the intention is good, 'dharmam' has to be observed and while doing so, the results have to be beneficial to many – like

§         the many sages in forest who wanted a good dharsanam of the lord,

§         raavaNa's elimination which is in general good to all, in particular to dhEvaas and sages who do thapas, and ladies etc. 

 

So a 'sva artham' in the kaamam, which results in an action of 'good' to many, is a welcome kaamam. On the second point on bharatha perhaps Sri Harsha simha has to wait till I take up kaamam of bharatha.

 

Now going back to previous post and continuing the thread, we saw raama giving an observation to kaikEyee that she has not seen any good character in raama [guNam] in slokam 2-19-24, so he next says

 

yaavan maatharam aaprchchhE seethaam cha anunayaami~aham |

thathah adhya Eva gamishyaami dhaNDakaanaam mahadh vanam || 2-19-25

 

meaning: raama to kaikEyee, "Today itself, I shall go to the forest of Dandaka after bidding, farewell to my mother and also after consoling Seethaa."

 

Thereby raama's desire to stick to 'dharmam' - in obeying father's orders - is his kaamam – or in other terms make father a sathya vaagmee – a man sticking to his words – is proved.

 

A small technical point is also added here.

 

From the proposal of coronation to raama departing to forest is all incidents happening in a matter of days – may be less than a week also – but sage vaalmeeki gives coverage from sargam one of ayodhyaa kaaNdam to sargam 44 - by which time raama left, people like kousalyaa dhasaratha are in grief and sumithra consoles kousalyaa. So much is in detail.

 

But the happy days in forest for about 10 or 11 years in just 2 slokams in aaraNya kaandam. Similarly the happy days of 12 years of married life in one slokam, the message is being repeated in 3 places. Again the happy ruling of raama – for 11000 years in one slokam – message being repeated in morethan one place. See that kind of elaborations twists raamaayaNam as a 'sOkha rasa' laden kaavyam. But again vaalmeeki's desire is to make points on dharmam more elaborate than his giving details of happy moments.

 

Now we will move on to other kaamam of raama – of accepting surrender of vibheeshaNa – a kaamam to which many oppositions were there – not to take vibheeshaNa into the fold – that too at the time of an imminent war.

 

To substantiate his acceptance see raama expressing his desire –

 

mithra bhaavEna sampraaptham na thyajEyam kathamchana |
dhOshO yadhi api thasya syaath sathaam Ethadh agarhitham ||6-18-3

 

meaning: raama to hanumaan and sugreevan and all others assembled in front of him, "By any means, I do not desert anyone who arrives with a friendly appearance, even if he has a defect. His acceptance is irreproachable in the eyes of good men".

 

On this the commentator gOvindharaja has given a lot – we will some in next post.

 

Dhasan

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




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