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   The Story of Tondar-adipOdi: Conquest of ?kaama?
   ------------------------------------------------ 
   through Reduction (?unification?) of Desire --
   ----------------------------------------------
           ?karma yOga?  (continued from Part 19)
           ----------

It took a miracle to wean Vipranarayana away from his
new-found "kaama" or passion in life: the beautiful
but treacherous Devadevi. The Divine Will had to exert
itself on earth on his behalf before the delinquent
desire of the AzhwAr (his "maRRu Oru kaamam", to use
the Tamil phraseology of AndAl's TiruppAvai) could be
transformed and restored to its former pristinity, to
its original state of 'yogic' excellence.    

               **************
                   
One day, as if out nowhere, a handsome couple, lady
and nobleman, arrived at Devadevi?s door and asked to
see her. Devadevi could not help noticing especially
how breathtakingly beautiful the lady visitor was.
However, it was the gentleman in question who spoke:

 ?Dear lady, my name is Ranga and this is my wife
Ranganayaki. We are distant but very dear relatives of
Vipranarayana, who lies here on your doorsteps. We
travelled to SriRangam hoping to see him but we learn
of his rather sorry condition now. We understand he
has much affection for you and wishes to co-habit with
you. But then he lacks, it seems, the necessary means
to make his dreams come true. 

"Dear lady, as I said, Vipranarayana is very dear to
us. We are like father and mother to him. We desire
his happiness and well-being at all times, at any
cost. So we have come here to offer you this precious
gift. Here take this, it is a goblet of pure gold
studded with priceless gems. Please accept this from
us treating it as payment made on behalf of the
lovelorn lad, Vipranarayana. We trust you will now
take him back into your house and offer him your
affections and services exactly as of old. We assure
you we shall regularly keep sending you more gifts and
payments --- anything at all you may desire as
compensation for letting our beloved Vipranarayana
live with you?. 

Devadevi was astonished by the visitors. She had not
been aware Vipranarayana had such affluent relatives!
She took one avaricious look at the priceless goblet
and decided there and then to accept it. Inwardly, she
rejoiced. Vipranarayana had rich relatives! What luck!
He would now ensure a steady and ample stream of
future income for her! Grabbing the goblet and helping
Vipranarayana to his feet, she put her arms around him
and led him into her house. She turned back to smile
at the handsome couple, as if to say, "Farewell! Do
not worry anymore. Your Vipranarayana is going to be
safe in my arms!".

              ************

The next morning, in the SriRangam temple, when the
priests opened the doors to the sanctum of the Deity
they were in for a rude shock. There had been a
break-in and a precious temple-utensil had been
burgled. They immediately raised a great outcry!

"The gold goblet of Lord Ranganatha is missing!
There's been a break-in! Someone has stolen the Lord's
pricelss sacramental vessel! Call the royal guards!
Tell the King! Ring out the alarm in the city!".

               ************

In those days kings were extremely solicitous of the
religious interests of society. So the king of
SriRangam on hearing about the theft in the temple of
Sri Ranganatha, promptly sent out his guards and spies
to apprehend the culprits before they fled too far
away from the city. The spies spread out far and wide,
combing street after street, searching dwellings and
quarters and questioning suspects and known criminals.

Soon enough the guards discovered the golden goblet of
Sri Ranganatha in Devadevi's house. She was hauled up
to the King's presence, interrogated and asked to
explain. A chastened Devadevi related to the King the
exact circumstances under which she had come into
possession of the precious utensil. But rather
wickedly, she added too that it was probably
Vipranarayana himself, maddened by lust for her, who
had arranged for some of his relatives to plan and
execute the heinous theft. 

Finding Devadevi's account of events to be
substantially true, the King decided it was
Vipranarayana who was the main culprit. Letting
Devadevi go free with a small fine, the King forthwith
threw Vipranarayana into jail. 

The AzhwAr found himself once again a hapless victim
of yet another of Fate's cruel conspiracies. The slow
but sure decay of Vipranarayana's personality -- from
the gentle, inveterate "karma-yOgi" he had been to the
debauchee, destitute and common felon that he became
-- was complete at last. The handiwork of "kaama" --
the power of selfish human Desire -- was done.

                  **************   

The consequences of unquelled "kaama" are
unquestionably unpredictable and unsavory.
 
Although the Sanskrit word "kaama" denotes the whole
range of human desires -- from the appetites of common
society in a consumerist world to the bacchanalian
voracity of 21st-century "high"-society
 -- in common parlance, however, it is to Man's sexual
excess that the term has come to be most closely
associated. 

The tragic events in the life of Vipranarayana indeed
help one to draw grim, moral lessons on human
sexuality. But if we think those lessons are only
about human sexual excess we would be very mistaken.
They are really about higher themes of human "kaama"
that are far above the problem of mere carnal desire.
They are really about all human Desire that are
self-centred, self-gratifying and which act as great
obstacles in the way of Man's spirit advancing towards
freedom. 

Yet, even if one were to regard the example of
Vipranarayana as simply an object lesson warning us of
the perdition to which sexual excess leads, one may
still draw very great profit from it. From a universal
perspective, and even in our own modern times, the
AzhwAr's life-example stands out as a most valuable
lesson on the whole troubled question of the morality
of human sexual behaviour.

                **************

As we all know, in the 21st-century, the greatest
threat to the very existence of humanity --- barring
all-out nuclear-war between nations --- is not
poverty, not climate-change, not Katrinas or tsunamis
but the dreaded disease called HIV/AIDS. According to
a United Nations study the spectre of this disease now
hangs over half the world's continents in USA, Africa
and Asia. Close to half-a-billion in the world are
affected by HIV/AIDS and the number is projected to
grow alarmingly in the coming decades. It is said much
of Africa is a time-bomb ticking away slowly but
inevitably to a great humanitarian catastrophe called
HIV.

The world agonizes about this dreaded disease.
World-governments know that if they fail in their
fight against this disease, it will simply bring to
nought all of the economic might and prosperity of the
nations of the world. Governments, the UN,
international health organizations, NGOs, private
medical foundations, philanthropic centres etc. all
therefore spend billions of dollars in  fighting
against HIV/AIDS on and through several fronts ---
medical research, pharmacology, medical aid,
education, public awareness, volunteer group efforts,
media-campaigns, news-channel reports, rock-concerts,
cinema, art etc, etc.

Now, we should ask ourselves: What is the root cause
however of this disease that has put the whole of
humanity in such a desperate tizzy? The answer simply
stares us in the face, doesn't it? It is "kaama" --
unbridled sexual desire gone simply haywire. 

                  *************

Now, if only world-governments spent but a tenth on
teaching and enlightening peoples on how to control,
in the first place, their sexual desire through sheer
spiritual or religious discipline, it would perhaps be
unnecessary to spend all the rest that is presently
spent on hundreds and hundreds of HIV/AIDS-control
programs undertaken across the world? If enough effort
has been spent making sure the stable-doors are well
secured, no effort would be required at all in chasing
the horses after they have bolted.

If the cultural awareness of the young of the world
were expanded to include not only class-room workshops
on human sexual physiology and on the use of condoms
but also ennobling stories, parables, lessons and
examples too --- such as those of Vipranarayana, for
instance, which is a cultural lore inherited across
generations of religious history with its powerful
theme designed to impact and instruct the minds of the
young --- if only enough was done to broad-base and
heighten such cultural awareness amongst the young of
the world, might not the disease of HIV/AIDS perhaps
be more effectively prevented than we see it being
cured?

                  *************** 

If "kaama" were to be conquered in its causal state,
would there arise any need at all for the world to
deal with the ugly scourge of its painful
consequences? 

The life-story of Tondar-adi-podi AzhwAr serves to
make us all sit up and reflect deeply indeed over such
a question.   
                   
                 **************
                 (to be continued)                 
  

 
             (to be continued)
Regards,
dAsan,
Sudarshan





















                
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