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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00068 Apr 2005

 
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Dear srivaishNava perunthagaiyeer,

These are the days when borderlines do not really matter. 'Macmohan' 'lines' 
becomes 'Manmohan' 'lines', and buses help 'bridge' the people across 
countries. Whereas those days, - not so long ago - drawn lines were 
'controlling' people - means literally not allowing people to cross those 
imaginary line drawn called 'borders' between countries, between people - so 
named 'Line Of Control - LOC'. 

Instead a stone 'bridge', with stones inscribed 'raama naamam' in sea was also 
built - a 'line' drawn in the sea maps 
        -       not a 'line of control', 
        -       not even a helpline, 
        -       nor a line to create amity and friendship 
but a helpline of different nature - helpline to enable fight a war and kill 
the so-called enemy. 

Why enmity developed, because, the enemy abducted one lady. Perhaps, if the 
lady is a commoner like one among us, then such a fight would not have 
occurred. Later, many many years later after such a war, we need not think or 
discuss on or about such a fight or about such people, in srivaishNava forums 
like this. 

Since the lady abducted was the pet 'queen' of raama, the prince of ayOdhyaa, 
the 'one and only raamaa' [since to be crowned as king later after this line - 
bridge - and the fight, I am calling him prince] with all difficulties involved 
in that bridge like 
        *       seeking and getting the friendship of the monkey [?] king, 
        *       begging the ocean king and seeking his permission, 
        *       removing much of the natural resources like hillocks and large 
stones, and then inscribing raama naamam in them [to become sanctified by that 
inscription, so that even today going and seeing that line, [bridge], is 
considered a pilgrimage to sEthu even today], dumping them in ocean to make 
them float [coz. of that inscription] against all natural gravitational 
principles.
        *       squirrels rolling over the beach to "transport" [?] sand on 
their tiny bodies to plug gaps [?] among such large stones in that floating 
bridge. [re - kurangukaL malaiyai nooka kuLiththu thaam puraNdu ittu Odi' of 
thirumaalai - of thoNdar adip podi - one adip podi talking about another podi]
        *       the flood of monkeys crossing over the line - bridge - and then 
fought with vigour and valour, to get back that abducted lady, in the process 
killing the abductor.

So 'a line of help' across the ocean [the bridge] was built to secure back a 
lady and restore her to the prince - later coronated as king. 

Why all these struggles? Because that lady - seethaa - that special lady - not 
the commoner - crossed the limits of 'lines' drawn to protect her, control her, 
in particular, the 'line of control' for seethaa - named "lakshmaNa rEkha".

Was it really drawn? Do vaalmeeki or kamban talk about it? About that we will 
see a little later, when we deal more on that. Before that some specials are 
given here.

A person who is able to command over his 10 senses is called Dhasa rathan - 10 
chariots - the commander of 10 chariots at a time - the 10 senses - are the 10 
chariots [5 karma and 5 gnaana senses]. 
Among his many wives, Kousalya, the patta mahishi is said as an embodiment of 
'Devotion'. 
KaikEyee the second among the queens is an embodiment of 'Attachment'.
Sumithraa, the third queen is a personification of virtue, of 'Detachment'. 
Just recall or refer the consoling words, she offer to kousalya calling raaman 
as 'sooryasya soorya'- [ayodhya kaaNdam 44th sargam] - that shows to what 
extent she is a realized soul - on that seeking of the lord with detachment - 
actually she did not bother much about his son going to forest nor her daughter 
law getting separated from her husband - but blessed son and sent him to serve 
raaman - such a detachment 

Raaman represents or is god, the supreme and absolute 'Wisdom' personification. 
Bharathan is the personification of the virtue called 'Discrimination'. 
Lakshmana is the 'Renunciation'.  "Shatru-ghna" is the 'Thought'.

Seethaa is the symbol or representation of the 'soul' and / or devotion. 
[Please note the difference between kousalya and seethaa soul much in devotion 
to god - whereas kousalya - devotion to controlling senses - level wise lower] 

Raama, the god, is always in search of Seethaa, the soul and its devotion to 
him. 
LakshmaNan the 'renunciation' always goes with 'fixed aim' of serving the god, 
and is the object of that god used in a variety of ways by that wisdom raaman. 

The trio of raaman, seethaa lakshmaNan the Wisdom, Devotion and Renunciation 
travel to occupy Panchavati - literally the abode standing for the embodiment 
of the 5 sense organs. The cottage Panchawati is symbolic and means the body 
made up of the 5 elements, namely earth, water, fire, air and ether. The 
'jungle' setting represents the kingdom of RaavaNan. 

Having analysed that the ascetic princes raaman and lakshmaNan are no ordinary 
individuals, and, have withstood the attack on them by not only the Pride 
[kharan brother of raavaNan] and Evil [dhooshaNan - raama fought single 
handedly and killed them in war along with 14000 others] but also disfigured 
the Desire [viz. soorpanaka], Dasa aanana - the ten headed - or the 10 senses - 
decides to organise an attack with the help of Deceit, the Mareecha. Maricha or 
Deceit could assume a variety of forms. Hence RaavaNan, as a ploy asked 
maareecha - the deceit - to appear as a golden deer, before seethaa, the 
devotion, to create a flutter, and eventually she might be attracted towards 
him.

The 'LakshmaNa Rekha' means in simple terms "staying focussed" and keeping one 
within the 'line' or 'code of conduct'. But since that did not happen, we know 
the rest of the story. Dear bhakthaas, coming back on the LOC of seethaa, the 
devotion, or the meaning of LOC is staying within the devotion. Once the 
devotion to god goes out of control it leads to problems. What are the problems 
- everybody knows what they are. But let us analyse this 'lakshman rekha' the 
line of control a little more in detail, as to  whether it was really drawn as 
per vaalmeeki or kamba raamaayaNam  etc in the next post.

Dhaasan
Vasudevan m.g.






azhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyAr thiruvadigalE saranam
 
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