Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:
A Twist To the Tale
Movie buffs would appreciate the crucial role played in any movie by the
Director. He is the man behind the scenes, making actors, technicians and
others involved in movie-making, pull together, put in their best and turn out
superb performances that ultimately make the movie a box-office hit. He is the
unseen thread, nay, the sheet anchor, running throughout the film, whose
imprint is seen in every scene of endearing emotion, convulsing comedy,
hair-raising stunts or a nerve-racking climax. It is to his tunes that actors
dance and speak, mere puppets in the artful and expert hands of the master
Puppeteer, who turns out an excellent show irrespective of the inexpert hands
he might be forced to deal with. It is he who vets the script for appropriate
angles, thinks of strategic turns in the story-line and endows the screen play
with sufficient cinematic appeal, transforming what is merely a good book, into
a great visual presentation acclaimed by even die-hard critics. When we see a
scene of great emotional portrayal by the hero, we have to remember that the
scene was perhaps shot a dozen times, with the Director unrelentingly tutoring
the actor to display just the correct quantum of emotion, never giving-up till
the hero has it just right, with neither overacting nor underplay.
"All the world is a stage" said the great Bard, telling us that perhaps all our
lives are enactments of the Great Human Melodrama. All of us, if only we stop
to think for a minute, appear to be acting out our roles in an unending Cosmic
Film, which has infinitely continuing shows. The only difference between
mundane films and the Cosmic one is that while the former have quite a huge
audience, the latter has just one person, the Lord, watching it, untiringly and
repetitively. Players come and go, shedding old roles and donning new ones, but
the show goes on forever, like an extremely extended version of "Dynasty" or
"Hum Log", an unending soap opera with events repeating themselves at regular
intervals.
Swami Desikan likens the Lord's avatArAs too to great dramas, enacted by the
Lord, ably supported by His Consort, with the three-fold objectives of
destroying evil, saving the saintly and re-establishing Righteousness on a firm
footing-
"DEvO na: shubham AtanOtu dasadhA nirvartayan bhoomikAm
RangE dhAmani labdha nirbhara rasai: adhyakshitO bhAvukai:"
Not only does the Lord turn out excellent performances on His own account-- He
also ensures, as the Director of all these scintillating shows, that the rest
of the players too perform their parts to perfection. And to keep the story
gripping and suspense-filled till the end, the Lord, the Master storyteller and
Director that He is, endows it with enough twists and turns to retain audience
interest till the very end.
Though the masterly imprint of this Cosmic Director's touch is to be found in
each and every enactment, it is particularly evident in the RAmavatAra.
Everyone would agree that as an Epic, Srimad Ramayanam has stood the test of
time. People have been expounding on and listening to discourses on the Epic,
for millions of years now, without the subject palling in any way on the
listeners or the raconteurs. And the large number of movies that have been made
to portray the story, whether it be "SampoorNa Ramayanam" of yore or Ramanand
Sagar's TV masterpiece "Ramayan", the performances have run to full audiences,
who, though, have known the story, in all its intricate detail, since their
childhood.
Coming back to the Lord's penchant for turning out the perfect movie, endowing
the tale with unexpected but essential twists and turns at the appropriate
points and thereby ensuring smooth flow of the story along the desired lines,
we can find quite a few instances of such contrived events in the Ramayana.
First and foremost, it is Dasaratha's near-defeat at the hands of SambarAsurA
and the timely assistance rendered by KaikEyI, that make the Emperor grant her
two boons, which are indeed crucial to the story and but for which Ramayana
would end as soon as it began. One thing worthy of note here is that Dasaratha
is acclaimed to be a matchless warrior, whose assistance is sought by all,
including the Chief of Celestials Indra, for getting the better of asurAs. This
being so, why should an Emperor of proven prowess falter in battle against just
another asurA? Here is where the Divine Director's "touch" is seen, laying the
foundation for Sri Rama's banishment to the jungle, on which hinges the whole
course of the Epic.
Coming next to the day prior to the infructuous Coronation planned by
Dasaratha, Sri Valmiki appends an exclamatory mark ("YadricchayA"), to the
sloka about the festivities coming to the notice of the scheming hunchback
Manthara.
Her movements severly circumscribed by her deformity, Manthara normally stays
on level ground, finding climbing or any other form of exercise painful.
However, on the day prior to Rama becoming the Prince of Ayodhya, Manthara
takes it into her head to climb the steep steps to the palace terrace, from
where she has a bird's eye view of the enthusiastic preparations for the
Coronation.
"GyAti dAsI yatOjAtA KaikEyyAstu sahOshitA
prAsAdam chandra sankAsam ArurOha yadricchayA"
This, in turn, makes her hatch plans for ensuring KaikEyI's supremacy in
Dasaratha's royal household and to incite KaikEyI to seek the long-forgotten
boons from the Emperor.
Had she not climbed on to the terrace contrary to her normal habits, Manthara
would have been blissfully unaware of the goings on and Sri Rama would have
become Prince and heir without any hindrance and everyone would have lived
happily ever after (except perhaps those tormented by Ravana, whose demise was
the core objective of the Ramavatara). It is this seemingly innocuous action on
the part of Manthara, engineered by the Director, which keeps the story going
in the appointed direction.
Another masterstroke of the Author-Director of Srimad Ramayana is the seemingly
irrelevant departure of Sri Bharata, along with his inseparable brother
Shatrughna, to the distant land of his maternal uncle Asvapati. At the very
beginning of Ayodhya Kandam, in fact in its very first sloka, we are told that
Sri Bharata departed Ayodhya-
"GacchatA mAtula kulam BharatEna mahAtmanA
ShatrughnO nitya shatrughna: neeta: preeti puraskrita:"
We wonder, why should we be told of an apparently routine visit by a nephew to
the uncle's house? We must remember here that not a single word or sloka of
Srimad Ramayana is redundant or repetitive.
The significance of this move would not have been lost on readers, who would
have realised that had Bharata been present when KaikEyI hatched and
implemented her plans, they would never have come to pass, given Sri Bharata's
subsequent outbursts when he comes to know of them. Sri Bharata would have put
his foot down with great force and ensured that no obstacle was created in the
way of Sri Rama's coronation. It is thus the contrived removal of Sri Bharata
from the scene that makes it possible for events to proceed on their appointed
lines.
We now come to another turning point, apparently engineered to ensure Sri
Sita's abduction and the subsequent events. Here too, Sri Valmiki, wondering at
the Divine Hand behind the events, qualifies his statements with another
"YadricchayA" (accidentally). This involves the arrival of ShoorpanakhA,
apropos of nothing, quite by "coincidence", at the PanchavatI parNashAlA, where
Sri Rama, Sita and lakshmana are living in peace. We must remember here that
DandakAraNyam is a huge forest, with absolutely no necessity for two
individuals to run into each other, even if they were to roam about the forests
for years together. Yet, within a short time of the divine trio reaching there,
they encounter Shoorpanakha, "accidentally"-"yadricchayA". Had this not
happened, and had the trio been left to themselves, they would have finished
their sojourn of 14 years at PanchavatI itself and returned safe and sound to
Ayodhya. This, however, was not to be, for Shoorpanakha developed an
infatuation for Rama, which led to her nose being cut off by Lakshmana,
ultimately resulting in the abduction of Sri Sita.
Ravana might well hatch a plan involving MArIcha as the golden deer, but why
should the extremely intelligent and wise Sita fall a prey to this simple
strategem? It is not as if She has never seen beautiful things, for, as the
apple of Sri Janaka's eyes and as the eldest daughter-in-law of Emperor
Dasaratha, there could not have been much that She wouldn't have seen or
possessed. Yet, like any ordinary girl in her teens, She develops a fascination
for this "mAyA mrigam", apparently to help the story line proceed as per
schedule.
Another event with obviously the same purpose is Sita's abuse of Lakhsmana for
not rushing to the rescue of Sri Rama, whom She believes to be in distress,
judging from the great cry for help. Sita knows very well that Sri Rama is
invincible and not at all likely to be troubled in any way by a single
rAkshasa, as She has seen with Her very own eyes how He single-handedly
disposed of the fourteen thousand-strong army of Khara, DooshaNa and Trisiras.
If She is unaware of Her husband's prowess, who indeed would be! Yet, Sita
reacts like any ordinary woman, distressed over the possibility of Her husband
being in danger. This too, readers would agree, is but another strategy to help
the events along, towards the ultimate end of Ravana samhAram.
The Master-Director's hand is evident also in the timely and dramatic
prevention of Sri Bharata from entering the sacrificial fire, intolerant of
even a day's delay in Sri Rama's return.
Thus, from beginning to end, Srimad Ramayana furnishes ample evidence of events
being engineered towards the intended end, by an unknown Divine Hand, that of
the Master Director intent on endowing the tale with appropriate twists and
turns, often through the introduction on the scene of new characters. One has
to agree, however, that the plausibility of events or credibility of narrative
has in no way been affected by these contrived twists to the tale, which have,
if anything, added to its beauty and ambit, bringing into play a wide array of
emotions affording ample scope for an excellent performance. Is it any wonder,
then, that Srimad Ramayanam has remained a box-office hit for millennia
together, retaining viewers' interest generation after generation, despite the
fairly simple story line?
Srimate Sri LakshmINrismiha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana
Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:
dasan, sadagopan
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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