From: jasn sn [jayasartn@xxxxxxxxx] Sent: Saturday, November 27, 2004 10:13 AM Subject: Re: Bow's story ? further clarifications on questions raised. JASN: SrI: Respected sri Vasudevan swami, Thank you for your mail. I look forward to your comments. Meanwhile I thought I can share some more views. MGV: Welcome. JASN: This is about Brahmasthram. On the one side we see that the brahmasthram sent by Indrajit could only tie up Hanuman (Sundhara khandam) and on the other, we find that Rama delayed (?) the use of it till he got tired (?) of cutting Ravana's head. He is said to have weighed the options of what asthra to use and then decided to shoot the Brahmasthra. MGV: sri hanumaan had the boon by brahmaa, that all weapons including his own brahmaasthram cannot do any harm to hanumaan. Just to show respect to pithaamahan, the athidhEvathaa for that asthram, that too in front of others, hanumaan waited as though he was bound. Also, that was a pretext, so that, if, a chance comes in his way, he could see that so called mighty raavaNan. That chance eventually came in his way. This is fully explained in sundhara kaaNdam. JASN: Also we see repeatedly that Rama always applies discretion as to what asthras to use. A blade of grass became his asthra to punish kaakaasura, but that he waited for a while to decide on to use brahmasthra is a point to ponder. MGV: For kaakaasuran ? it is immediate punishment ? for, he has done physical damage to raamaa's wife, that too in front of raamaa and in the vicinity of raamaa. Further his identity at that stage may be a point, since he is a dhEvaa. For dhEvaas, no hesitation is shown by raamaa in punishing them. As said in vaali's slain by sri anjaneyalu, vaali made a heavy mistake of making friendship with raavaNan. Similarly the son of king of dhEvaas, jayanthan, who is kaakaasuran, has to be severely punished for the crime. Further he did not have brahmaa's boons like raavaNan. Also as said in manu smruthi the `punishment levels' for the same type of crime, to people among the chaathur varNam vary. The severest is for BraahmaNan ?1st varnam and lightest for the 4th varnam. Since jayanthan is one more than the 1st varnam itself, viz. dhEvaa, the punishment level to him has to be naturally higher than braahmaNan. He has to receive severest punishment, that too immediately, that is what happened in jayanthan's case. For raavaNan it is with a hesitation. For brahma only had given the boon to raavaNan. Perhaps raama had the doubt of whether brahma's own asthram will work against brahmaa's own `boon recipient', the raavaNan. But since shooter is somebody else, presently raama, who is the super lord of brahma himself, the servant brahma has to do his duty / job, as well his asthram. Or otherwise also brahmaasthram is forced to do that assigned job of killing raavaNan, since command is by the supreme lord. JASN: I deduce that in the case of Hanuman [irrespective of the curse (or boon?) (or I consider the boons and curses only to reinforce the already pending result)] had that he would be bound by Brahmasthra for 1 muhoortha kaalam, the Brahmasthra was powerless against him, in view of his being protected by Dharma and exalted virtues. Applying the same yardstick, the Brahmasthra, if used earlier on Ravana would not have vanquished him, with some dharma still sticking to him and protecting him. Rama seemed to have waited for the right moment to use it. MGV: comment already given above. JASN: A corollary can be found in Karna's demise. Again Karna's use of Brahmasthra on Arjuna, would not have resulted in the demise of Arjuna even if the Lord were not to be physically present, by the logic that arjuna was still shielded with dharma. This may also be the reason why the asthra could not meet the target (Arjuna) (Dharma in the form of Krishna protected him). Because we get to hear that these asthras are precision-driven not by physical aiming but by some manthras. Once shot, the asthra would certainly find its target. But that it could not in Arjuna's case (though by the curse that karna had) may be primarily to do with the strength of the target and the kind of protection that the target enjoys. I wish to see you take up a write-up on Brahmasthras as found in the two epics for better understanding for all of us. regards, jayasree saranathan MGV: as stated I will take up this separately. Dhaasan Vaasudevan m.g. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $4.98 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/Q7_YsB/neXJAA/yQLSAA/VkWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SriRangaSri/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: SriRangaSri-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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