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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00030 Mar 2003

 
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Dear friends in Kuwait,

Here is a profoundly moving passage from the 'Aranya-kAnda' of
Srimadh Valmiki Ramayana which clearly sets out the 'dharma' of War
and Disarmament. It contains a sterling lesson for the whole world --
especially today, even at this very moment -- when we are all
teetering on the verge of a War that shall soon envelop us. 

You will be surprised to know that in this passage it is not the
paragons of "dharma" such as Rama, Vasishta or Bharata who propound
the ethics of War. The "dharma" of War and of Disarmament is, wonder
of wonders, pronounced by none other than a lady -- none other than
our demure but irrepressible Sita-pirAtti. It would also surprise you
to note that in this passage Sita delivers a splendid oration on
'dharma' to none other than Rama Himself! This passage in the
'Aranya-kAnda" contains such a lofty message of 'dharma' it could
easily rank, in my humble opinion, alongside the "Gita". Verily, we
may say, this passage from the 'Aranya-kAnda' is "sitOpadEsam".

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

As Rama, Sita and Lakshmana travelled across the dense forests of
DandakAranya, they rested for a few days in the hermitage of the
rshi-s Sarabhanga and Sutikshana. Taking the opportunity of Rama's
brief stay in their "ashram", the rshi recounted to the couple the
untold grief and oppression they were suffering continually at the
hands of the 'rakshasa' gangs that terrorized the forest-lands and
hermitages of the rshi-s. The rshi-s narrated their pathetic
condition and fervently appealed to Lord Rama to rid the forests of
all evil (what today we would probably describe as "the Axis of
Evil") and wipe out the whole race of terrorists called "rAskhasas".
Lord Rama and Lakshmana assured the hapless "rshi-s" that
Dandakaranya would be rid of these agents of evil. "Leave it to me.
We are resolved to exterminate these rAkshasA-s", said Rama. 

Rama, Sita and Lakshmana then prepared to take leave of the hermitage
and the rshi-s. On this occasion, just as they were about to depart,
it was Sita-pirAtti who hastened to fetch the great bow and arrows of
Lord Rama. Rama was a little surprised by this act of Sita as it was
not her wont to fetch his deadly arsenals for him. As he took the
menacing weapons from Sita's hands, Rama glanced at her face and
quickly noticed the rather intense and meaningful look she gave him.
In the mute but eloquent ways through which good spouses sometimes
choose to communicate with each other, Rama knew that Sita was
silently meaning to convey something very important to him? but was
unwilling to do so in the presence of their hosts, the venerable
'rshi-s'. The couple bid farewell to Sage Sutikshana and continued on
their journey through Dandakaranya.

After walking some distance without a word along the way, Sita 
eventually broke the silence and began to speak a trifle vehemently
to her husband:

"snEhAccha bahumAnAccha smArayE tvAm na sikshayE
na kathanchana sA kAryA gruhItadhanushA tvayA (III.9.24)

"streechA-palAdEta-dudAhrutam mE dharma cha vaktum tava ka: samartha
vichArya buddhayA tu sahAnujEna yadrOchatE tatkuru mA chirENa 

(III.9.33)

"My Lord, I am not teaching you anything, I only remind you of what
you already know. Unfortunately in life some circumstances occur and
drive fruitful thoughts away from the mind. They go away to the
corner of your mind and it is necessary to bring them to the
forefront. I am doing that service. That is all I remind you, and I
am not teaching you.

"I submit this thought of mine to you. You may accept it or you may
reject it. Consult with your brother and then between the two of you,
decide the matter as seems to you both best. Being a woman and having
my mind constantly fixed on the duties of human tenderness and love,
I thought I should press this matter upon your attention".

(translation by Rt.Hon'ble Srinivasa Sastry "Lectures on the
Ramayana"-- circa 1944)

So prefacing her thoughts, Sita then launched into a magnificent
peroration which in the original Valmiki Ramayana appears as verses
9, 2-6, 9-10, 14-15 of the "Aranya kAndam", the translation of which
is dealt with most eloquently by the "silver-tongued orator"
Sri.Srinivasa Sastry.

Sita tells Rama:

"My Lord, there are three transgressions to which a man is liable
even when he makes a slight departure from 'dharma'. Lying or
uttering a falsehood is an important transgression. The other two are
even worse. One is violating the wife of another man. The other is
adopting force or resorting to violence towards a person without
proper provocation i.e. without a genuine cause. 

"Falsehood you, My Lord, would never utter, I know that for certain.
You have never done so in the past and you won't do so in future. And
no impropriety with another man's wife, certainly. (High-class
testimony from a wife indeed!). These two evils will never approach
you. But the third one, my Lord, the making of war or molesting
another person without provocation, is an evil which seems to have
approached you now. These rshi-s have told you that they are
suffering from the depredations of 'rakshAsa-s' (terrorists belonging
to an "axis of evil": Khara, Ravana and Indrajith) and have sought
your protection, and you have extended forthwith your protection to
them. But I ask you, What business is it of yours? It looks to me, my
Lord, that now both you and your brother, have taken license freely
into your hands and with these great weapons of yours, both of you
will now go into the forest and begin launching your offensive
against every 'rAkshasa' in sight! This is wrong, it is not
'dharma'."

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

At this point in the Ramayana, Sita makes bold to even narrate a
parable -- a morality tale -- to drive home her point to Rama! It is
recounted in Stanzas 19-22 of the "Aranya-kAnda".

"Once upon a time there lived a rshi who undertook severe 'tapa" --
penance -- and soon, as you know, the gods like Indra became
extremely jealous of him. Indra, in the disguise of a hunter, one day
came up to the rshi and handed him a magnificent but lethal sword and
said, "Sir, please keep this sword in your custody for a while until
I come back. I won't be long.". After Indra left, and the sword fell
into his possession, life began to change dramatically for the rshi.

(Like Mary and her little lamb), wherever the rshi went he took the
great sword along with him. Even when he went into the forest to
pluck fruits and herbs for his ascetic's meal, the rshi carried the
sword with him to make sure that it was safe in his custody. The sage
could never take his eyes off the magnificent, shining sword.
Gradually, the rshi began to even admire the weapon -- feeling its
cold, sharp edge, its brilliant steel and lethal looks. Feeling the
savage metal with tenderly with his fingers, the rshi thought to
himself "What dire execution this will do if it were in a brave man's
hands". 

Thus, slowly but surely, the man who had always had 'tapas' on his
mind began to find his mind wandering often into a weird fascination
over the sword. After a while, fascination turned into preoccupation?
and at last preoccupation turned into perverse obsession. "Tapa" and
"dharma" took a back seat and gradually, the rshi's pure mind began
to transmogrify into something sinister and cruel. His mind instead
of being filled with tender and pure thoughts became filled with
images and fantasies of gore, violence, savagery, blood and
ruthlessness. Wherever the rshi now turned to in the forests he saw
nothing but evil, violence and blood --- all being images associated
with the sword that the cunning Indra had left behind with the rshi,
with the sole and malicious intent of destroying the sage's 'tapas'?.

Having lost all power of his 'tapas' ? the rshi thus soon fell into
perdition! In the first place, the sage had never wanted the weapon
at all, poor fellow! The thing was left with him for safe-keeping,
but by constant association with the weapon, by its mere proximity,
the man fell from the eminence of innocence to the depth of cruelty
and paved the way to his own damnation.

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

After recounting the above story, Sita continued exhorting Rama:

"My lord, let not your assurance of protection to these rshis of
Dandakaranya, let not your taking up arms on their behalf against the
rAkshAsas, let not your constant preoccupation with the war that you
must wage on their behalf turn you into the rshi whom Indra turned
into a demon! Beware that when a 'kshatriya', trained to fight, finds
his weapons within reach all the time and ever ready to strike, or
when 'agni' constantly finds fuel nearby, then there is always danger
near at hand, for both the 'agni' and the 'kshatriya' are easily
provoked to an exhibition of their strength.

"This, my Lord, seems to me to be wrong. You are transgressing
'dharma'. Lest you forget, permit me to remind you that you have come
here into these forests primarily to lead the life similar to that of
a 'yati' or 'muni'. Remember, you are not a 'kshatriya' who is back
at home in Ayodhya ruling over a kingdom. You and Lakshmana did not
bring yourself here into the forests to turn yourself into a two-man
army for the rshis nor to serve them like hired, contract-killers ---
nor act as if your were self-appointed roving vigilantes of
DandakAranya!"

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

At this point in his lecture which was being delivered way back in
1944, the Rt'Hon'ble Srinivasa Sastry added a very insightful
commentary on Sita's story and its illuminating message on the
'dharma' of War and the disarmament of evil. I reproduce it below in
full since it is so admirably topical and so very apt for the
circumstances under which we here in Kuwait find ourselves in. Sita's
story also delivers an apt lesson for the whole world -- a lesson
that made eminent sense at end of the Second World War in 1944 just
as exactly as it makes sense today on the eve of the First War of the
21st century to begin in a few days:

"Now it seems to me", said Sri Srinivasa Sastry, "that we must
recognize there is truth in it (in what Sita told Lord Rama in the
"Aranya-kAnda")? The sight of anything harsh hardens Man's feelings.
Familiarity with cruel deeds, or even the entertainment of cruel
thoughts changes our nature. That is why, ladies and gentlemen, I am
disposed to disbelieve utterly, wholly and unreservedly, the
protestations that are now being made on behalf of nations that are
about to be victorious in this terrific war (Sastry was talking of
the WW-II, but his words would perfectly fit the Iraq-War today).
They think that the defeated nations should be disarmed and prevented
from being mischievous for generations to come. They call them the
aggressive nations (they call them "axis of evil" now). The
aggressive nations must be deprived of their armaments, but those
nations which are victorious and describe themselves as peace-loving
nations ought to have at their disposal enough forces at any time to
crush the insurgent-nations (today referred to as "rogue-nations").
Now look at that! The whole thing is utterly unscientific, to divide
nations of the world into war-like and peace loving. Most nations
that have come up and built up some kind of prosperity for themselves
have been war-like and warlike with a vengeance. How long ago was
Britain peace loving, or Russia? (Today we should ask the same
question of America). All these countries have enormous forces at
their disposal and cannot remain in peace. The very possession of
these forces will drive them into war. There is no mistaking this at
all. The division into warlike and peace loving nations is wrong.
Self-righteous nations describe themselves in that way in order that
they may justify their intention to remain armed and to keep other
nations disarmed! The proper thing is for no nation to be armed, and
to give the necessary weapons into the hands of an international
power. A discussion of that problem will take me far (from the
purpose of these lectures). But I want to tell you this, that this
story of Sita is a pointer. Although we may safely build this
proposition, that any nation that is armed to the teeth may be peace
loving for some time, for 5 or 10 years, or it may be so perhaps for
even one whole generation, you cannot guarantee that the next
generation or their children's children will also remain peace
loving. Such a state of things is foreign to human nature, foreign
certainly to well-armed human nature."

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

The Ramayana tells us that possession of evil weapons is inherently
wrong no matter in whose hands they are in -- whether a rshi or a
rAkshasa. And as Sita deftly points it out to Rama, it is not
'dharma' for even God Almighty to use His mighty weapons (of
mass-destruction) without provocation and just cause! 

The time perhaps has arrived when the world should be looking to
disarm those very nations that seek to keep their own weapons intact
on the pretext they are needed to disarm other "rogue-nations" in the
name of, and for the sake of peace! As the Rt Hon'ble Srinivasa
Sastry rightly said, "Although we may safely build this proposition,
that any nation that is armed to the teeth, may be peace loving for
some time, for 5 or 10 years, or it may be for one generation, you
cannot guarantee that the next generation or their children's
children will also remain peace loving. Such a state of things is
foreign to human nature, foreign certainly to well-armed human
nature."

Rama was easily 'disarmed' in the Valmiki Ramayana by Sita's soft but
wise words of counsel. But who will disarm the United States of
America -- the 'rshi' with the sword who has gone out of control?

Regards,

dAsan,
Sudarshan 




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