Search:
Bhakti List Archives

Musings on "araNyA-kAndam" of Desikan

From the Bhakti List Archives

M K Sudarshan • December 20, 1996 


srimathE lakshmi-nrsumha parabrahmaNe namaha
sri vedanta desika guravE namaha

Dear bhAgavatOttamA-s,

Lord Rama is "caught", as it were, by Swami Desikan in Verse#28, being in an
unusually chirpy and sunny mood !! We examined this elated mood of the Lord
in my last posting through the phrase "jhangamapArijAtha" which seems to
suggest that Rama was unceasingly exuding a magnetic CHARM wherever he went
about in the Dandaka groves.

Now I say, dear 'bhAgavatOttama-s', that the Lord was in such a wonderfully
expansive mood because He was, at THAT POINT OF TIME in Dandaka, in deep and
rapturous Love. For the FIRST TIME in His life, perhaps, the Lord seemed to
have realised the true depths of His amorous feelings for his bride,
"Sita-pirAtti". The well-springs of latent Love erupted forth, throbbed in
His Heart and spread so much Romance and Goodness all around Him that He
couldn't help feeling "giddy with Love" (to use a modern idiom!); He
couldn't help it all, really, if it showed in His face or even in mere
bodily movements; He couldn't also help it that the "glow of romance" He
felt deep within Himself all rubbed off on the lovely Dandaka environs He
and His beloved Consort roamed in !! 

It is that idyllic exuberance of the true and heady lover, which the Lord
certainly was, that I think is captured by Desikan, the leonine poet, in
Verse#28!!

Now we need to understand why the Lord felt so exhilirated. And it is easy
indeed given the dramatic context of the 'Raghuveera-gadyam' towards the end
of the 'ayOdhyA- kAndam' and more specifically from Verse#23 through Verse#26.

Let us pause for a moment and re-trace our steps to three singular stanzas:

     Verse #23 : bharadwAjashAsana parigrhIta- vichitra- chitrakootagiri-
kattathata ramyAvasatha!

Here the verse describes how the Lord built for Himself and His darling
bride a beautiful cottage atop a secluded hillock in the verdant woods.

     Verse #25 : praNatha bharatha makuttathata sughattitha
pAdukAgrayAbhishEka                  nirvarthitha sarvalOka yogakshEma !

In this verse is recorded that Lord Rama performed the "pAdukA" coronation
of Bharatha and completed thereby the legal and constitutional formalities
related to delegation of those powers needed by his brother for effective
political governance of Ayodhya. 

     Verse #26 : pishitaruchi vihita durita balamathana-thanaya
balibhuganugathi                  sarabhasa shayana thruNashakala
paripathanabhaya chakitha                       sakala suramunivara
bahumatha mahAsrasAmarthaya !

In this verse Swami Desikan describes the pathetic fate that summarily
befell Kakasuran, the sinful crow, for casting covetous and ravenous eyes on
"pirAtti's" flesh.

Dear 'bhAgavatOttama-s', we have now firmly and clearly identified the
dramatic context of stanza #28 in the 'aranyA-kAndam', as contained in the
above 3 verses of the 'ayodhya-kAndam'--- and all from the same 'gadyam'!!

We can now proceed to use the "Rt.Hon'ble Sastry Approach" to examine how
the 3 verses provide the basis for the great theme of "love" that the
"giddy" Lord Rama demonstrated in the Dandaka woods and as revealed by Verse#28.

We shall do so in my next posting.

srimathe srivan satagopa sri narayana yatindra mahadesikaya namaha

sudarshan



    
srimathE lakshmi-nrsumha parabrahmaNE namaha
sri vedanta desika guravE namaha