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Vali Vadham 45

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Hari Krishnan • December 19, 2002 


Inclusive or exclusive?


Take a look at the Sloka once again.  The chain that Vali was wearing **preserved the life, vital energy and grace** of Vali.   That indicates that the power of the chain was still active and only due to this fact that Vali was still breathing though he was mortally wounded.  Now, Rama appears before him with his bow along with Lakshmana and Vali starts his arguments with him.  That is, the opponent of Vali was facing him now.  If the chain that Vali was wearing had an all encompassing, blanket power, it is only plain and obvious that it should have transferred at least half the energy - if not full - of Rama to Vali now.  In that case, Vali should have stood up.  Why was it that Vali was still lying down on the ground?  Why could he not stand up with the power that the chain should have transmitted to him from Rama?

It has to be remembered that Vali was wounded and was not dead when Rama saw him.  Therefore there is no evidence to suspect that his receptivity to such transfer of strength has ceased completely.  

Consider this against the boon (not instrument of protection) that Hanuman had received.  The story has it that in his boyhood Hanuman leapt up to the sun, imagining it to be some fruit and Indra had to intervene and use his Vajrayudha, considered to be the deadliest of weapons, on him.  Though it stopped him, it did not affect him.  'porindhu imayOr kOn vachira paaNam puga moozhga erindhuzhi' When Indra threw his Vajrayudha at you and even though it struck you with such force, 'itru Or pun mayirEnum izhavaadheer' it didn't do any harm to you.  You didn't even lose a single strand of hair.  This was how Jambavan reminds Hanuman of this incident later.  

Another example is that of Basmasura, who obtained a boon from Lord Shiva to the effect that he who is touched by Basmasura should turn to ashes.  And then the asura tried to test the boon on Lord Shiva himself and the Lord had to keep away from him until Lord Vishnu devised a way out of the situation. 

Therefore, boons are more powerful than such instruments of protection and what Vali had received was not a boon and was only a tool to protect him.  What I want to stress again is these instruments of protection have their own limitations and are not operable in certain specific circumstances.  They are not like boons that grant protection against anyone at any time.  

The fact that the chain of Indra that Vali was wearing did not rejuvenate him, even though his opponent was facing him now shows without doubt that Rama was beyond its purview.  And therefore there is no evidence to justify the argument that Rama hid behind the tree to ward off the effect that his presence would have on Vali and that he could not have succeeded if he had faced Vali.  When even Mayavi could resist Vali for 28 long months against the magical power of the chain, there is no reason to believe that Rama could not have succeeded against Vali, had he faced him.  
 
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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