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Krishnaswamy • December 31, 2002 


Dear Devotees,

Shri M.G. Vasudevan has mentioned in his latest post:

"On Sunday 22.12.2002 in the Hindu magazine section, in his coverage Sri Gopal gandhi,  remembering the great statesman Sri C.Rajagopalachari stated following sentence connected to our topic. 
Sri CR is "a devotee of raamaa who could yet say that the killing of vaali by the prince of ayOdhyaa was and will remain indefensible".

In this context, members might read what Rajaji has said on this subject in his book on Ramayana published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan:

" 'All who are born must die. This is the law. I do not therefore grieve for my death. Still, your sin is great in killing me in this treacherous way.'  Vaali, son of Indra, reproached Raama thus with his dying breath. And all this is fully set out by Vaalmeeki, the divine poet, as well as by Kamban.  Against this accusation what defence could Raama offer?
Vaalmeeki has it that Raama gave some explanation with which Vaali was satisfied. But I am omitting all this as pointless and pray that the learned may forgive me. What I think is that an avataar is an avataar and that among the sorrows that the Lord and His consort had to endure in their earthly incarnation, this liability to have their actions weighed on the earthly scale is a part. .............................................................. 
..................................................................................................... 
Raama erred in running after the magic deer to please his wife. Consequent to this, difficulties and sorrows and conflicts of duty pursued him. If we keep in mind that when God takes a lower and limited form by His own ordinance, limitations follow and we should not be confused thereby. This is my humble view as against other explanations propounded by the pious."

Instead of "weighing Shri Raama's actions on the earthly scale", Narayana Bhattathiri, in his Narayaneeyam, has suggested that it is possible to read the narration of Raama's actions with devotion and benefit by considering that the Lord attempted to teach us through some actions like Sita's agni-pareeksha as 'negative role-modelling' --  a sort of 'don't do this' advice. He states: "Otherwise, it is unimaginable how Thou, who art ever established in the Atman-consciousness, canst ever have any weakness of the mind." 

Dasan
M.K. Krishnaswamy






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