Musings on Jatayu & Category B
From the Bhakti List Archives
• December 11, 1996
srimathE lakshmi-nrsumha parabrahmaNe namaha sri vedanta desika guravE namaha Dear bhAgavatOttamAs, We now commence examining the questions related to 'Category B' equipped with the "Rt.Hon'ble Sastry Approach" explained in my last posting. We have with us, as well, the following 'shloka' #39 from the 'Raghuveera Gadyam' which serves as an excellent stage-setting or backdrop against which a proper perspective on the Jatayu episode emerges : "vikrama yashOlAbha-vikrIthajIvitha-grdhra-rAja-dEhadidhakshA-lakshita bhakthajanadAkshiNya !" A simple paraphrasing of the above verse into English will run, I think (Sanskrit scholars may correct me, if needed), as follows : "(O Rama), the Great Bird (Jatayu) won accolade for the whole tribe of the Valorous Ones of this world; and paid the price for it with its life in the bargain ! When you performed the last rites for that great warrior of a bird, O Rama, how clearly you revealed, indeed, which acts of devotees are those that merit and elicit your deep abiding affection for them !". Dear 'bhAgavatOttamAs', to truly understand the dramatic context and message of the 'Jatayu' incident in the 'Ramayana' or the 'Raghuveera-gadya' we need to begin by first reflecting briefly on the uneasy relationship between Man and the Animal world. We all know the relationship of man to his environment is not an easy one. And with the animal world it is even less symbiotic. Man since time immemorial has sought to subjugate and exploit the animal world. He enslaved the horse, the mule and the ox; he domesticated the dog, the cat, the cow and the bird for his own private and selfish purposes. In modern times we witness Man seeking to make (rapaciously sometimes) the animal world sub-serve his commercial needs. Thence come the mass-scale "industries" of poultry, bovine, equestrian and aqua-farming in today's world of global commerce. These "industries" are both a blessing and curse for mankind; "blessing" because Man seems to regard them as scientific ways to alleviate the problem of finding ever more food for the ever-growing population of the specie 'homo sapiens' on this planet; "curse" because these industries have had untold effects on the delicate ecology of our planet.They have brought in their wake large-scale human miseries and tragedies like the "mad-cow beef disease" from Britain that is presently raging in Europe or like the dangerous depletion of deep-sea life in our oceans or in the outbreak of unnamed diseases caused by the use of modern "animal-feed", "synthetic-protein" and bio-hi-technology. Even as you are reading this posting of mine, dear 'bhAgavatOttamAs', far away in the lush tropical forests of Indo-China, men are mercilessly hunting down animals as part of what is, as we all know, an ongoing international trade in fur, tusks, hides and other anatomical organs generating millions of dollars. It is this sort of brutal relationship created by man which, perhaps, is the reason why every known animal specie of the world, having lived to survive the long Darwinian march of evolution to this day and time, wholeheartedly shuns the society of Man. A bit like the great "rshis" of our ancestry, animals depend instead on the company of the quiet, wild and deep forests for nourishment, sustenance and well-being away from the harsh habitats of ordinary men. Now it is in the context of this deep and natural relationship, so fundamentally distrustful between Man and Animal --- it is in this real-life context that we must proceed to further examine the ethereal and touching bond that we know developed between Rama and Jatayu in the "aranyAkAndam". We shall atempt to do it in my next posting. srimathE srivan satagopa sri narayana yathindra mahadesikaya namaha sudarshan srimathE lakshmi-nrsumha parabrahmaNE namaha sri vedanta desika guravE namaha
- Next message: M K Sudarshan: "Jatayu and the Raghuveera Gadyam"
- Previous message: RANGASWAMY_at_plh.af.mil: "(no subject)"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]