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Muisngs on sitA's agni-pravEsam#5

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sudarshan • November 22, 1998 


Dear Sri.Mani Varadarajan,
Thank you for your comments on my post and the quote from Swami Desikan's
Raghuveera-gadyam. Your observations, yes, are not relevant to the general
drift of my series of posts but I might as well respond now than later. 

In my post I had written: "The great "superior" humans of Ayodhya ---- they
whom Swami Desikan undeservingly hailed in his "Raghuveera-gadyam" as
"sAketha janapada jani Dhanika jangama taditara jantu-jAta ....".

It's really incredible how one can see in the above statement an
"unfortunate misinterpretation" of Swami Desikan !!  

I hope the real meaning of what I wrote is clear at least to to you 

i.e. 

those "beings" of AyOdhya who spoke such low, lurid and unspeakable things
about Rama and Sita ..... those beings who therefore, we can say, were 
undeserving of the grace of Rama and Sita ..... it is those very same
"beings" who, all the same, were elevated by the Lord and given "divya
gathi" ..... 

In this particular line of Swami Desikan there is clear emphasis on the
largesse of the Lord's plenary Grace.... of how he unstintingly "donated"
it ....  "divya-gathi-dAna......" "nitya nisseema vaibhava..".

When we ask ourselves what moved the Lord to such extravagant generosity
what can we say? 

We can only surmise it is because the subjects of Ayodhya were His
subjects..... and, after all, it is but the "dharma" of a King to give
generously to his subjects irrespective of their dispositions and even if
they are not all truly deserving of such generosity. The only qualification
they need possess to deserve the Lord's largesse of Grace is that they are
mere citizens of Saket.... and are thus somehow associated with Him. For
heightened poetic effect, Swami Desikan includes even non-sentient things
("jangama-poruL") in Ayodhya which were in a way associated too with the
citizenry.

This is the true meaning of the line from the "gadyam".

The extra-ordinary beauty of the poetic sentiment of this line in the
gadyam is that all residents of Saket --- whether inert or living --- i.e.
jani-dhanika-jangama taditara jantujAtha --- may have behaved in a hurtful
way to Rama and Sita.... by speaking ill of Her virtue.... but no matter,
the Lord carried out His "dharma" as King to the very last----- He
delivered His beloved subjects all without exception unto a state of
exaltation, the "divya-gati".

One of your other members,Sri.Sriram Ranganathan points out to me,"I
personally feel Swami Desikan (as Sri Mani indicated ) does not
specifically refer to 'only' the humans but generically 'everything' that
*lived* (*existed*)  and *walked* ( *displaced, progressed, transited....."
etc.

Yes, I agree. But so what? What is exactly the point being made here? In
what way have I "misinterpreted" this?!! I wish the member would temper his
comments with careful thought before making them.

Trust this clarifies.

Sudarshan