SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
The following is transcribed from SrI u vE sArathy thOthAthri swAmy’s ‘SrI rAmAyaNa thani SlOkam’ grantha kAlakshEpam.
emperumAn has made many incarnations, of which SrI rAma avathAram is the most beloved for many people. Many of our AzhwArs and AchAryas have also glorified emperumAn’s SrI rAma avathAram in many of their works.
nammAzhwAr glorifies SrI rAma in thiruvAimozhi – 7.5.1:
kaRpAr irAma pirAnai allAl maRRum kaRparO?
puRpA mudhalAp pul eRumbAdhi onRinRiyE
naRpAl ayOththiyil vAzhum sarAsaram muRRavum
naRpAlukku uyththanan nAnmuganAr peRRa nAttuLE
Simple meaning for the above pAsuram – anyone who wishes to learn, can learn everything by just learning about SrI rAma, because SrI rAma through his actions has portrayed the essence of all the SAsthrams. During this avathAram, he uplifted all living beings in ayOdhya.
nammAzhwAr again enjoys the glory of SrI rAma avathAram in thiruvAimozhi – 7.5.2:
nAttil piRandhavar nAraNaRkAL anRi AvarO
nAttil piRandhu padAdhana pattu manisarkkA
nAttai naliyum arakkarai nAdith thadindhittu
nAttai aLiththuyyach cheydhu nadandhamai kEttumE
Simple meaning – referring to SrI rAma as nArAyaNa, AzhwAr describes – in this incarnation, he took the form of a human and experienced many hardships not out of karma, but just assumed those and went through those hardships to show to the people of this world as to how one is able to live a proper life without harming one’s true self.
emperumAn has established a system whereby the humans worship the dhEvathAs through sacrifices and in return for those sacrifices, the dhEvathAs provide benefits like rain which are required for growing crops to satisfy the human needs. Such a system is established by emperumAn for the world to function properly in harmony.
The dhEvathAs, however, do not prefer to mingle within this earthly planet and even when receiving their portion of sacrifice, turn away their faces and do not look directly (considering the earthly planet to be inferior). emperumAn who is dhEvAdhi dhEvan (one who is superior to all the dhEvathAs), out of compassion, desires to incarnate as a human in this earthly planet which is looked down upon by the dhEvathAs to help those dhEvathAs in trouble. Such is the greatness of SrI rAma avathAram. The glories of this SrI rAma avathAram has been written by bhagavAn vAlmIki as SrI rAmAyaNam. SrI rAmAyaNam is celebrated as Adhi kAvyam, i.e., first literature, encompassing the entire life history of SrI rAma. In these 24000 SlOkams, the greatness of mother sIthA, bharathAzhwAn, lakshmaNAzhwAn, SathrugnAzhwAn, hanumAn, sugrIvAzhwAn, vibhIshaNAzhwAn are also portrayed by vAlmIki bhagavAn. SrI rAmAyanam also describes in detail about SaraNAgathi SAsthram (complete surrender to bhagavAn).
By the grace bestowed by brahmA, vAlmIki muni receives the ability to see lucidly all the events and emotions which happen in SrI rAma’s life. With this grace, vAlmIki bhagavAn writes the entire life history of SrI rAma.
The story begins with nAradha bhagavAn’s visit to vAlmIki bhagavAn’s ASrama. (The word bhagavAn signifies the Supreme being (SrIman nArAyaNa) who is complete in six opulences or qualities: strength, fame, wealth, knowledge, beauty, and renunciation. Here, bhagavAn is used in terms of respect and honor to address spiritual gurus/rishis and muni). vAlmIki bhagavAn welcomes nAradha bhagavAn with great respect; he then inquires and asks a question to nAradha bhagavAn: Who is that man possessing all the qualities and virtuous character, and considered the ideal man in the world? nAradha thinks for a moment and being reminded about SrI rAma, is emotionally unable to answer immediately. So he first meditates upon the answer and then begins to answer. He then tells vAlmIki that a man named SrI rAma is born in the ikshvAku dynasty and that he has all the qualities enquired by him. nAradha bhagavAn then summarises and recites the entire history of SrI rAma’s life.
He starts by describing the hardships faced by the world and the dhEvathAs’ prayers to Lord vishNu for help and perumAL’s promise to help them. To fulfil this promise, he decides to incarnate as SrI rAma. It begins with king dhaSaratha, after ruling for 60,000 years, performing aSwamEdha yAgam followed by puthrakAmEshti yAgam, desiring to have a son. A dhEvan (celestial being) appears out of the yAgam- fire sacrifice and provides king dhaSaratha with a pAyasam [a drink made of rice, milk and jaggery] to be given to his wives. The wives, after consuming the yagya prasAdham, give birth to four children – SrI rAma, bharatha, lakshmaNa, and Sathrughna.
These four children grow up. One day, sage viSwAmithra visits king dhaSaratha and requests the king to send SrI rAma with him to the forest to protect his yAgam [a ritual]. The brothers SrI rAma and lakshmaNa follow viSwAmithra to the forest and help viSwAmithra to complete his yAgam. Then sage viSwAmithra takes them to king janaka’s palace where SrI rAma breaks the bow and marries sIthAp pirAtti. They return to ayOdhyA; SrI rAma along with sIthAp pirAtti lives happily in ayOdhyA for many years .
Then, one day, king dhaSaratha takes a decision to coronate SrI rAma. On hearing that, kaikEyi, influenced by mantharA (kaikEyi’s servant), is instilled with fear and resentment towards bhagavAn SrI rAma. She requests king dhaSaratha to fulfil the two boons which were given to her previously by him – with one boon, she asks for bharatha to be crowned and with the other boon, she requests SrI rAma to be exiled. King dhaSaratha with a heavy heart conveys this message and SrI rAma readily agrees; accompanied by sIthAp pirAtti and lakshmaNa, SrI rAma proceeds to the forest to spend 14 years in exile.
bharatha, when he becomes aware of the events which had unfolded, immediately desires to meet SrI rAma and resolve the situation. But SrI rAma refuses to return and accept the crown; instead he gives his pAdhukAs (his divine footwear) to bharatha. After the meeting with bharatha, SrI rAma then proceeds further into dhandakAraNyam forest.
In the forest he gives assurance to the rishis to remove their suffering and to protect them from the asuras. While he destroys many asuras in the forests, one day sUrpaNakA, captivated by the beauty of SrI rAma, approaches SrI rAma and lakshmaNa. She becomes angry when SrI rAma and lakshmaNa do not show any interest towards her. She thinks that sIthAp pirAtti is the reason for their disinterest towards her and tries to harm sIthAp pirAtti. lakshmaNa, very quickly, at the prompting of SrI rAma, cuts off sUrpaNakA’s ears and nose. sUrpaNakA flees to her brothers kara and dhUshaNa to rescue her and explains her situation. SrI rAma single-handedly destroys kara and dhUshaNa and their army of rAkshasas.
After this incident, SrI rAma, along with sIthAp pirAtti and lakshmaNa move to a different part of the forest to spend their remaining time in exile. In the meanwhile, sUrpaNakA goes to rAvaNa and provokes him to take revenge for the destruction of kara and dhUshaNa. It is at this juncture that rAvaNa sends mArIcha disguised as a deer. Captivated by the deer’s beauty, sIthAp pirAtti requests SrI rAma to get her that deer. At the request of sIthAp pirAtti, SrI rAma goes after the deer, kills mArIcha disguised as the deer. But in the meantime, lakshmaNa follows SrI rAma when he hears mArIcha crying out for help in SrI rAma’s voice. rAvaNa approaches sIthAp pirAtti when she is alone and kidnaps her.
jatAyu mahArAja tries to stop rAvaNa on his way but rAvaNa cuts off his wings and proceeds. SrI rAma and lakshmaNa in despair, search for sIthAp pirAtti everywhere in the forest. They meet jatAyu mahArAja and learn about what had happened and upon his direction, proceed to meet sugrIva mahArAja. On the way, SrI rAma kills kabandhan, but before dying kabandhan tells SrI rAma to meet Sabari for further directions to meet sugrIva mahArAja. Sabari, who has been waiting for a long time to meet SrI rAma is delighted to meet them. She welcomes and feeds SrI rAma with different fruits which were gathered by her with lots of love. After that, she leaves her body and ascends to paramapadham. SrI rAma and lakshmaNa proceed as per Sabari’s direction to meet sugrIvA. On their way to meeting sugrIvA, they meet hanumAn. Upon seeing SrI rAma, he immediately realises that he is the parabrahmam; instantaneously he becomes a devout servant of SrI rAma, carries them on his shoulders and introduces them to sugrIva mahArAja. SrI rAma makes a friendship bondage with sugrIva mahArAja and promises to protect sugrIva by killing sugrIva’s brother vAli. Upon vAli’s death, sugrIva is made the king. SrI rAma continuously laments for sIthAp pirAtti in the forest and waits for the monsoon months to be over while sugrIva enjoys his regained kingdom.
During this time, the monsoon months are over, but sugrIva forgets to begin the search for rescuing sIthAp pirAtti; so, SrI rAma angrily sends lakshmaNa to remind sugrIva of his duties. sugrIva quickly realises his mistake and sends his army of monkeys in different directions in search of sIthAp pirAtti. At that time, SrI rAma desires in his heart for hanumAn to find sIthAp pirAtti and hence gives his ring (kaNaiyAzhi) to hanumAn to be given to sIthAp pirAtti as a mark of identification when he finds her. hanumAn then travels south and meets sampAthi (jatAyu’s elder brother). sampAthi from his location was able to see sIthAp pirAtti, far off in lankA, and communicates to hanumAn and other monkeys to go in the direction of lankA. While all the monkeys contemplated how to cross the ocean, jAmbavAn reminds hanumAn of his abilities and encourages hanumAn to go across the ocean. hanumAn, then takes off for lankA from the top of mahEndhra giri mountain while the other monkeys wait for his return on the other side of the coast.
hanumAn crosses the ocean and finds sIthAp pirAtti in aSOka vanam and hands over the kaNaiyAzhi to sIthAp pirAtti. He then meets rAvaNa and instructs rAvaNa to return sIthAp pirAtti to SrI rAma. Enraged by this, as per rAvaNa’s order, indhrajith and other associates of rAvaNa set fire to hanumAn’s tail. hanumAn uses this opportunity to destroy lankA with this fire and instills fear among the asuras. He then crosses the ocean again and meets SrI rAma and others; he comforts SrI rAma with his message about sIthAp pirAtti’s presence. Then SrI rAma and lakshmaNa along with the entire army of monkeys travel and reach the southern coast. While they contemplate about how to cross the ocean, vibhIshaNa AzhwAn comes to the coast and surrenders to SrI rAma. SrI rAma accepts his SaraNAgathi (surrender) and asks his suggestion about how to cross the ocean. Based on vibhIshaNa AzhwAn’s suggestion, SrI rAma does SaraNAgathi to samudhra rAjan (varuNan) to give way for them to cross the ocean. When he does not receive any response, SrI rAma takes his bow and arrow in anger. Upon seeing SrI rAma’s anger, samudhra rAjan appears before SrI rAma, offers repentance and gives his approval to build a bridge to cross the ocean. Then, with the guidance of nalan and neelan, all the monkeys together build the bridge and cross the ocean.
Upon arrival in lankA, SrI rAma sends angadhan as a peace messenger to rAvana and gives rAvana an opportunity to repent and correct his mistakes (until this point, many, including mother sIthA, vibhIshaNa AzhwAn, hanumAn, angadhan, mArIchan, kumbhakarNan, and maNdOdhari have all tried to give upadhEsam [instruction] to rAvaNa) But because of his pApa prAchuryam (excessive amount of sins) his thoughts and actions were unrighteous and immoral and therefore he continued to make mistakes. In the battle, rAvaNa loses everything, including his weapons, so SrI rAma gives him another opportunity to go back to his palace and return, hoping that rAvaNa might have a change of mind. But he comes back the next day and fights with SrI rAma and SrI rAma destroys him finally. After that, SrI rAma and sIthAp pirAtti are united.
SrI rAma coronates vibhIshaNa AzhwAn and all of them (vibhIshaNa AzhwAn along with all the monkeys) come back to ayOdhyA and SrI rAma pattAbhishEkam takes place in ayOdhyA.
The entire story of SrI rAmAyaNam is thus briefly revealed in the first chapter of bAla kANdam; and is called samkshEpa rAmAyaNam.
After hearing from nAradha bhagavAn about SrI rAma, vAlmIki rishI along with his Sishya, bharadhwAja muni, goes to the banks of river thamasA to perform his morning rituals. There he sees two krauncha birds as a couple and as he watches them, a hunter kills one of the birds. vAlmIki is deeply saddened on seeing this and utters a SlOkam cursing the hunter. He then returns to his ASramam regretting about this. At that time, brahmA visits his ASramam and explains that there was a reason behind what happened at the riverbank; and that the SlOkam uttered by vAlmIki will be the first SlOkam of SrI rAmAyaNam. He then bestows vAlmIki with a vision to see all the events in SrI rAma’s life ‘as it is’ and to write them as SrI rAmAyaNam; and this is where SrI rAmAyaNam begins. vAlmIki writes SrI rAmAyaNam and teaches it to SrI rAma’s children kuSa and lava, who sing these as songs and spread the glory of SrI rAma everywhere.
The birth of SrI rAma thus begins with the dhEvathAs praying to Lord vishNu for protection and perumAL deciding to incarnate as the son of King dhaSaratha.
King dhaSaratha and sage vasishta approach rishyaSringa rishI to perform aSwamEdha yAgam and puthrakAmEshti yAgam. King daSaratha distributes the pAyasam (sweet porridge) received from the yAgam amongst his three wives kausalyA, kaikEyi and sumithrA. Sage vasishta, their kula guru, does nAma samskAram and teaches them everything that is required for the princes; he names kausalyA’s son as SrI rAma (one who attracts everyone by his beauty), kaikEyi’s son as bharatha (one who considers even ruling a kingdom as a burden), and sumithrA’s two sons as lakshmaNa (one who has kainkaryam as his wealth) and Sathrughna (one who has conquered everything that is against bhAgavatha kainkaryam).
The children learn everything and grow up as princes when one day, sage viSwAmithra comes to visit king dhaSaratha. He explains to the king about the obstacles caused by the rAkshasAs while performing his yagyam [ritual] and requests the king to send SrI rAma and lakshmaNa with him to the forest to protect his yagyam. King dhaSaratha upon hearing this, out of love towards SrI rAma, immediately loses his consciousness. Sage viSwAmithra then explains to dhaSaratha that there is nothing to worry about the safety of SrI rAma, since he is aware that SrI rAma is none other than the parabrahmam himself; and utters the following SlOkam.
bAla kANdam 19.14:
aham vEdhmi mahAthmAnam rAmam sathyaparAkramam |
vasishtOpi mahAthEjA yE chEmE thapasi sthithA: ||
In the next article, we will see the meaning for the above SlOkam in detail, as per periyavAchchAn piLLai’s explanation.
Source –
https://www.youtube.com/live/xJpAWpn1Tvc?si=28b3XAAO3gM9XyM_
adiyEn chithra rAmAnuja dhAsi
Proofreading/Curating done by – kOsalEndhra rAmAnuja dhAsan, krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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