Theme of Sundarakandam

Human Despair is indeed the predominant theme of
Valmiki's "sundara kAndam".

************ *****

Despair degrades the human spirit absolutely. There is
virtually no humanity left in a man who has lost all
hope in life or himself. The despairing soul travels
but one road: the road to slow self-destruction and
inevitable perdition.

Self-destruction and perdition take 2 forms. One is
Suicide and the other, Terrorism. One is mindless
violence directed against oneself. The other is
indiscriminate violence unleashed upon the world at
large. The pyschology and pathology of both the
suicidal as well as the terrorist mind-set is
portrayed vividly through the events and characters of
the "sundara-kaandam" in the Valmiki Ramayana.

************ ***

Rama's grief and despair over the separation from Sita
as described by Hanuman in the "sundara-kAndam" has
been briefly sketched in this series of postings
earlier (Posts #4 and #5). Clearly, from the story of
the Ramayana, we see how Rama's mind began seriously
and steadily degrading as he waited out the days and
months in the company of Lakshmana, alone in a dark,
cold cave outside the capital city of Sugriva's empire
in Kishkinda.

Rama was forlorn, frustrated and utterly hopeless.
Slowly but surely, his mind began falling apart under
very great emotional distress, until it almost
unhinged itself entirely. The despair of Rama was like
poison -- killing him slowly, corroding away his sense
of self, security and all hope in life.

The loss of Sita to Rama was more than merely loss of
a spouse or loved one. It was loss of meaning in life.
Raison d'etre -- the very reason for his existence --
became a matter of abject and philosophical doubt for
him. "Why should I continue living in this state? To
what purpose this life of mine if my Sita is lost
forever? What earthly purpose am I serving? What
desires do I have left in life? Why must I labour
forth in life, to what end, and to gain what
outcomes?". Such was the dire existential vacuum --
that shoreless sea of human despair -- in which Sri
Rama found himself floundering during the dark,
endless days and nights he spent alone in Kishkinda.

When we read these passages in the Ramayana, we are
instantly able to relate to Sri Rama's predicament,
and the agony of his profound despair. For it is a
state which we too -- ordinary men and women of this
sorry little world -- often find ourselves in, from
time to time, to greater or lesser degree as we might
want to imagine, in the many difficult situations we
encounter along our own respective paths in the long
journey of life. Despair is a universal human
condition. And even God Almighty, in his avatar in the
Ramayana, was powerless to except himself from it.

************ **

In that state of overwhelming Despair, Rama's mind
underwent a dramatic and unfortunate metastasis.

His despair slowly drove Rama's mind to begin
entertaining inhumane thoughts which his own good
nature would have under normal circumstances wholly
abhorred. It drove him to thought of malice and
malevolence, vengeance and mindless violence. A
temporary madness seized Rama, making his mind begin
harboring ideas and plots like those of a modern-day
terrorist.

We must turn to the passages of the "aranyA kAndam" of
the Valmiki Ramayana to understand this sudden and
ugly transformation of Rama's frame of mind. This is
what he says in a fit of fury one day to Lakshmana:

"tathAham krOdha samyukthO
na nivaryO'shiya samshayah
purEva may charudhatI manindatAm dishanti
seetAm yadi nAdya mythileem !
sadEva gandharva manushya pannagam
jagatsa-shailam parivartayAmyaham II "

(III. 64.75.78 Valmiki Ramayana)

"Lakshmana, I can wait no more! I am now going to take
law into my hands! No scourge on earth will be so
fierce and pitiless as I am going to be, I swear!

"I am up now and I swear nothing is going to stop me!
I am going to take full toll of all this world, all
this universe! I'm going to turn it all to ashes! I
will bring death and destruction everywhere! I have
beseeched everyone, every creature to show me where my
Sita is ... I have addressed the waters and streams,
the trees, the earth, the beasts and birds, but none
responds to me! None hears me or knows my grief, my
despair!

"And the gods too I have beseeched! They at least, O
Lakshmana, who see and know everything, surely they at
least should be able to tell me where perhaps Sita is
now languishing, and if she is well and safe! But
alas, they too remain silent and unmoved by my plight!
They conceal her from me!

"What should I do now but to use all the force at my
command to destroy all of them! I'm going to destroy
everything and everyone brutally in this world! If
they will not give her back to me, I shall surely be
destroyed but not before I have destroyed and wiped
them all too from the face of the world!"

************ **

Here, in the passages of the Ramayana, we see stark
confirmation of how even God's own mind, when in the
grip of profound, moral despair such as what possessed
Rama's, is indeed but only a step away from harboring
the black thoughts and baleful ideas which in the
world of the 21st century we live in today -- filled
as it is with hate, bloodshed and suffering, from Iraq
to Palestine, Afghanistan to Chechnya, from Bali to
Serbia -- it is those very same ideas that we have
come to associate with the "terrorist" mind-set, the
"anarchist's" manifesto and the "suicide bomber's"
armoury.

In his moment of supreme despair, Rama's mind without
doubt turned almost "terrorist". He swore he would
destroy everything in the world and reduce it all to
ashes! If we reflect deeply upon this matter, we see
that this line of thinking is not all that different
from that of the "suicide-bomber" today, say, in Iraq
or Palestine.

I have now lived and worked in Kuwait for the last 8
years. In the past 3 years, ever since the war in
next-door Iraq began wildly spiralling into the
deadly, unceasing cycle of mindless bloodshed it has
become today, I cannot recall a single day when I
opened a local newspaper in Kuwait and did not find a
news-report of another "suicide-bomber" blowing up a
dozen or more ordinary, innocent fellow-citizens in a
crowded Baghdadi vegetable market-place or a
bus-station.

As I read these daily reports of grim carnage in
Baghdad and the neighbouring provinces of Iraq, in
Sadr City or Tikrit -- or in Nablus or elsewhere in
occupied Palestine, for example -- I can't help asking
myself often: "What could possibly drive a man right
over the edge of humanity to think nothing at all of
strapping kilograms of lethal RDX around his waist,
walk into a crowded souk swarming with hundreds of his
own brethren, and then, in an instant within the wink
of an eye, detonate himself and all of them too ---
all of those poor innocent men, women and children --
unto death?"

The answer to that question I come up with always is:
Despair.

The "suicide-bomber" of the modern time, much like Sri
Rama in the passages of Srimadh Valmiki Ramayana, I
often find myself reflecting, is really not a man in
rage but a man in terminal Despair in life. His rage
springs not so much from loss of sanity but from loss
of hope in life, and loss of faith in the world as a
place worth cherishing or preserving.

The "suicide-bomber' s" violence is nothing but despair
that has turned itself into suicidal rage at the
world. Like Sri Rama, the poor Iraqi "suicide-bomber"
has had his own family taken away from him -- a wife
perhaps killed during a military bombing, a child
buried perhaps beneath beneath the rubble of a
school-building hit by sudden rocket-attacks, an old
mother who fled home to escape sectarian street-
violence and never returned and has never been seen
anywhere since....

Those are the sort of life-events in which the
"suicide-bomber" too lost his loved ones, and has
since then plunged into despair and a life-weariness
so deep and painful that he daily seeks escape from it
but simply cannot see a way out of it. He must hence
find a way out of it either in suicide or violent,
rampant destruction. ..

All this is in fact exactly as the Valmiki Ramayana
describes a human mind will react when caught up in
life in a vortex of soul-destroying despair...

************ ***

Fortunately, for Sri Rama in the Ramayana, in the
moment of extreme distress and despair when he
teetered precariously between humanity and
sub-humanity -- when he was caught in the cross-fire
of emotions good and evil, when he almost succumbed to
the mindless rage of a terrorist mind-set --
fortunately, he had his brother Lakshmana beside him
to prevail upon him with sage counsel and exercise a
measure of soothing, calming, sane influence.

In the story of the Ramayana, when it seems as though
Rama would simply go over the brink of despair, and
give way to the rage and violence seething within him,
we see his brother Lakshmana stepping in right in time
and pulling his brother away from the very edge of
tragic disaster which the other brother otherwise
would have certainly plunged into headlong in a
free-fall of moral degradation, as it were.

************ *

It is here that we must briefly digress. We must pause
to examine a line, a phrase from the famous Tamil hymn
of the Vaishnavite faith, the TiruppAvai of AndAl.

In the TiruppAvai, there is a well-known stanza in
which an extraordinary poetic phrase appears -- one of
the most quotable of lines, in fact, in the whole
hymn:

"pOginraarai pOgAmal kaathu..."

Now, in the specific thematic context of the
TiruppAvai itself, this line has been quite copiously
commentated upon by several scholars of Tamil
literature, Vaishnavite theologians and Vedantic
philosophers. But our present interest in this phrase
is not so much the theological or philosophical angle
as it is in its literal interpretation and application
in the context of the "sundara-kaandam" and the theme
of human Despair presently discoursed upon.

The literal meaning of the phrase "pOginraarai pOgAmal
kaathu..." means in simple English, "Pulling someone
back, just in the nick of time, from going away". It
means rescuing someone at the very last moment; saving
someone from going down a road to destruction;
effecting the rescue of someone at the very last
minute from grave moral disaster.

Now, when he saw his brother Rama sinking in despair
and his mind being slowly disfigured to begin
resembling the darkest side of a "terrorist's"
personality, Lakshmana immediately knew he had to step
in and play the restraining role of a moral estoppel.
In other words -- or more accurately, in the words of
the TiruppAvai -- Lakshmana knew he must pull Rama
back from the brink of a grave personal disaster --
i.e. "pOginraarai pOgAmal kaathu..."

Thus, it is that we see in the Ramayana, it falls to
the lot of Lakshmana, the younger brother, to save and
comfort the elder Rama. It is a somewhat unusual
incident in the Ramayana since throughout the epic on
many occasions, it is hotheaded and reckless Lakshmana
who is often reined in and reprimanded by Rama for
folly. But here the wonted position is reversed.

Lakshmana thus tells his brother: (III. 65.
4-6/66.18-19)

"ekasya naaparAdaath lOkaan hartUm tvamarhasi
budhischa tE mahAprAgnya devairapi duranvayA
shOkEnAbhi prasUptam tE gnAyanam sambhOdhayAm- yaham"

"Do not become a stranger to your own innate good
nature, Rama! Ravana has taken away your wife, but why
do you wish to punish the whole world and universe of
life for it? Is it the real you, the inner and true
man within Rama, who is saying these things as you do
now?

"Give up this boiling rage! Let us instead go about
now to somehow search and find Sita. Unable to bear
your grief, your despair, Rama, you have allowed
yourself and your good sense to go to sleep. Beware!
Go no further down this path! Pull back! This is not
the way for you to go. The world , the gods, the
creatures of the forests at large are not responsible
for your plight. They do not deserve to be the target
of your rage. They are not the cause of your despair
and condition...

"I'm only trying to awaken you, Rama, that's all. I'm
not trying to reprimand or redeem you, my dear
brother! Arise, shake off these grim thoughts that are
unworthy of you!"

************ ***
It is one of the most beautiful scenes described in
the Ramayana -- this particular scene where the Lord
Almighty in his avatar as Sri Rama is pulled away from
the edge of a moral precipice -- the perilous road
that leads to a "terrorist" way of thinking, to the
"terrorist" mind-set and moral position in life --- at
the very last minute indeed by Lakshmana.

And if ever we need no more than a single poetic
phrase to describe fully that poignant scene of the
Ramayana, we need look no further than borrow from the
TiruppAvai and say:

"pOginraarai pOgAmal kaathu..."

(to be continued)

Regards,
daasan,
Sudarshan MK


Our scriptures like the
Ramayana are not merely meant to be venerated as "holy
book". They are meant really to make us contemplate
and search ("dharmaa and brahma vichaara"). If we do
not recognize that fact, then it's really a waste of
time and we'd have lost a life-time of opportunity to
learn from life and grow wise.





Dear friends,

In this posting, the focus will be on the utter
Despair suffered by Sita-pirAtti in the
"sundara-kAndam" . This particular theme cannot really
be studied without also examining at the same time,
rather closely, the dark side of the human mind --
the psychology of suicide.

While despair led Sri Rama to contemplate -- and very
nearly actually perpetrate -- mindless violence and
terror on the world at large (as discussed in the
previous post), Sita's despair drove her in the
opposite direction -- i.e. inflicting mindless
violence on herself to the very extreme end by taking
out her life herself.

************ *

Chapter 28 of the 'sundara-kaanda' is a stunningly
poignant one in the whole of the canto. It depicts the
moving scene where Sita soliloquizes on her sorry
plight, her tragic fate in life, her utter sense of
helplessness, her terminal weariness in life and the
desire to end her misery once and for all.

Ravana meets her in the Asokavana and in spite of his
best efforts to make her yield to his advances, is
rebuffed outright by Sita. Utterly enraged with her
rejection, the King of Lanka gives her a 2-month
reprieve in which to change her mind. "After that, O
Mythili" he tells her menacingly, "if you are not
mine, surely you will be none else's spouse either.
You shall certainly die here in Lanka".

Later, after Ravana leaves, and her 'rAkshasi'
prison-guards fall off to sleep at their stations, and
she is left all alone in the deathly desolation of the
Asokavana, it is then in the eerie stillness of the
night that Sita's heart finally cracks and sorrow
gushes out in a torrent. She laments. And the
following words come forth out of her like a grim mist
of hot and abundant tears that drops out of the
morning sky:

mOghA hi dharmascharitO mayAyAm
tathiaka-patneetvam idam nirartham
yA tvAm na pashyAmi krushA vivarNA heenA tvayA
sangamanE nirAshA

"Separated from you, O Rama, reduced to bones, with no
blood in this royal body of mine, and having no
further hope of ever meeting you, I who am your chaste
wife, look at the desperate situation I'm in now! Of
what use now is our love for each other? The vow of
fidelity I observed, and the rule of monogamy that you
have been observing, O Rama, have both become really
meaningless and vain."

************

Dukham bathEdam mama dukhitAyA mAsow
chirAyAdhi-gamishya thO dhvOw
Baddhasya vadhyasya tathA nishAthE rAjAparAdhAdiva
taskarasya

"Just as the waiting prisoner on death-row, before the
fateful day of his execution arrives, feels the hours
of the previous night drag too long and agonizingly,
so will it be unbearable to me too, this period of 2
months given as reprieve by Ravana to me! How shall I
survive these days? And why?"

************ ******

Ananya-devatmiyam kshamA cha bhoomow cha shayyA
niyamascha dharmE
pativratAtvam viphalam mamEdam krutam krutagnOshviva
mAnushANAm

"Just as a good deed done unto an ungrateful man
proves to be of no use at all, so too does my vow of
chastity -- that which made me look upon you, O Rama,
as my God, that which made me willingly go to sleep on
the hard and bare floor in my present state of
imprisonment here and that which has kept me till now
on the path of duty as a chaste wife to you --- that
vow, O Rama, has now proved futile."

************

Sa jIvitam kshipramaham tyajEyam vishENa shastrEna
shitEna vaapi
Vishasya dAtA na hi mEsti kaschit shastrasya vA
vEshmani rAkshasasya

"I really ought to have have ended my life long ago! I
should have hastened my end with a draft of poison or
plunged some sharp instrument into my breast as soon
as I was brought into Lanka. Why did I wait this long
in the hope that I might again set my eyes upon you, O
Rama! In this city of violent and heartless rakshasAs,
alas, what cruel irony, there was none however to
bring me either poison or sword that I could have used
upon myself."

************ **

naivAsti dOsham mama noonamatra
vadhyA-hamasyA- priya-darshanasy a
bhAvam na chAsyA-hamanu- pradAtumalam- dvijO
mantramivAdvijAya

"So I shall commit suicide this very instant. It is
not at all sinful for one like me to take my life.
Just as a noble person refuses to impart the Vedas to
one who is not a "twice-born" , I am not going to
submit myself to the unworthy intentions of this
Ravana who has lost his senses over me."

************ *****

Bitter and tragic are Sita's words indeed. When one
reads Valmiki's account of this scene in the
"sundara-kaandam" one can't help shedding tears and
suppressing a lump that rises up in our throats.

Sita then continues:

?Hard must be my heart that preyed upon by misery and
though abandoned by hope, it still continues to beat
and endures when it ought to have shattered to pieces
already.?

?If I am not destined to look upon you ever again,
Rama, and if I must fade away without hope, disfigured
in body and spirit and utterly dejected, what good has
my unwearied practice of dharma done to me, or the
steadfast devotion of my soul to my husband?

"Ah woe to me! I?ll perish in this woe-begone plight,
but you O Rama, at the end of the 14th year of exile
that shall soon arrive, having obeyed the paternal and
royal command to the letter, and with a mind
disburdened and self-complacent, O Rama, you will
surely return triumphantly to Ayodhya, take new wives
for yourself, bedeck them with rich jewels and live
with them happy and free from care... won't you?"

"My heart surrendered to you while yet a little girl
from Mithila and dwelling in you all these years in
perfect joy and contentment -- tell me, what hardship,
miseries and indignities have I indeed not suffered
for your sake? And yet, alas, eveything has gone in
vain, and I must die forlorn and unwept.

"Why should I drag this wretched existence anymore? I
can and shall end it now??

************ **

The "sundara-kaandam" then narrates how Sita resolved
then and there to end her life -- under the
'sisumshpa" tree in the groves of the Asokavana... .
using her long beautiful tresses -- coiling them
around her neck like a hangman's sephulcral noose....

************ *

What was the state of Sita's mind in those dark
moments of that fateful night in Lanka? What drove her
to suicide? When a man and woman are separated from
each other as Rama and Sita were, what happens to
their inner beings that it simply loses all sense of
purpose and meaning in life? Why? Can a man and woman
in this mortal world love each other ever so intensely
and truly as Rama and Sita did? Isn't the
sundara-kaandam truly a great love-story? What indeed
is the true nature of "pati-vratatvam" , the vow of
conjugal fidelity? Is it really such a great human
ideal as the "sundara-kaanda" portrays it to be?.....

Such indeed are the questions that naturally arise in
our minds after reading the great and tragic soliloquy
of Sita-pirAtti in the sundara-kaandam" .

IN the next posting we will discuss those questions in
greater detail.

Regards,
daasan,

Sudarshan MK

Warm Regards,
Sudarshan