{"id":25125,"date":"2020-02-19T19:12:58","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T15:12:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=25125"},"modified":"2020-02-19T19:12:58","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T15:12:58","slug":"when-love-blindfolds-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/when-love-blindfolds-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"When love blindfolds truth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><u>Tree of Knowledge<\/u><\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>By Niranjana KarthigaiRajan<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We look upon the Omnipotent Lord as our sole protector. However, for a few others, it is the other way around: out of their sheer love and compassion towards the Lord they take efforts to protect Him, see Him as the Supreme.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Darling to Dasaratha<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In the Ramayana, for King Dasaratha Sri Rama wasn&#8217;t the Supreme; rather Sri Rama was just his darling son. When sage Vishwamitrar entered King Dasaratha&#8217;s courtroom, he welcomed the sage with warmth and promised him to offer whatever he desired. Upon the sage asking Dasaratha to send Rama to stand as guard during his penance, Dasaratha was taken aback and refused, saying:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>&#8220;Una sodasa varso\u00a0<strong>me Ramaha rajiva locanaha<\/strong> |<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>na yuddha yogyatam isya pasyami saha raksasaihi || &#8220;<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This means, &#8220;<strong>My son Rama<\/strong> has not even completed 16 years of age to be fit to fight the demons on the battlefield&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8220;Me Ramaha&#8221; (My Rama) has been given some deeper interpretations by Sri Periyavachan Pillai (born in 1167) in his work<em> Sri Ramayana Thanislokam<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">To list a few:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">As my son Rama is still a lad, there is no possibility for him to know <em>Dhanur Veda<\/em>(A Veda relating to the art of archery).\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8220;Me Ramaha&#8221; &#8211; He is Dasaratha Raman. Have you come to a wrong place thinking he is Parashurama (6<sup>th<\/sup> incarnation of Vishnu, who holds an axe for slaying Khatriyas)?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cMe Ramaha&#8221; &#8211; Here Dasaratha stresses the egoistic word &#8220;Mine&#8221;, emphasising that when a\u00a0<em>Dhaanam<\/em>(the act of giving) is done with the attitude of &#8220;mine&#8221; great people won&#8217;t accept it.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8220;Ramaha&#8221; means beauty; beauty should be admired rather than be taken to be destroyed.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8220;<strong>Rajiva lochanaha<\/strong>&#8221; means lotus-eyed one. Dasaratha worries that as Rama&#8217;s eyes are like a lotus (which closes at night), He sleeps early. He cannot therefore stand as guard against demons who attack only during the night. After hearing the laments of Dasaratha, sage Vishwamitrar said, &#8220;<em>Aham vedmi mah\u0101tm\u0101nam r\u0101mam satya par\u0101kramam<\/em> |<em>\u00a0vasi<\/em><em>\u1e63\u1e6d<\/em><em>ho.api mah\u0101tej\u0101 ye ca ime tapasi sthit\u0101<\/em><em>\u1e25<\/em><em>\u00a0<\/em>||&#8221; &#8211; &#8220;Hey Dasaratha, I know who Rama is, and even Vashishta and these saints here are aware of it.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">By &#8216;<strong>Aham vedmi<\/strong>&#8216; (I Know Him), Vishwamitrar means, &#8220;Hey Dasaratha, I&#8217;m a Maharishi doing Moksha Kameshti (a penance to attain eternal bliss), whereas you being a ruler are doing Putra Kameshti (a penance for a mere worldly pleasure like having a child), so there is no way that you are going to know Rama as is averred in the Vedas and Upanishads&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"25126\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/when-love-blindfolds-truth\/krishna-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Krishna.jpg?fit=594%2C282&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"594,282\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Krishna\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Krishna.jpg?fit=594%2C282&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-25126\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Krishna.jpg?resize=594%2C282&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"594\" height=\"282\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Krishna.jpg?w=594&amp;ssl=1 594w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Krishna.jpg?resize=300%2C142&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Charming to Vishwamitrar<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Sage Vasishthar ( Guru of Ikshvaku dynasty) intervened and convinced King Dasaratha to send Rama to the forest with Sage Vishwamitrar. On their way, Rama and Lakshmana encountered demoness Tataka. Sage Vishwamitrar ordered Rama to kill her. Though Rama was initially hesitant to kill a woman, He gave in to Vishwamitrar&#8217;s view that she shouldn&#8217;t be considered as a woman at all.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">While seeing charming Rama with His bow in front of a mammoth demoness, sage Vishwamitrar said:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><em>svasti\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><em>r\u0101ghavayo<\/em><em>\u1e25<\/em><em> astu jayam ca eva abhyabh\u0101<\/em><em>\u1e63<\/em><em>ata ||<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8220;Rama, blessings, may you be safe victorious&#8221;. Here, &#8216;svasti&#8217; means &#8216;blessings&#8217; \u2013 this leads us to wonder whether it is us who need to bless Him &#8211; or, rather, need to seek His blessings!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Doesn&#8217;t Vishwamitrar know that Rama is a Paramatma now?\u00a0The very same Maharishi who argued with Dasaratha on Rama&#8217;s Supremacy is now deluded by Rama&#8217;s charm &#8211; something rare in a Maharishi.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Pleasing to Jatayu<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In Kishkinda Kanda, when Rama and Lakshmana went in search of Sita, they encountered wounded Jatayu. Jatayu\u2019s wings were cut off by Ravana when he tried to save Sita being carried away by the latter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Jatayu eulogizing Sri Rama said,\u00a0\u201c<em>y\u0101m o<\/em><em>\u1e63<\/em><em>adhim iva\u00a0<strong>\u0101yu<\/strong><\/em><strong><em>\u1e63<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>man\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><em>anve<\/em><em>\u1e63<\/em><em>asi mah\u0101 vane<\/em>|.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0As Jatayu was taking his last breath, Jatayu praised Rama as \u201cAYUSHMAN ! &#8221; &#8211; a blessing to the Lord for His long life. That was the extent of His captivating grace and charm.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Sweetheart to Yasoda<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Purandhara Dasa (1484-1565), a Vaishnavite poet and a great devotee of Lord Krishna in his\u00a0<em>Kriti<\/em> (compositions in carnatic music) &#8220;<em>Jagadodharana<\/em>&#8221; has sung\u00a0about mother Yasoda and her innocence in looking at her son as only her son and not seeing beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Who has got this boon? The great Lord, the one who is the saviour of the world, and the one whom even the Vedas have not found is playing with Yasoda. And, Yasoda is playing with him purely as her son and no more than that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">When we look upon the Lord with mere knowledge, we can realize only His Greatness. Whereas when our knowledge gets soaked in love, it makes us realize that He is so graceful.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We shouldn&#8217;t be deluded by worldly pleasures but yes, we can be deluded by the Lord\u2019s irresistible charm and beauty. In this season of love, let our heart brim with love towards the Supreme &#8211; this is the spirit that should prevail in this imported festival called Valentine&#8217;s Day!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Niranjana KarthigaiRajan<br \/>\n<\/strong>(niranjanavk@gmail.com)<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><em>* Published in print edition on 14 February 2020<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tree of Knowledge<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":25126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3113],"tags":[16144,21930,12730,16136,12728,959,21931,21932,7372,3431,8383,3093,21929],"class_list":["post-25125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spirituality","tag-king-dasaratha","tag-kishkinda-kanda","tag-lakshmana","tag-niranjana-karthigairajan","tag-rama","tag-ramayana","tag-sri-periyavachan-pillai","tag-sri-ramayana-thanislokam","tag-tree-of-knowledge","tag-upanishads","tag-valentines-day","tag-vedas","tag-yasoda"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Krishna.jpg?fit=594%2C282&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-6xf","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}