Rama - The man and the avatar
A father’s child
Reflecting on the last post for a moment, we are reminded of the deep bonds of love that held the two – Dasaratha and Rama – together. Rama was his very own soul, his breath of life, the staff that supported his existence. Think of it! A king remaining issueless for long – the branching off of the story of his daughter that he gave in adoption to king Romapada (See:
The son-in-law of Dasaratha) not denying, which need not be gone into anyway – and blessed with a child like Rama! The epic, right from the word ‘go’ speaks of the way Dasaratha was attached to Rama, of the four sons. Yes. Of the four sons, he loved Rama and Rama alone. Whenever Lakshmana is thought of, he is thought of as an ‘external extension’ of Rama and an inevitable and undeniable appendage, and nothing other than that.
Dasaratha, who could bear the separation of Bharata and Satrughna for twelve long years, would not even imagine for a moment of separation from Rama. Bharata and Satrughna are sent away to Kekaya, along with Yudhäjit, the brother of Kaikeyi, or the maternal uncle of Bharata. And they do not return, until they had to, until they were summoned on the death of Dasaratha! Think for a moment, would Dasaratha have survived at all, if Rama was in the place of Bharata! That would have been too much for him. And, did he survive a moment longer, when Rama did actually move away from him!
‘Oviya ezhiludai oruvanai alladhu,’ Kamban puts it at the very beginning, right after the birth of the four. ‘But for Rama and Rama alone,’
‘aaviyum udalamum iladhu ena mEvinan’ there was neither a body, nor a soul for him, the king Dasaratha. Rama was his soul; and Rama was the frame that contained that soul.
When Viswamitra enters the scene, Dasaratha trembles uncontrollably at the mere mention of the sage to send Rama along with him, to protect his
yaga. ‘kaN ilaan petru izandhaan ena uzhandhaan kadum thuyaram,’ Kamban beautifully captures the moment. ‘Like the born-blind who was blessed with sight for a few days, and losing his sight after learning the pleasures of what it is to be to live with eyes! And finally when Rama goes along with Viswamitra,
‘mannan in uyir vazhik koNdaal ena’ he leaves as though the very soul of Dasaratha moves away from him. The poet remembers to bring the life back to the king, to make him breathe, when they meet again in the palace of Janaka.
‘dhEvarum thozu kazal siruvan,’ the poet says when Rama comes to the side of Dasaratha, as to receive him and bow before him. ‘The boy whose feet-of-anklet are worshipped by the celestials,
‘mun pirivadhu Or aavi vandhadhu enna arasan maadu aNuginaan,’ came to the presence of Dasaratha, as though the soul that had left him earlier, coming back to him.
When Rama was away from him Dasaratha goes lifeless; and suspires only in his memories and gains his life back, only when he comes to his side. There was nothing else for him in this world, even his very own self, but for Rama. And one is reminded of his other ‘most loved of’ soul here, none other than Kaikeyi. Unless this love is understood, we will not be able to see as to how the bonds of love grew up between Kaikeyi and
Rama.
Rama was more a father’s child, in every sense of the word, than his mother’s. No doubt the celebrated sloka, the address of Viswamitra,
‘kausalya supraja rama purva samdhya pravartate | uttistha narasardula kartavyam daivam ahnikam’ (Valmiki Ramayana, Bala Kanda, Canto 23, sloka 2) speaks of ‘the child that Kausalya was blessed with.’ “Kausalya is blessed with a worthy son (in you) O Rama! The morning twilight has set in. (Therefore) get up.” Nonetheless, Rama was more a father’s child, like this father who loved him and him alone, of his four children, more than anything else.
And that is perhaps one of the reasons why, while there is a
bAla-krishna, there is no
bAla-rAmA. The poets had their hearts filled with delight to sing the praise of the Lord in the hands of mother Yasodha. Our poets perhaps had not visualised such a mother in Kausalya. We are not blessed to read and partake in the
bAla-leela of Rama, as we hear nothing of the child, Rama. When we meet him for the first time in the epic, he is already sixteen years old. A very matured, well-mannered, polite, extremely thorough-bread king. A king in the making at that time. For that is how we see him throughout the epic, either on the throne of Ayodhya or not. A king, a king and a king. A loving brother, a true friend, a devoted son, and a very well-deserved enemy; but always a king, crowned or not.
Doubtless, he inherited all the qualities of a splendid race, and a wonderful father, the terror of demons, whose help was sought by the very Indra, in the elimination of his enemies. The father looked to the son as his own apple-of-the-eye and the son looked at his father with admiration, devotion and was proud about him too.
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