Value Education and Spirituality 32 – Ramayana 14 – Angada – Overcome dissension by focus on common

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. Welcome back to the series on ethics from ethics. We will now be discussing on the topic of overcome dissension by focusing on common purpose.
Dissension refers to infighting. Sometimes when a group of people come together for a noble cause, quite often because of some petty issues, because of misunderstandings, because of a particular person becoming too power hungry, there can be dissensions that come up. So those who had come together united for one particular purpose, they may start, cracks start appearing in their united front.
And those cracks, if they are not addressed, then people, instead of fighting a common enemy, fighting a bigger problem, which they had come to overcome, they start, they end up fighting among themselves. In the Mahabharata, Bhishma says that dissension is the greatest enemy of an army, greater than the enemy attacking also. Because dissension can defeat an army even before the war happens.
So now, how exactly there was dissension seen in the Ramayana? After Sugriva deputed four parties to go in the four directions to search for Sita, the party that went to the south had many formidable Vanara warriors. Among them, the most prominent were Angada, Hanuman and Jambavan. Now they went southwards and they had many adventures.
They actually, they went inside a chain of caves, which was actually ruled by a mystic lady, and she fed them and she showed them the way out immediately. And then they came further, further, further down to the coast. And then when they came to the Indian Ocean, just watched the ocean and they were overcome by a dismay.
And when they were overcome by dismay like this, they thought, how big is this ocean? How will we cross over this ocean at all? And what are we to do? As they were thinking like this, not knowing what to do and how to solve the problem, the thought that came in their minds was that the defeat. So actually, as they had been going southwards, southwards, southwards, the month’s period was nearly over. Now, Sugriva, in order to instill discipline and urgency into the Vanaras who were going out for search, he had said that anyone who comes later than a month back will be executed.
The point was not that he wanted to execute his own Vanara soldiers, but that he wanted to infuse a sense of urgency in what he was doing. He was infusing a sense of urgency among them in the mission that he was entrusting them with. So now, here, there was, as they were considering what to do, so Hanuman, Jambavan, Angad, these were the three primary leaders, and they were discussing whether another month is over, should we go back and tell that we have not found Sita? Or should we press onwards and still seek further on what we should do? So, as they were speaking like this, so Angada, he spoke saying that there is no point in going back because that wicked Sugriva will just be looking for an excuse to execute us.
It is better for us to die here rather than to be killed in front of our loved ones, to be ashamed and executed in front of our loved ones. So now, Hanuman heard this and he said, Sugriva is a virtuous king. He will never shame or execute us like this.
We don’t have to worry about that. We should simply think about what is the best way we can serve the mission that was entrusted to us. So now, Angada, he was still resenting the death of his father, Vali.
Now, Angada in his heart knew that what Vali had done was wrong. Now, Vali had unfairly banished Sugriva and had taken his wife for himself and he had persecuted and even tried to assassinate Sugriva. So he knew in one sense in his heart that what Sugriva had done, what Vali had done was wrong.
But still, he had a natural love of a son for his father and he couldn’t accept the idea that his own uncle, his father’s brother had conspired with someone to kill his father. Now, he did not blame Ram because he knew that Ram was virtuous and Ram had no enmity against Vali. It was Sugriva who instigated Ram to kill Vali.
So from his perspective, he pinned the whole blame for the killing of Vali on Sugriva and he felt that Sugriva will similarly be resenting me because earlier I was the heir apparent. I was going to become the next king and he will consider me as a threat. So he will just want to eliminate me.
Now, Sugriva was not at all power hungry and there were no such thoughts in his mind and actually he treated Angada as the heir apparent, as his successor. He gave him all royal respect and privilege. But Angada’s resentment caused his perspective to become warped and among the Vanaras who had come on this mission, there were some who were supporters of Angada and they said, yes, what you are saying is true.
So now in dismay, Hanuman and Jambavan looked at each other. They said, oh, this is not true. So Angada actually voiced his fears and he said, you know, somebody who could kill his brother, he can surely kill his nephew and he will be looking for a reason like this.
What virtue is there in someone who conspires to kill his own brother? So now Hanuman and Jambavan knew that Angada knew the facts and just telling him the facts would not be of help and as they were discussing what to do, Angada decided that he would wait. He said, rather than going back and facing the ignominy of execution in front of my loved ones, I will fast here to death. And he sat down in a yogic posture and he said, we will take the prayavrata.
Prayavrata is the vow of fasting till death and the prayavrata is taken by those who desire to give up their body and so they give up food and water and they focus their consciousness on spiritual truth and in that way they wait for the body to run its course and in that way they give up the body. So as they were thinking like this, as he sat down in a yogic posture to fast to death and some of the monkeys who were on his side, they also decided to follow their master and they also sat in a yogic posture and as they were sitting like this, Hanuman, Jambavan and other monkeys were looking at each other perplexed at the sudden, unfortunate turn of events and at that time, suddenly in the distance they saw a giant bird. It was slowly moving towards them and that bird said, Oh, how fortunate I am that providence has sent so much food for me and today I will feast on all these monkeys.
As the monkeys looked at each other in horror, this giant bird was moving towards them and they said, Is this, the monkeys are discussing, is this the way providence is punishing us for having thought of betraying our master? What is this happening? As the monkeys started grieving, this bird looked so huge that fighting it seemed very difficult and more importantly, the Vanaras had lost their morale, most of it, because they had thought that how can we fight against someone who is so great, they had already lost their morale because they had felt that they had failed in their mission to search for Sita and they were demoralized and overwhelmed and at that time this bird just kept marching on and alas, our mission, the Vanaras started saying, alas, our mission to save Lord Ram has failed just as the Vali and Jatayu strived to assist Lord Ram but couldn’t succeed and met his death similarly it seems that our attempts will also end in our death alas, alas, they were all grieving and as they spoke this, suddenly that giant bird, grief swept over his face and he just froze he says, what did you say? did you say that Jatayu is dead? alas, alas, what has happened to my brother? my brother, please tell me and the Vanaras took it as a surprise he says, is this Jatayu’s brother? he said, who are you? so he said, please tell me about my brother he said, I am Sampatti, the elder brother of Jatayu I have not seen my brother for a long time and now hearing from you about his death I am struck with grief, please tell me about my brother and please tell me who you are the Vanaras introduced themselves and as they introduced themselves and they saw the great grief of Sampatti and they told the whole story tears fell on Sampatti’s eyes and Sampatti amidst his sorrow he told them briefly the story of his life he said how both he and his younger brother Jatayu they were formidable birds and they could fly to vast heights and in their youthful exuberance once they decided to fly all the way to the sun they just kept flying, flying, flying, flying and they came closer and closer to the sun but the heat started becoming more and more and more and Sampatti, although he had the spirit of the competition that was there between brothers but still he also had a sense of responsibility towards his younger brother older brothers often have not just a paternal relationship with their younger brothers but also a paternal relationship they feel protective over the younger brothers so as they were moving onwards, onwards, onwards towards the sun he spread his wings outwards to try to shade Jatayu so both of them were flying and Sampatti came above him and tried to shade him to protect him from the heat and when that happened now Jatayu was so caught in the passion of the flight of the competition that he did not realize what was happening he just kept flying, flying, flying and because Sampatti had spread out his wings so his wings got burned and as his wings got burned he just fell on the ground and Jatayu kept flying, flying, flying and eventually he realized that suddenly it’s become too hot and he just had to veer clear of the course and then he just couldn’t find his brother anywhere and Sampatti was in no condition to fly because his wings had got burned and he fell on the ground and he was grieving his condition he had lost his brother and he had lost his wings for a bird to be without wings is an extremely desolate condition it’s a state of great misery and as Sampatti was living like this he was thinking about how wretched his life had become a sage had came over there and that sage told him that actually do not grieve everything that happens has a purpose and your getting this misfortune is not just a punishment for your impetuosity in trying to approach the majestic sun god but it is also a part of the plan of the lord by which you will play a role in his service later so he said you will live here and by living here you will wait till the servants of lord Ram come and you will do a service for them and then you will shed this body and attain a celestial body so as he spoke he said by the sage’s arrangement food would come for me everyday but I had not seen my brother Jatayu till now and now alas he is dead but as he was grieving suddenly he remembered the words of the sage and he said yes now I can not only do the service for lord Ram that I was meant to do but I can also help indirectly in avenging the death of my brother the murder of my brother he said I am too weak to fight anymore I can’t even fly and fight but my sight is not diminished and he said that I will help you in your mission he said I can see Sita right now with my eyes I can see across the ocean and I can see there is Lanka and in Lanka there is Sita so there is Sita she is sitting in Lanka agonized in separation of Ram so please go to her right go to her fly across the ocean and I see that you are going to succeed in your mission you will be able to go there so the Vanaras who had all got who had initially been caught in infighting in descension then when they saw this huge obstacle huge danger of a gigantic bird coming upon them their own petty infighting was forgotten and now when this bird told them about the whereabouts of Sita they immediately perked up then Sampatti said please help me to offer water for my departed brother’s soul and then they helped this giant bird to get to the sea coast and then he offered water to his brother and offered prayers the monkeys waited soberly pondering the mortality of existence and pondering the precious nature of the service to the lord that they had a fortune to do and then Sampatti said now that I have done my service to you and now I have done my service to my brother I will depart and suddenly he closed his eyes and went into a trance and from his body as his body fell a celestial being emerged from that body and he said the servants of lord Ram will always be successful be confident and you will attain success and he departed so here we see that the descension infighting that happened was because of the internal politics the Angada was from the party of Vali and at one level Angada was from the party of Vali Hanuman was from the party of Sugriva and both of them were in the same group which was reputed for a particular mission and the friction among them came in the open but when the common danger of Sampatti and then the opportunity to do the service which they had been interested to do that came to the forefront then that friction was forgotten so similarly in our case when we are working in a group and sometimes some past hurts past hang ups past misunderstandings they create friction then we need to remember and refocus on our common purpose to the extent we focus on that which which is our difference to that extent the infighting and the friction will increase to the extent we focus on that which is the common thing between us to that extent our unity will become stronger now all of us have our perceptions and for us our facts our feelings are our facts our feelings shape our facts and our feelings seem to be facts for us at the same time feelings are not facts and we need to remember this well so what we need to do is find our way through our misconceptions individually and collectively and stay focused on the common purpose when we come together as a team the purpose is to achieve the goal that we want to achieve as a team and if we let past hurts and hang ups interfere with that common purpose then the team will fall apart but if we keep the common purpose in mind and if it’s an inspiring purpose and it is the purpose that we can all share and cherish then the past hang hurts and hang ups can be overcome that’s why when a team works together it’s vital that they share the vision that they are working towards they feel a sense of ownership towards the purpose so Hanuman and Angadam had their own perceptions of what had actually transpired and who was responsible for the conflicts between Vali and Sugriva and if they had just focused on arguing about the rightness of who was right and who was wrong their friction would have become more but rather the commonality of the purpose both of them were devoted to Ram both of them trusted the virtue of Ram and both of them wanted to execute the mission that had been entrusted to them and therefore by their own sincere intention and especially here the main source of the dissension was not Hanuman here it was Angad Angad’s own suspicions were causing the dissension but when the commonality of the purpose was stressed then when a threat came it is a common threat for both of them then Angad put aside his suspicions put aside his dissension and galvanized himself who strived to achieve that purpose and so can we by focusing on the common purpose march towards achieving that purpose Thank you Hare Krishna