​Naam Ramayana – The all-pure purifies at multiple levels – tangible and intangible

Transcript

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Thank you. Naam Ramayan, text 35 and 36, this is from the Aranya Kanda. The previous text was from the Ayodhya Kanda towards the end.
Now, Dandaka Vannajana Pavana Rama, Dushta Viradha Vinashana Rama. So here Lord Ram has entered into the forest, going deep in. He, in the early part of his forest journey, he came to the ashram of Bharadwaj and he would have stayed there itself.
That’s what Bharadwaj requested, but Ram said this is too close to Ayodhya and your ashram is well known, so please tell me a more secluded place. And then Bharadwaj Muni told him about the ashram, about the place Chitrakoot, and he came there. But after Bharat met him there, Ram felt that he stayed there in Chitrakoot for some time, but he felt that he should go deeper into the forest.
Because he also wanted to do his duty as a Kshatriya king, even though he did not have the privileges of a Kshatriya king. They did not have resources, troops and wealth, but still he felt as a Kshatriya ruler or as a member of the dynasty which was ruling at that time. He had a duty to protect the Devatas, the rest of the world, from the demons such as the Ravana.
So Ram went onwards towards the south and he came to Gandakavan. And especially when he saw that how much the Rakshasas were committing atrocities against the forest sages, terrorizing them, wounding them, even killing and devouring them. At that time he resolved that he would protect them and for protecting them he would do whatever was necessary, including fighting and killing the demons.
Ram was not unfamiliar with the prowess of the demons. He had already in his practically boyhood, he had fought against Tataka, Subahu and Maricha. So he knew about the prowess of the demons and now he again resolved to face the demons.
So he came to a part from North Indiana, Chitrakoot, he came down to Dandaka forest. And there he recited, Dandakavan jan pavan Rama, Dandakavan jan pavan Rama. So he came to Dandakavan to purify the Dandaka forest.
He came there so that he could cleanse the forest of the menace of the demons. And of course, that is external, just as when the Lord comes, it is said he comes to Inashaya Chidushkratam, he descends to this world. But also what he does essentially is Paritranaya Sadhunam.
And he attracts everyone. janma karma chame devya mevam yo vittatvatah tyaktva deham punar janma naiti mam eki surjuna So in 4.9, Krishna tells that those who understand his activities, they become attracted to him and they attain him. So the Lord’s, the purification that the Lord does happens at various levels.
One is that he purifies the world of the unclean demons in Inashaya Chidushkratam. Then he purifies the places where he visits because those places touch his lotus, and those places, his lotus feet touch the ground there, the ground becomes purified. Wherever the Lord has visited, that has become a sacred place.
And further, the Lord purifies the hearts of people who turn towards him, who encounter him, who have any kind of contact with him, their hearts become purified. And in this way, the Lord arranges for everyone to come closer and closer to him. So dhandaka vana janma pavana rama In the dhandaka forest, he, by performing beautiful pastimes there, just present a purified forest, not just by his presence, yes, his presence itself is purifying.
But on top of that, apart from his presence, there was also his attractiveness, which attracted the forest sages, which attracted everyone practically. And as they became attracted to him, as they became devoted to him, so they all started coming closer. They all became purified of, the sages themselves were already pure.
But it is said in Kunti Maharani’s prayers that the prayers that are all pure. The sages are pure, but still, even from their pure state, they have to learn bhakti. So even in 18.54, Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita that even when somebody is situated on the Brahman platform, but still from there also they have to move forward and come to the platform of devotion.
Man bhaktam labhate param, of pure devotion. So, Lord Ram, he purified the sages who were already detached, who were freed of the gross impurities, purified them of whatever subtle impurities might have been there, and he attracted them to himself. And thus, he purified the whole place.
So, Viradha was a formidable demon who was there in the forest of Dandakaavan. And when Ram went out into the forest, on exile, Viradha was the first major demon that he encountered. Of course, relatively speaking, he was a minor character.
He is not a major player in the Ramayan. So at that time, when Ram and Lakshman are just going to the forest, suddenly, Viradha abducts Sita and takes her away. He is allured by her beauty and he wants to have her as his wife.
So Ram and Lakshman chase him, but they shoot arrows at him. But nothing happens. The arrows simply pass through him and he remains unharmed.
So then on seeing this, they decide that the only way to deal with him is to actually bury him alive. So they overpower him with their sword. They break his arms and then they bury him alive.
And actually he has got a curse-come-blessing because of which he is in the demon body. And when he is buried alive, when his arms are broken, he actually offers praise to Ram and Lakshman and he is revealed to be a celestial being, Tumburu, who because of an offense had been cursed by Kubera to become a demon till he was delivered by Ram. And when Ram and Lakshman bury him, at that time he rises to his celestial position once again.
In one sense, Virat’s abduction of Sita prefigures strongly Sita’s similar abduction by Ravana later. And in another sense, the burial. Normally in the Vedic culture, the body is not buried, it is burnt because the soul may have some remaining attachment to the body.
And when the body is burnt and it’s reduced to ashes, the soul sees that, oh, now I can’t do anything. Now I can’t enter this body. So on seeing this, the soul develops a sense of finality about determination of its relationship with the previous body and soul becomes more amenable to moving on to the next body.
But in this particular case, because he had been cursed, burying alive normally is considered quite a brutal punishment. If somebody is overpowered and then being buried alive means that the earth is falling on one person, on that person and that person is actually seeing now how I’m going to be asphyxiated. I’m going to lose sight of light.
I’m going to lose oxygen supply and I’m going to die. It’s a very horrifying kind of death. But if there is a higher arrangement involved, if there is a lot involved in it, that which can seem horrifying can actually turn out to be elevating.
Although as a part of the curse, he had to go through this Virat had to go through the horror of being buried alive. But through it all, he was being cleansed of the effect of the curse that had made him into a demon. And because of that contact with the Lord, because this action had been done to him by the Lord, who is all pure, he became purified eventually and he attained the celestial abode where he belonged originally.
So Thumburu returned to his, so he became Thumburu once again. Now, here we see that normally if a person cuts someone, that is bad. But normally if a surgeon cuts someone, that is good.
So what one does is not as important as who does it. So when Lord Ram buries someone alive, that is not murderous, that is actually liberating, that is elevating, at least a liberation not just from, not necessarily from material existence, but liberation from demonic existence and elevation to a celestial existence where one has greater facility to practice Dharma and become elevated thereby. Such was the glory of Lord Ram that he purified not just the place, he purified not just the sages, but he purified even demons who were actually earlier pure but had become inadvertently cursed.
He purified them too. dandakāvanajanapāvanarāma duṣṭavirādvināśanarāma So he was duṣṭa at that time, but his duṣṭatva, his cruelty was destroyed by Ram