Sugreevas attitude and behaviour

గురు బ్రహ్మ గురుర్ విష్ణుః గురుర్ దేవో మహేశ్వరః

గురు స్సాక్షాత్ పరబ్రహ్మ తస్మై శ్రీ గురవే నమః

శుక్లాం బరధరం విష్ణుం శశివర్ణం చతుర్భుజం

ప్రసన్న వదనం ధ్యాయేత్ సర్వ విఘ్నోప శాంతయే

శ్రుతి స్మృతి పురాణానాం ఆలయం కరుణాలయం

నమామి భగవత్ పాదం శంకరం లోక శంకరం

ఓం నమః శివాయ

When Sugreeva and Sri Rama become friends, Sri Rama promises Sugreeva that he would kill Vaali and get his kingdom and wife back. So Sugreeva lands up in front of Vaali’s cave and invites him for a fight, with the confidence that Sri Rama would handle him. He gets beaten black and blue by Vaali and Sugreeva runs back to Rushyamooka Parvatham (mountain) where Vaali cannot enter. When confronted with the question of why he did not kill Vaali, Sri Rama answers that he could not identify Sugreeva as both the brothers were looking alike and he did not want to kill the wrong person. Then he asks Sugreeva to wear a garland made of some nice flowers so that he would be able to identify Sugreeva and kill Vaali and as they say, the rest is history.

Let us look at some of the incidents involving Sugreeva prior to this.

1.    When both Sri Rama and Sugreeva promise to be friends in front of agnihotram (fire), Sugreeva cuts a nice branch from a tree and creates seating positions for him and Sri Rama. Lakshmana would be standing there and Sugreeva doesn’t even offer him a seat. Immediately Hanuma gets another big branch and makes a seating arrangement for Lakshmana and asks him to be seated on that. Is that a big fault? Yes it is. If not, Hanuma would not have immediately made seating arrangements for Lakshmana. Lakshmana is an ardent follower of God (Sri Rama) and so hurting them would hurt God.

2.    When Sri Rama asks where Ravana lives, Sugreeva states that he doesn’t know but says that he would certainly find out once he gets his kingdom and army back. But Sugreeva knows every nook and corner of the entire globe, as he had to run around to escape from Vaali. When Sugreeva had to send the Vaanaras in search of Sita, he sends them in all directions giving them detailed description of the entire path till they reach the dead end including South (that’s where Ravana lived). He must have probably thought that if he provides the whereabouts of Raavana to Sri Rama, then Sri Rama would probably insist on getting Sita back immediately. To be fait to him he must have thought that fighting Raavana without any army is not possible and hence probably did not disclose that information then.

3.    Sugreeva gives a detailed description of Vaali’s strength and states that unless Sri Rama proves to him about his strength, he would not be confident in Sri Rama facing Vaali. As part of his tests, he asks Sri Rama the following.

a.   Huge mountainous skeleton of Dundhubhi (A Raakshasa killed by Vaali) has to be kicked by Sri Rama to a distance of 200 yards atleast. Sri Rama kicks that to more than 1000 yards. Immediately, Sugreeva backs out stating that When Vaali threw this body it was with flesh and blood and so it must have been much heavier than this and so wanted another test.

b.   Vaali could shake on huge tree with his bear arms and so if Sri Rama can bring down that tree with his arrow, then he would be convinced. Sri Rama shoots an arrow and that brings down 7 such trees at one go at lightning speed. That’s when Sugreeva got convinced about Sri Rama’s strength.

Obviously the above are sins, in a way, committed by Sugreeva and so he had to pay for those. He, infact, got away with a very minor punishment of getting beaten black and blue by Vaali the first time around.

Committing sins is one thing and committing sins with the Bhaagavathulu (people loved by God) is a bigger sin and one has to pay for those immediately.  

సర్వే జనాః సుఖినో భవంతు

PS: There could be typos and other mistakes in telugu and english, kindly pardon me with big hearts.