The trait of Listening and Implementing

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 sita got abducted by Dasagreeva (Raavana), she used to live under the Sisupaa vruksham. Since she refused to live in the palace, Raavana made her stay there in Ashoka vanam. This tree has special medicinal powers by which one does not fall sick. So, Raavana wanted to ensure that Sita doesn’t fall sick so that whenever she changes her mind, she will be in good health.

Raavana used to visit her pretty regularly seeking her consent to abandon Rama. There is a reason why Raavana never tried force on Sita. This will be mentioned in another article soon. Sita always used to place a piece of grass between her and Raavana before responding/talking to him. Multiple explanations have been given for that act of Sita and let me not get into that now.

Anyway, so Sita asked Raavana,

“Don’t you have any one to give you good advices?

If there is someone to advise you, is your problem not listening?

If you listen, do you not attempt to implement those advices?

Where’s your problem?”

The above set of questions is very important for every human being. Unless we Get proper advice, listen to those carefully and understand, implement those, we will not be able to lead a righteous life. Lets look at couple of instances in Raamaayana.

When Sri Rama and Lakshmana realize that Sita is not there, once they return killing Maareecha, Raama goes through multiple feelings at the same time and one after the other – anger, depression, helplessness, hopelessness etc. After some time anger takes over him completely and he says,

“ధర్మం పట్టుకొని కూర్చున్నానని ఈ లోకం నేను చేతకాని వాడినని అనుకుంటోంది. సీత ఏమయ్యింది అని అడిగితే ఎవ్వరూ సమాధానం చెప్పటం లేదు. కొంత సేపు ధర్మం పక్కన పడేసి ఇప్పుడే నా ప్రతాపము ఏంటో ఈ మూడు లోకాలకి చూపిస్తాను. బాణ వర్షం కురిపిస్తా. లోకాల్ని నాశనం చేస్తా. చూడు లక్ష్మణా!”

If Sri Rama had actually done that everything would have been destroyed. Lakshmana got scared and started pacifying Sri Rama. He reminded Sri Rama of his greatness, his abilities and more importantly his virtues and importance of abiding by Dharma. After listening to Lakshamana, Sri Rama said, “Very well said Lakshmana. I should not leave Dharma aside and destroy the world.” Saying this he immediately got back to normalcy.

This is the greatness of Sri Rama. When he is told about his mistake, he gracefully accepts it irrespective of who tells him and attempts to correct that.

Now, lets look at another character – Raavana. He comes to Maarecha and tells him that he should help him in distancing Sri Rama and Lakshmana from Sita so that he can abduct Sita.

Maareecha is a strange bhaktha of Sri Rama. From the time he got hit by Sri Raama’s Maanavaastram he becomes scared of Sri Rama. He sees Sri Rama everywhere. He becomes a taapasi and lives in continuous fear of Sri Rama and doesn’t want to do anything cruel lest Sri Rama should come back and kill him.

He was the first one to describe Sri Rama with the famous phrase,

“రామో విగ్రహవాన్ ధర్మః”

Maareecha tries his level best to convince Raavana that he should not attempt at abducting sita. He reminds Raavana about his fate, 14000 raakshasas (including Khara Dooshana) who got killed by Rama alone, Taataki, Soorpanakha etc.

Raavana dismisses him saying that Maareecha is no more a brave Raakshasa and is in fact a timid person and that he would kill him if he doesn’t listen to him to do the deer act.

Maareecha finally yields to him because, he feels that it’s better to get killed in the hands of great Sri Rama than in the hands of Raavana.

Raavana immediately changes his stance and says, “You are a great minister of mine. Very brave and sincere. I am happy that you have accepted.” He is least bothered about the fact that Maareecha is going to get killed.

One should read Raamayana to understand how many statements were made by Maareecha, advising Raavana not to try the foolish act of abducting Sita as that would destroy his entire clan.

Making mistakes is not a problem. But attempting to realize the mistakes on our own or atleast when pointed out by others is an important virtue. Otherwise we will also be donning the cap of Raavana.

సర్వే జనాః సుఖినో భవంతు

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