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
The more I read about Sri Raama/ Sita etc and the more I hear various stories associated with different avatars of God, I feel sad for the ordeals that God had gone through and goes through, to keep us safe and happy. Raakshasaas are a crazy set of people who have the weirdest of the weirdest desires and to save normal people from such raakshasaas, God had to do undergo real ordeals.
There
was this Raakshasa called Hiranyakasapa who did a great tapasya and sought a
boon from Brahma. He should be killed neither by a man nor by an animal,
neither during the day nor during the night, neither on earth nor in sky. He
thought that he was smart enough to seek a boon by which he would never have
death. But Lord Vishnu had to take the Narasimha avatar to kill him in the
twilight zone (Sandhya samayam) on the Gadapa (the wood door separation between
two rooms) of his palace. He was a disaster to the mankind to such an extent
that he did not even leave his son, Prahlaada, as he was not a Vishnu dweshi.
He subjected Prahlaada to great tortures to make him pray for himself than
Vishnu.
Then
there was this raakshasa called Vajrakantaka (or Vajrakanta). This guy did
great tapasya and Brahma asked him what he wanted. He said that he wanted a son
who would be a threat to the mankind. Difficult to imagine the pleasure he
derived out of that boon. One great raakshasa called Taarakaasura was born to
him. He was born with enormous strength and as per the boon from Brahma he
started torturing every one. Not satisfied with his powers, taarakaasura did a
great tapasya and Brahma appeared before him. His boon was, “I should be killed
by the son of Siva Kesava.” He thought, since both Siva and Kesava are males,
it’s not possible for a son to be born and thus he would not have death. He got
his boon granted and he resumed with his lesser mortal torturing. After the
Ksheera saagara madhanam, Lord Vishnu assumed a beautiful woman’s stature and
the rest is history with respect to the distribution of the nectar. The news
about this extremely beautiful woman at Ksheera saagara madhanam reached the
ears of Siva. So, he wanted to look at this beautiful lady once. So, when
Vishnu and Siva met, Siva wanted Vishnu to show the beautiful figure he wore.
After refusing for some time, Kesava transformed himself to that same woman.
Siva was mesmerized with that woman and went towards her. Kesava started
running looking at Siva’s advances and Siva started chasing him. Paarvati was
watching all this drama without a flinch. After some time Siva’s tejassu got
released and ayyappa was born. Siva quietly came back to Paarvati after that
and Paarvati behaved as if nothing happened. This Ayyappa then went to kill
Taarakaasura.
The
plight of Sri Raama and Sita is just unimaginable. Someone who was to become a
king the next morning, had to leave for forests with his brother and wife. Had
to survive on meager stuff and fruits and roots and suffer the climate in the
forests. Sri Raama had to fight 14000 raakshasas single handedly. The couple
underwent separation through Raavana abducting Sita. The brothers had to wander
aimlessly in the forest not knowing where to look for Sita. Sita on the other
hand had to undergo innumerable humiliations with Raavana looking to make her
his wife. The female raakshasis surrounded Sita all the time, threatening and
convincing her to marry Raavana. When we read the way Sita led her life in that
Asoka Vanam, one ends up in tears for sure. Sri Raama collates all the monkeys
and other animals to lead his fight against the great Raavana and crosses this
ocean to reach Lanka to take the fight to Raavana. Multiple times during the
war, Sri Rama gets depressed and gets out of it to win the war. Within no time after
becoming the king, he had to leave Sita in the forest because of an idiot
uttering meaningless words. Generally, everyone thinks that Sri Raama is a
Vishnu avatar and so brush aside the greatness of him and troubles the couple
underwent. But in Raamayana, one can read the umpteen number of times that Sri
Raama and Sita cried.
Relatively
speaking, Krishna avatar is better than that of Sri Raama. But he does have his
share of aspersions casted on him. Even today, whenever anyone has another
relationship, he is compared to Sri Krishna. Justification – Sri Krishna had
16000 wives. But no one realizes that he did not have physical relationship even with one of
them. The peacock feather, that he wears in his hair, indicates that. He is
also unpopular for his act of stealing the sarees of Gopikas, when they were
taking bath. The real reason for that act is this. The Gopikas were performing
a vratham and everyday they used to take bath in that pond without wearing any
clothes. Taking bath without any clothes on, does not yield the results of the
vratham or special pooja that we do. To convey this, Krishna did this act and
told them they should wear clothes while taking bath. After which, the Gopikas
got the fruits of the vratham. Importantly, when Krishna did that act of
stealing, he ensured that there was no other male around. He had sent all of
them away. But even today, people say that he stole sarees of bathing woman,
with a negative connotation. Then the diamond stealing aspersion by Sathraajit.
We read this during the Vinayaka Chavithi vratha story.
So
whenever we recollect the above, I am sure we will not get depressed, bcos our
troubles, problems, humiliations are of smaller magnitude as compared to any of
the above.
సర్వే
జనాః సుఖినో భవంతు
PS: There could be typos and other mistakes in telugu and
english, kindly pardon me with big hearts.
