The Ultimate Liberator!

For the seekers of knowledge
Can there be a knowledge?
better than
The Knowledge of The Divine, Shri Rama!

The one who liberated
Even the blades of grasses
And all the swarms of ants

Leaving none behind
That ever existed
In the Good City of Ayodhya

And placed them in
An exotic heaven
Created exclusively for them
By the Great Grandshire Brahma!

-Nammazhvaar


Ramayanam is Agriculture
Bhagavatham is Harvest
-Me


The twin-syllable, Rama
When a devotee exalts!
The Birth-Death cycle
It permanently halts

Goodness and Wealth
It everyday brings
Sin and poverty
It cleanses and shrinks

-Kambar


Goodness Honesty Sweetness Simplicity
Gentleness Strength Humility Bravery
Valour Talent Prowess Success
Memory Trustworthiness Heroism Genuinity
Such adorable qualities and so much more
By chanting Rama's name you will score!

-Me

My Lord's Story: Goodness Incarnate

Ramayanam in English poetry.

The Supreme Lord of the Universe was once born on this earth as a Human Being, faced challenges and had His share of pain and pleasure going through both good and bad times like any of us. Like any of us He too, took His turn in laughter and cry.

This humility of The Lord, that makes Him come down to earth and share with us our difficulties to show us a way to handle them is what I admire in Him. This quality of Him, makes me surrender to Him unconditionally and makes me want to sing His Glory on and on and on.

My Lord's Story is an out pour of my devotion that seeps out in gratitude for the pains He took to be a lighthouse for us, to cross the ocean of Samsara.

Links to all the posts have been provided in an order on the right side column.


Friday, August 19, 2011

Across the Ganges


Guha and Sumanthra stood by the shore
Watching the boat drift away with the four
With his mind fixed on Rama, the oarsman oared
Proud on cradling Rama on her lap, the Ganges soared

Like a man trying to cross the Samsara ocean
The boat, like his body, was now in motion
Like the surrendered ego, the oarsman looked
Towards Rama, the conscience, his attention was hooked

Sita sat beside The Lord like the man’s devotion
Lakshman like efficiency stood to serve with passion
We learn from this that if our ego surrenders
The Lord enters our heart forgiving blunders

Along with Him come love and talent
Awakening within us our goodness latent
Once we manage to invite these three
We are, very soon, bound to be free

Her hands through the waves, Mother Sita swayed
Like a daughter to a Mother, Mother Sita prayed
Wishing their exile, at large, must benefit the world
Aromatic flowers to the river, in offering she hurled

She turned towards Her Lord with a whim
Story of Ganges, She wanted to hear from Him
The Lord narrated the story with a serene flow
Revealing the reasons for the river’s reverential glow

“This water was first born from Vishnu’s feet
And gifted to Brahma who sits on a lotus seat
In his kamandal, Brahma saved this water
And used it to worship Vishnu without falter

When Vishnu as Vikrama measured the sky
His feet entered Heaven, as He lifted it high
Seeing the Supreme Lord’s Feet appear before his eye
Brahma poured this water on it, leaving no part dry

The water that spilled flowed as a river through heaven
The Devas rejoiced the birth of this water
By dancing for music accompanied with laughter”

Saying thus, Lord Rama paused for a moment
To see how His listeners had taken the event
For, a pot of water becoming a river was magical
He expected them to seek an explanation logical

He especially looked at the oarsman’s face
Which, did not show a doubtful trace
He then looked at Sita, who understood His mind
In picking up gestures, She was of the smartest kind

“Lord! How does a pot of water, small in size
To a river that is large, could give rise?”
In the oarsman’s view, this question was not right
On Mother Sita’s ignorance, he liked to throw some light

He came up with a beautiful example
To unquestioning faith, that was a sample
First, The Lord’s permission, he did seek
Then unto Mother Sita, he did speak

“The flame that we light, though tiny and small
Its light and heat throughout the room does fall
When a flame that we light can expand to that extend
Why must a drop, from the Lord’s feet, not expand?”

The oarsman’s faith, Lord Rama did appreciate
He also advised the former not to hate
The ones who seek logical reason
For curiosity is not a sinful passion

“Faith on one side is a matter of the heart
Brain on the other side, plays the rational part
Working as a team, they create wonders
Mocking each other, they commit blunders”

The oarsman realised Lord Rama’s words to be fair
And apologized to Mother Sita for mistaking Her
He then sought the answer for Mother Sita’s question
Lord Rama asked Lakshman to grant some vision

Mother Sita and the oarsman became eager to hear
Lakshman started to explain from Lord Rama’s rear
“I share with you what my Brother has taught
None of the following is my own thought

What, is a second in Brahma’s world
Is like a year in the heavenly world
What, is a year in the heavenly world
Is like a century in our human world

What, is a drop in Lord Brahma’s world
Is like a river in the heavenly world
What, is a river in the heavenly world
Is like an ocean in our own world”

The oarsman‘s eyes were now open wide
He turned with remorse towards Mother Sita’s side
“You are the Lord’s wife, how could you go wrong?
My Intellect like Yours is not very strong”

Mother Sita reassured him that he need not be sorry
Heated debates while learning are nothing to worry
Only that, one must not become angry or proud
From seeing the truth, these two would shroud

A lot from them, the oarsman learned
He felt grateful for the knowledge earned
Talks from Lord Rama, he wanted more
For his chance was only till the shore

“Lord! I want more of your voice that is melodic
The message that you convey to me is benefic
Mother! Ask the Lord about something interesting
Perhaps about scriptural verses, sometimes contrasting”

Mother Sita accepted, on his behalf, to enquire
She wanted the oarsman, some info, to acquire
“Lord, The Ganges that once belonged to heaven
How and why, to the earth, was it given?”

Lord Rama was delighted to continue Ganga’s story
Which also spoke of His great fore-fathers’ glory
The story that was His childhood fave
Great inspiration, to Him, it always gave

“King Sagara belonged to the Sun Dynasty
He ruled the earth with all honesty
He had two wives, like his right and left hands
Except for a child, they had no demands

So, King Sagara and his wives approached a sage
And expressed their grief after paying homage
The sage pitied them and decided to offer relief
He spoke words to wipe out their grief

“My power can give one son to one of your wives
The other wife must bear sixty thousand lives
The one son, for progeny, is blessed to be paternal
The sixty thousand sons will make your name eternal

The one son, for progeny, which queen would bear?
To mother sixty thousand sons, which queen would dare?
They must make their choices in agreement, mutual
If not, I cannot perform for them the needed ritual”

The first queen chose to prolong her husband’s glorious line
The second queen chose to make his name eternally shine
Thus was born Asamanjan who was very cruel
And his sixty thousand brothers, masters in duel

Asamanjan begot Ansuman a pious and beautiful child
But to other kids, in the kingdom, he was wild
Sadistic was he, throwing children into the river
He watched them drown, laughing out his liver

When King Sagara heard this, he was dejected
He ordered his son, out of the nation, to be ejected
Anyway, the King found solace in his grandson Ansuman
Who, grew up through years into a very good man

King Sagara started the Aswamedha yagna
Somehow overcoming the unpleasant stigma
Ashwameda involves a horse that is white
To travel all nations and return without fight

If it comes back safe, the yagna is completed
But if any king obstructs, he has to be defeated
In case the horse promptly doesn’t return
Endless misery would start to churn

So, the horse was sent out fully decked
Indra did not want it to go unchecked
He was jealous, King Sagara would succeed
He stole the horse and hid it, to impede

Sixty thousand sons of Sagara started to search
Around the world they started to angrily lurch
They dug up all land leaving it with dents
The world was terrified by those furious gents

They entered a cave that was dark on the way
Sage Kapila was meditating there night and day
Behind him, tied was the horse, well secluded
Sage Kapila to be the thief, they hastily concluded

Wanting to punish him for the act, forward they dashed
The sage opened his fire emitting eyes, and they got ashed
The Sage regretted the event that ended up nasty
But he knew, in defense, he had to be hasty

Their return from search, by the king, was eagerly expected
Seeing no sign of their imminent return, the king suspected
Something bad, to his beloved sons, must have happened
His sorrow of loosing the horse, further, got deepened

At his grandpa’s behest, for his uncles, Ansuman sought
He searched in all the places, where his uncles had fought
Finally he too entered the cave and saw the horse
Also his uncles’s ashes and wanted to know the cause

He waited in the cave, till the sage’s penance ended
The answer for his questions, Sage Kapila then rendered
The sage also said that his uncles, who are now ashes,
Will be liberated, only if, Ganga descends and washes!

Already old and now in pain, King Sagara breathed his last
The job of getting the Ganges, unto Ansuman’s shoulders was cast
Ansuman could not think of a way, till his end
It became his son Dilipa’s job to make amend

Dilipa was renowned in the world as a mighty warrior
Yet, to the job his predecessors left, he was just a carrier
To him was born King Bhagiratha the great
The compulsive one who wiped off his clan’s ill-fate

King Bhagiratha handed to his ministers, the kingship reigns
And went alone to the forest to take up pains
Determined to bring Ganges to the ground
Deep in his meditation he got drowned

Brahma appeared before him after centuries went
To Bhagiratha’s noble request, he accepted to relent
Anyway he warned of Ganga’s mighty force during descent
And only Shiva can bear it on his head that sports a crescent




Bhagiratha, towards success, wanted to advance
In order to propitiate Shiva, he started his penance
A few centuries again slowly went by
Until one day Shiva appeared to say hi

Shiva the splendid who is easily appeased
Accepted to dike the Ganges, once it is released
Brahma kept up his word and Ganga started to rush
Proud of her might, she thought, Shiva would crush

All knowing Shiva sensed her thought
Hence within his tresses she got caught
To teach her a lesson Shiva kept her there
Later, released her on seeing his devotee’s despair

Ganga now pure, with her pride humbled
Down from Kailash, she gradually tumbled
Like the happy tears that rolled down Bhagiratha’s cheek
She rolled down the hill like mercury with grace and sleek

On the way down she suddenly vanished
Leaving poor Bhagiratha fully astonished
When he went in search, his heart was about to burst
As he saw a sage named Jhanu, quenching his thirst

The sage collected all of Ganga in a pot
And drank to his content, the entire lot
The sage had done so since she became proud again
And spoiled a ritual he was doing for spiritual gain

Bhagiratha explained to the sage about his quest
The sage accepted to release The Ganges, lest
Bhagiratha’s tremendous effort will go in vain
And effort-taking habits, in future, will go drain

The sage released The Ganges through his ears
Bhagiratha at last succeeded after a legion of years
The Ganga now flowed unhindered with pomp
Dragging rocks and trees, in its playful stomp

Ganga roared into Kapila’s cave washing off the ashes
Liberating sixty thousand souls before a lightning flashes
It further went on to fill all the dents those warriors dug
After occupying two third of the world, it became smug

Thus were formed the seven oceans of the earth
Where fishes, sharks and whales play in mirth
It is popularly known as Sagar as per the sage’s word
The sixty thousand sons made the name always heard

Bhagirathi and Jhanavi are also Ganga’s names
To ever remind us of Bhagiratha’s and Jhanu’s fames
This is the story of Ganges, the holy
Which, cleanses sins, earned by folly"

Thus Lord Rama expounded the story of the Ganges
Whose roots are not exactly in the Himalayan ranges
Sita, Lakshman and the oarsman were delighted with Ram
Jai Shri Ram! Jai Jai Shri Ram!!

2 comments:

மதி said...

Hi.. Glad to have met u at the blogger meet.. This blog is a seriously good effort.. kudos to your patience and determination.. all the best. - GS

ramesh sadasivam said...

Thank you Mathi!