JR
Hare Krishna
Source: This is from Sri Vaishnava Yahoo group 'SriRangaSri' -- a message spanning multiple posts (https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/sriRangaSri/conversations/messages/25784 and
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/sriRangaSri/conversations/messages/25787 )
Dear sree vaishNava perunthagaiyeer,The two great epics of ‘bhaarath’ or India are studied together in this article to see certain “common points” and “contrasting points” in their roles of
a. Sree Raama, the hero of ‘seethaayaa’s charitham’ [as author sage vaalmeeki named it, or otherwise popularly known as ‘sreemadh raamaayaNam’] on one side,
b. Sree Bheeshma, the main anchor or main supporting character of sree ‘jayam’ [as sage vyaasa named it, or otherwise popularly known as ‘mahaa bhaaratham’] on the other side.I am sure by going though this article the readers will find certain ‘commonalities and variations’. This write up is the result when I undertook a deep study of both these epics.I am aware that comments from certain quarters will emanate and be raised as to
a. ‘how can you compare and contrast paramaathmaa Sreeman NaaraayaNan coming down into this world as Sree Raama,with
b. a ‘somewhat special’ Sree Bheeshma and thus demean that paramaathmaa Raama?’ I must assure to such raama bhakthaas that I am also a devotee and lover of sree raama,
· that paramaathmaa,
· that saraNaagatha vathsalan,
· that sree maha vishNu
· the ksheeraabdhi naathan.
So this study is more from a research and an ‘academic’ angle. First certain common points:
I. wherefrom and in what class and a word on life span of both:
a. Both are from the other lokam – ‘dhEva lokam’: Sree raama is sreeman naaraayaNa or sree VishNu himself. He came down to this ‘bhoo lOkam’ or this earth, as an ‘avathaaram’ in and as sree raama, the son of king dhasaratha in a manushya or human form. His main purpose for this particular avathaaram is to eliminate ‘RaavaNa’ from this bhoo lokam as assured by himself to dhEvaas.
Sree bheeshma is one of the ‘ashta vasus’ – the ‘8 vasus’ – who was born as a son of mother ‘gangaa’ due to a curse from Sage vasishTa [of raamaayaNam] on one of the 8 Vasus named ‘prabhaasa’. So this vasu born as ‘bheeshma’ got release from that curse by living in this world for a long period. But the other 7 vasus were born as his brothers, got the release as soon as were they were born. The name mother gave to her son is ‘dhEva vratha’ - later he got the name bheeshma. [This ‘prabhaasa’ name of that vasu varies in different puranams].
b. Both are of ‘Khasthriya varnam’ or class: Both Sree Raama and Bheeshma are from kahsthriya varnam or clan or the ruling class [the second of the four varnams – ref ‘chaathur varNyam maya srushTam’ of bhagavadh geethaa].
c. Both belong to the ‘royal’ lineage: Sree raama belongs to the ‘ikshvaaku vamsam’ or ‘raghu vamsam’ or ‘soorya vamsam’ and born in the royal lineage as the son of chakravarthi dhasaratha and kousalyaa dhEvi.In the same way or similar way, bheeshma is also of royal lineage. He is born as the son of king Santhanu and mother Gangaa in the ‘kuru vamsam’.
d. Both lived a long life: Raama ruled the ‘kosala saamraajyam’ for 11000 years - as stated by vaalmeeki. So it is a long life.Bheeshma had the boon granted by father Santhanu, to have ‘death as per his own wish’ or ‘icchaa maraNam’. So he also lived long enough to see 3 generations in the throne –
1. vichithra veerya – the step brother, - 1[SUP]st[/SUP] generation – who had short span of life
2. paaNdu and drutharaashtra – the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] generation
3. Dhuryodhana and yudhishTira – the 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] generation.
II. Education and knowledge:
a. Both have excelled in all ‘vidyaas’ - education and in particular ‘dhanur vidhyaa’ in young age:Sree raama had all learning under guru vasishTa. Sree raama’s skills in archery and his valour are exhibited in elimination of ‘thaataka’ during the ‘visvaamithra yaaga samrakshaNam’ in raama’s young age [less than 16 as per that famous slokam ‘oona shOdasa varsha:’ of dhasaratha].Bheeshma also had all learning as required for the royal class. His dhanur vidhya skills were noticed by his father santhanu in bheeshma’s young age. King santhanu, without knowing that boy is his son, saw river ganga getting stopped from flowing down in the river course, by a boy with his archery skills.
b. Both are ‘Knowers of Dharma’ – were following or adopting dharma:Both raama and bheeshma are ‘legends’ on ‘dharma’ and ‘advocates’ of dharma. For any clarification on points of dharma we, the modern day people, go back to raama or bheeshma or in simple terms refer the two epics.
Sree raama lived the dharmic way and spoke about dharma in many places in raamaayaNam. Sree raama is known, considered and said as “raama: vigrahavaan dharma”. Vaali who was killed by raama also said raama is a dharmavaan, and he will not come into the dual between himself and brother sugreeva. Later lot of arguments on dharmam comes into focus in the vaali episode.Sree bheeshma taught dharma in a very elaborate manner to king yudhishtira. The entire ‘anusaasana parvam’ [the 13[SUP]th[/SUP] book of epic] is the ‘talk’ about different dharmams. Further lord krishNa, the next ‘sampoorna avathaaram’ of the supreme lord sreeman naaraayaNan, certified about bheeshma, ‘who else knows dharma better than that grand old bheeshma’. Thus both are advocates of dharma.
III. The kingdom and ascendency:
a. Both are ‘entitled’ to ascend the throne but missed:Both Sree raama and Bheeshma were ‘legitimate’ children of the respective kings mentioned above, king dhasaratha and king Santhanu. Thus they, with all ‘rights’ legally and as per customs and saasthrams prevailing then, are fully ‘entitled’ to ascend the throne but both missed the crowning.
b. Both missed the ascending of throne from ‘parental’ factors: [fathers or mothers]Both missed the crowning for the kingdom because of ‘boons’ or ‘varams’ or ‘vows’ or ‘assurances’ on account of respective fathers.In case of sree raama - it is a varam or an assurance given by the father dhasaratha to his wife.In the case of bheeshma it is an oath taken by himself “for the sake of his father” king santhanu.
c. Both did not get ‘orders’ directly from fathers to miss crowning:In both cases the respective fathers did not directly give the orders denying the crown to their sons. For sree raama, kaikEyee conveyed the message, ‘this is what your father wants you to do, you to go to forest for 14 years, the crowning is to be done to bharatha’.For bheeshma it is ‘self denial’ for father’s sake – ‘I will not make a claim to ascend the throne nor even my progeny for I am not going to marry and as such there will be no children of mine claiming a right to ascend the throne’. Father santhanu came to know of his son bheeshma’s sacrifice later only. Thus there is no order from father to bheeshma.This can be listed or considered in the ‘contrasting points’ also.
d. Both the sons and their fathers suffered because of their own ‘kaamam’ or desire: Dhasaratha said to kaikEyee ‘if your wish is granted and raama is separated from me I will die’. KaikEyee for sure, knew with the sending away of raama, king dhasaratha will die. In spite of this she demanded that raama must go to forest and thus she became a widow.
Raama, on his part, could have refused to go, but he obeyed father’s orders. And thus he had his desires fulfilled as an ‘ideal’ and ‘obedient’ son. Thus both father and son suffered for different reasons.Bheeshma also knew that if marriage with this fisher woman sathyavathy is denied, his father Santhanu would die [for bheeshma saw father santhanu becoming pale and weak on thoughts of this lady and thus physically suffering due to the thoughts of the lady sathyavathi]. On learning the reason from his father, bheeshma realized he has to do something to change the situation. That led bheeshma to take the vow. Thus bheeshma suffered by denial of his conjugal rights and also his crowning. May be king santhanu got his desire of having sathyavathy, but denial of marriage to his son and the legitimate son sacrificing his crown – will not this cause agony to a father? Thus both suffered.
e. Both missed crowning due to “Step mothers”:Both raama and bheeshma missed crowning for ‘reasons’ concerning their ‘step mothers’ and not directly due to or by reasons attributable to their own mothers.Sree raama missed his crowning based on ‘assurances’ given by father dhasaratha to raama’s step mother kaikEyee.Bheeshma missed the crowning by his own assurance in order to get a ‘step mother’ for himself [or in other words, to enable his father santhanu to ‘get’ a new wife, and thus a new ‘chiththi’ or step mother].That way in both cases the ‘chiththies’ or the ‘step mothers’ were reason for the missing of crowns of these two. f. Both respected the chiththies or step mothers:Another point which proves the greatness of these two, is that even though chiththies were reasons for they being deprived in one way or other, these two had great respect to these two ladies and exhibited their respect on many occasions.
Since more points are there we will have to continue in next post.
Dhasan
Vasudevan MG
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/sriRangaSri/conversations/messages/25787 )
Dear sree vaishNava perunthagaiyeer,The two great epics of ‘bhaarath’ or India are studied together in this article to see certain “common points” and “contrasting points” in their roles of
a. Sree Raama, the hero of ‘seethaayaa’s charitham’ [as author sage vaalmeeki named it, or otherwise popularly known as ‘sreemadh raamaayaNam’] on one side,
b. Sree Bheeshma, the main anchor or main supporting character of sree ‘jayam’ [as sage vyaasa named it, or otherwise popularly known as ‘mahaa bhaaratham’] on the other side.I am sure by going though this article the readers will find certain ‘commonalities and variations’. This write up is the result when I undertook a deep study of both these epics.I am aware that comments from certain quarters will emanate and be raised as to
a. ‘how can you compare and contrast paramaathmaa Sreeman NaaraayaNan coming down into this world as Sree Raama,with
b. a ‘somewhat special’ Sree Bheeshma and thus demean that paramaathmaa Raama?’ I must assure to such raama bhakthaas that I am also a devotee and lover of sree raama,
· that paramaathmaa,
· that saraNaagatha vathsalan,
· that sree maha vishNu
· the ksheeraabdhi naathan.
So this study is more from a research and an ‘academic’ angle. First certain common points:
I. wherefrom and in what class and a word on life span of both:
a. Both are from the other lokam – ‘dhEva lokam’: Sree raama is sreeman naaraayaNa or sree VishNu himself. He came down to this ‘bhoo lOkam’ or this earth, as an ‘avathaaram’ in and as sree raama, the son of king dhasaratha in a manushya or human form. His main purpose for this particular avathaaram is to eliminate ‘RaavaNa’ from this bhoo lokam as assured by himself to dhEvaas.
Sree bheeshma is one of the ‘ashta vasus’ – the ‘8 vasus’ – who was born as a son of mother ‘gangaa’ due to a curse from Sage vasishTa [of raamaayaNam] on one of the 8 Vasus named ‘prabhaasa’. So this vasu born as ‘bheeshma’ got release from that curse by living in this world for a long period. But the other 7 vasus were born as his brothers, got the release as soon as were they were born. The name mother gave to her son is ‘dhEva vratha’ - later he got the name bheeshma. [This ‘prabhaasa’ name of that vasu varies in different puranams].
b. Both are of ‘Khasthriya varnam’ or class: Both Sree Raama and Bheeshma are from kahsthriya varnam or clan or the ruling class [the second of the four varnams – ref ‘chaathur varNyam maya srushTam’ of bhagavadh geethaa].
c. Both belong to the ‘royal’ lineage: Sree raama belongs to the ‘ikshvaaku vamsam’ or ‘raghu vamsam’ or ‘soorya vamsam’ and born in the royal lineage as the son of chakravarthi dhasaratha and kousalyaa dhEvi.In the same way or similar way, bheeshma is also of royal lineage. He is born as the son of king Santhanu and mother Gangaa in the ‘kuru vamsam’.
d. Both lived a long life: Raama ruled the ‘kosala saamraajyam’ for 11000 years - as stated by vaalmeeki. So it is a long life.Bheeshma had the boon granted by father Santhanu, to have ‘death as per his own wish’ or ‘icchaa maraNam’. So he also lived long enough to see 3 generations in the throne –
1. vichithra veerya – the step brother, - 1[SUP]st[/SUP] generation – who had short span of life
2. paaNdu and drutharaashtra – the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] generation
3. Dhuryodhana and yudhishTira – the 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] generation.
II. Education and knowledge:
a. Both have excelled in all ‘vidyaas’ - education and in particular ‘dhanur vidhyaa’ in young age:Sree raama had all learning under guru vasishTa. Sree raama’s skills in archery and his valour are exhibited in elimination of ‘thaataka’ during the ‘visvaamithra yaaga samrakshaNam’ in raama’s young age [less than 16 as per that famous slokam ‘oona shOdasa varsha:’ of dhasaratha].Bheeshma also had all learning as required for the royal class. His dhanur vidhya skills were noticed by his father santhanu in bheeshma’s young age. King santhanu, without knowing that boy is his son, saw river ganga getting stopped from flowing down in the river course, by a boy with his archery skills.
b. Both are ‘Knowers of Dharma’ – were following or adopting dharma:Both raama and bheeshma are ‘legends’ on ‘dharma’ and ‘advocates’ of dharma. For any clarification on points of dharma we, the modern day people, go back to raama or bheeshma or in simple terms refer the two epics.
Sree raama lived the dharmic way and spoke about dharma in many places in raamaayaNam. Sree raama is known, considered and said as “raama: vigrahavaan dharma”. Vaali who was killed by raama also said raama is a dharmavaan, and he will not come into the dual between himself and brother sugreeva. Later lot of arguments on dharmam comes into focus in the vaali episode.Sree bheeshma taught dharma in a very elaborate manner to king yudhishtira. The entire ‘anusaasana parvam’ [the 13[SUP]th[/SUP] book of epic] is the ‘talk’ about different dharmams. Further lord krishNa, the next ‘sampoorna avathaaram’ of the supreme lord sreeman naaraayaNan, certified about bheeshma, ‘who else knows dharma better than that grand old bheeshma’. Thus both are advocates of dharma.
III. The kingdom and ascendency:
a. Both are ‘entitled’ to ascend the throne but missed:Both Sree raama and Bheeshma were ‘legitimate’ children of the respective kings mentioned above, king dhasaratha and king Santhanu. Thus they, with all ‘rights’ legally and as per customs and saasthrams prevailing then, are fully ‘entitled’ to ascend the throne but both missed the crowning.
b. Both missed the ascending of throne from ‘parental’ factors: [fathers or mothers]Both missed the crowning for the kingdom because of ‘boons’ or ‘varams’ or ‘vows’ or ‘assurances’ on account of respective fathers.In case of sree raama - it is a varam or an assurance given by the father dhasaratha to his wife.In the case of bheeshma it is an oath taken by himself “for the sake of his father” king santhanu.
c. Both did not get ‘orders’ directly from fathers to miss crowning:In both cases the respective fathers did not directly give the orders denying the crown to their sons. For sree raama, kaikEyee conveyed the message, ‘this is what your father wants you to do, you to go to forest for 14 years, the crowning is to be done to bharatha’.For bheeshma it is ‘self denial’ for father’s sake – ‘I will not make a claim to ascend the throne nor even my progeny for I am not going to marry and as such there will be no children of mine claiming a right to ascend the throne’. Father santhanu came to know of his son bheeshma’s sacrifice later only. Thus there is no order from father to bheeshma.This can be listed or considered in the ‘contrasting points’ also.
d. Both the sons and their fathers suffered because of their own ‘kaamam’ or desire: Dhasaratha said to kaikEyee ‘if your wish is granted and raama is separated from me I will die’. KaikEyee for sure, knew with the sending away of raama, king dhasaratha will die. In spite of this she demanded that raama must go to forest and thus she became a widow.
Raama, on his part, could have refused to go, but he obeyed father’s orders. And thus he had his desires fulfilled as an ‘ideal’ and ‘obedient’ son. Thus both father and son suffered for different reasons.Bheeshma also knew that if marriage with this fisher woman sathyavathy is denied, his father Santhanu would die [for bheeshma saw father santhanu becoming pale and weak on thoughts of this lady and thus physically suffering due to the thoughts of the lady sathyavathi]. On learning the reason from his father, bheeshma realized he has to do something to change the situation. That led bheeshma to take the vow. Thus bheeshma suffered by denial of his conjugal rights and also his crowning. May be king santhanu got his desire of having sathyavathy, but denial of marriage to his son and the legitimate son sacrificing his crown – will not this cause agony to a father? Thus both suffered.
e. Both missed crowning due to “Step mothers”:Both raama and bheeshma missed crowning for ‘reasons’ concerning their ‘step mothers’ and not directly due to or by reasons attributable to their own mothers.Sree raama missed his crowning based on ‘assurances’ given by father dhasaratha to raama’s step mother kaikEyee.Bheeshma missed the crowning by his own assurance in order to get a ‘step mother’ for himself [or in other words, to enable his father santhanu to ‘get’ a new wife, and thus a new ‘chiththi’ or step mother].That way in both cases the ‘chiththies’ or the ‘step mothers’ were reason for the missing of crowns of these two. f. Both respected the chiththies or step mothers:Another point which proves the greatness of these two, is that even though chiththies were reasons for they being deprived in one way or other, these two had great respect to these two ladies and exhibited their respect on many occasions.
Since more points are there we will have to continue in next post.
Dhasan
Vasudevan MG
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