#001D Replies to Comments of Wanderingmindz

wanderingmindz said... thanks for translation but the pathos with which Ramayana is talked about is missing and yeah ,get well soon mamu ;-)

REPLY

Ramayana is a Vaishnavite text i.e. a text pertaining to God Vishnu.

Visn was a God of Latvia and Lithuania. Lakshmi was a Goddess , a part of 14 Mathe in ancient Latvia.

Ramayana tried to equate an ordinary king Rama to Vishnu and Sita to Lakme Mathe.

Building and maintaining temples with royal patronage goes well with supporting books , made sacred by calling them scriptures . This art is similar to building churches and mosques .

Where is the place for alleged pathos ? Rama himself disowned BANANA STALK THIGHED Sita twice out of his own fickleness or greed for kingdom. What is the use of having banana stalk thighs , then ? She could as well have had fat-free coconut frond stalk like legs.

PATHOS IN THE SEPARATED DEER I greatly appreciate your concern for pathos in Ramayana. You can find that in the separated deer. SRLs (Sita, Rama and Lakshmana) were devoring everyday for fourteen years , three or four deer to live like munis (sages). The slain deer would go to Lord's abode (Vaikuntham) if all the three or four deer belonged to the same family. Rama would be a great kind God who bestows deliverance from the pangs of birth and death (janana maran`ams) instantly to the creatures killed in his hand. You might have come across the Principles of Tragedy proposed in Aristotlean Poetics . Pathos evokes sympathy in the hearts and minds of the readers towards the protagonist (hero). The hero should commit a minor mistake. He should receive punishment for his error. He and the readers have to undergo catharsis (washing away the guilt through grieving and tears) during the process. The hero would now be Mr. Clean. (e.g. 1. Hamlet. 2. Mrs. Indira Gandhi during emergency of 1974. Her catharsis comes in 1977 elections. Her resurrection takes place in 1980 elections in which voters sympathize her. We shall , now take the separated deer. We can expect the following scenario during the fourteen years slaying of deers: Some deers may be staying at their home trees while some deer of the group may be grazing in a meadow. Rama's arrows separate a male deer from its female partner. We should have a flaw for the pathos. The slain deer would commit the mistake of coming into the view of Rama's hunting spectrum. The deer gets separated from his/her partner for this blunder. The other deer would be wailing for the loss of the partner. This catharsis goes unnoticed because SRLs, Valmiki or the Readers are not bothered about the wails of the deer losing their partners. You have to undertake some 'parakaaya pravees`am' to empathise the misery of the deer.

You can find another pathos in Urmila: Urmila was wife of Lakshmana. She was separated from her husband for 14 years as Lakshmana was crazy of serving his brother and sister-in-law. She must have wept silently in Ayodhya for these fourteen years. Valmiki did not bother about this pathetic condition of Urmila. A folklore Ramayana bothered. There is a fictitious folk ballad called 'Urmila Devi Nidra (Urmila Devi's sleep)' in Telugu. Lakshmana gave Urmila, a gift of fourteen years sleep , so that she did not undergo the pangs of separation. She would get up from sleep only after Lakshmana returned from the exile.

Wanderingmind said...(At my post in replies to Comments of Shri Anand) Multisub YB: If Ramayana is a fiction ,I assume you believe Rama is also fictional; then why are you wasting time in criticzing a fiction and a fictional character ?? I don't wish to know an answer to this as usual you will spit venom againt Rama :)

1. Pl. also see my Hinduismreformsyb.blogspot.com blog, where you will find some reasons for my anguish. 2. I also, sometimes, feel that I am wasting my time. But, I cannot go back whimsically, having done some work. It is something like this: We enter a tunnel and pass through it halfway. It will, then be, logical to pursue till the end of the tunnel. 3. I have no venom against Rama, who is only a fictional character. I am an admirer of Thygagaraja and Patnam Subrahmanya Aiyer. I spend everyday one or two hours singing Rama's glories vocally or using a flute in the Classical Carnatic Style. I occasionally feel that Kings and Priests have thrived by creating business of Gods and Temples. They cashed on the folklore legends of Centuries for mutual benefit. I consider even Valmiki as a fictional character in the sense that Ramayana is a composition of hundreds of singers and writers both 'folk' and 'priests'. I have tried to criticise the deeds of the kings and priests who interpolated numerous unsavageous things into Ramayana. E.g. 1 : The bird Jat`aayu preaches the FOUR CASTE SYSTEM, using nearly 50 verses. How does a bird know about castes in humans? The Priests inserted the system into its mouth. E.g. 2 : Vasisht`ha asks the King Ambarisha to bring a human substitute as a sacrificial goat , when Indra stole his sacrificial animal. E.g. 3 : Kings calling the entire Earth as their own and using tribals as their slaves, while at the same time calling them monkeys with tails. This is possible only with the collusion of Kings and the Temple Preachers. E.g. 4 : The Priests in the Royal Court and the Temple Preachers praised Rama because he enforced the four caste system, during the 11,000 years he was said to have ruled, as if there was no other work. They made Rama kill horses 100 times by performing Asva Meetha Sacrifices. Performing these sacrifices might have been a fashion during the period 0 to 600 A.D. The Kings benefited by enforcing their whimsical orders and the Priests benefited by gold gifts made by the kings. The fashion during 601 to 1200 was building stone temples and thriving on lands given by kings. What was the fashion during 1201 to 1947 ? What is the fashion from 1947 to 2010? We have to learn lessons from history. What I do is only a/an humble effort. Please do not misunderstand me hence. I shall not misunderstand you because your sentiments have also been created and shaped by the Priests and Temples. Please, remember my friend : true realisation of a person does not revolve around temples , mosques, churches , gurudwaras etc., or the preachings of the preachers who work there. I hope you have read my Vivekananda blog also: Vivekanandayb.blogspot.com.