#189 subrahmaNya vijayayam discourse by Mr. cAganTi kOTEswara rAo

Writing this blog is a balancing-act for me a la the balancing-acts of politicians who have to satisfy different sections of their vote-banks. I have an imperative to take special care in choosing every word I write in this blog and every sentence I construct, lest what I write may unintentionally hurt the sentiments of readers, particularly those who are not interested in digging into beliefs, facts, histories, legends and myths.

I have just now come back from tv viewing. Watched SVbC (Sri venkaTEswara bhakti channel) TV channel of tirumala venkaTEswara temple, also known as TTD. Today is subrahmaNya shashThi (6th day on which Lord subrahmaNya was born).
For the benefit of those who are not aware: Lord subrahmaNya = kumAraswAmi = kArtikEya = murugan = shaDAnana = SaravaNabhava.
ShashThi = 6th day of the 15day lunar fortnight. We get two shashThis in every lunAr month.
TTD-SVBC organised special orations of Mr. chAganTi kOTEswara rAo, a scholar of Hindu scriptures, enjoying the patronage of TTD-SVBC channel. He has today from 6.30p.m. to 8.30 p.m. dealt with in his oration, the whole story of birth of Lord kArtikEya.

Shri kOTEswara Rao, has during his two hour speech stretched in length, the basic story of subrahmaNya`s birth, and some other topics such as sanAtana dharma, vEdAs, Adi Shankara, kumArila bhaTTu, gnAna sambandha nAyanAr et al. He has explained that kumArila bhaTTu was the incarnation of Lord subrahmaNya, and that he defended the vEdAs against an onslaught of yagnas (sacrifices) as great evils, by the critics of his days (approx. 7c A.D.).

The venue, sAtya sAi nigamAgamam hall, Hyderabad, was fully packed, with audience standing or squatting even in alleys. The audience also responded with claps enthusiastically and voluntarily. He has great control over Sanskrit and telugu verses, which he quoted profusely. He deserves great praise for his oratorial skills and his retention powers of sAnskrit and telugu verses. He quoted extensively from vAlmIki rAmAyaNa, volume 1 (bAla kAnDa - shrI rAma`s childhood).

ybrao a donkey`s views

High-flow-style, oratory and verbal-ornamentation cannot create facts and truth-s from illogical interpretations and narrations be they in the original scripture or added by interpretors. They can only serve as audio-visual treats and do not serve truth-seekers. Dress-codes, facial-symbolic-marks, ear-rings, etc. also do not add anything to facts-truth(s).

Relevance of Mr. kOTEswara rAo`s discourse for this rAmAyaNa blog

The speaker referred to two stories of kArtikEya. 1. kumAra sambhava in volume 1 bAla kAnDa of vAlmiki rAmAyaNa. 2. kumAra sambhava literary work by 5th Century (or 11th Century) by kALidAsa.

Mr. cAganTi kOTEswara rAo, quite rightly, took up the vAlmiki rAmAyaNa school for his discourse. It seems that he has treated kALidAsa`s kumAra sambhava as a more literary work.

Context of kumAra sambhava story in volume 1 of vAlmIki rAmayan
Chapters=sargas 36 and 37. Young rAma and lakshmaNa were accompanying sage visvAmitra, to save his sacrificial pyres from the misdeeds of demons. visvAmitra uses the time spent on forest-trekking from ayOdhya to his hermitage, for narrating tales pertinent to the places they saw enroute.

The problem with temple interpreters-preachers-scholars of hindu scriptures is that they use their contents for justifying their personal beliefs, without at least mentioning that what they are dishing out is their personal beliefs rather than a realistic delineation of the legends and sagas of the great-inherited-epics. (to continue and revise without prior information).