Sri Ramanavami

Today is Ramanavami – birthday of Rama.

We collected a list of songs on Rama by various singers like MS, Balamurali,  Ariyakudi,Pattammal,TMKrishna , Rajan and Sajan Misra. We heard them in the morning. Some of them more than 50 years old and  composed hundreds of years back about a great man , myth or history hardly matters, who lived perhaps thousands of year back.

After that the usual ಪಾನಕ, ಕೋಸಂಬರಿ etc.But as poet Adiga says :

ಶ್ರೀ ರಾಮನವಮಿಯ ದಿವಸ ರಾಮನಾಮಾಮೃತವೆ

ಪಾನಕ,ಪನಿವಾರ,ಕೋಸಂಬರಿ;

 

It was very pleasant both from a musical point of view and from cultural point of view.

Treating him as a great man, pinnacle of humans (ಪುರುಷೋತ್ತಮ ) required a mind set that is admirable and says something about the culture. A kind person who considered a promise as sacrosanct, treated his subjects as his superiors ( leave aside differences in perception and disagreements ) does not belong to ordinary mortals. As Tulasidas sings :

Shri Ramacandra kripalu bhaju, mana, harana bhava bhaya darunam ।

navakanja-lochana kanja-mukha, kara-kanja pada-kanjarunam

I feel sad that in his name we want to kill, maim people,violate women and not spare even children. It is cruel irony that one of the pillars of his character ( as a King ) was to  listen to grievances of people ( however humble in origin  and uninformed they may be ) and to protect them – called ‘Raja Dharma’ is precisely what was missing by willful intent in our rulers. And one such is Modi who might be the prime minister soon. His party wants to build a temple in His name whatever the consequences.

No ... we do not want to clean up say Yamuna, create clean and sanitized conditions even in ‘ holy and sacred’ places of worship, make Himalyas or Kanyakumari unpolluted – no these are not as important as building another temple so that we can fight and spill blood.

I feel sad and share anguish  with the poet

ಹುತ್ತುಗಟ್ಟದೆ ಚಿತ್ತ ಮತ್ತೆ ಕೆತ್ತೀತೇನು

ಪುರುಷೋತ್ತಮನ ಆ ಅಂಥ ರೂಪ-ರೇಖೆ ?