Power of Faith -- Sharanagati
One of my good friends, Chandrasekhar Dhall, posted this on facebook recently:
God helps those who DO NOT help themselves - Swami Vivekanand
This quote, while ringing true, reminded me of a powerful part in the Ramayana through which the power of "Sharanagati" or Complete Surrender is explained.
This story is narrated by Sita Devi in the 5th canto of the Ramayana, known as "sundarakanda".
When our dear god Hanuman goes to Lanka in search of Sita devi who was abducted by the demon king Ravana, he eventually finds her sitting under a large banyan tree (sishupa vruksham), surrounded by demon women slaves who were ugly and frightening at the same time.
By this point in the story, Hanuman having never met Sita Devi and vice versa creates an interesting conundrum in the mind of Hanuman to prove to each other that each other are what they say they are. Remember in the Treta yuga, demons who could change forms and morph into different beings were common place. Hence the need for identification was compounded by the situation Sita Devi found herself in and vice versa. Long story short, Hanuman manages to converse with Sita devi. As a matter of fact, Hanuman being highly intelligent ( he specialized the 9 vyakaranas, which as I understand it have been mastered ONLY by a few handful in the history of mankind), figured out that the lady who he saw sobbing, with old ruffed up clothes, and weak due to lack of proper food was indeed Sita Devi. ( read the Ramayana to understand with how much difficulty he really comes to this conclusion)
But if you understand the state in which Sita Devi found her self, after having gone through what she went through for 10 months having been abducted by Ravana, including being abducted through deception (Mareecha and the golden deer, Ravana in the form of a Sadhu etc.) was not in a position to trust anything any more. She was almost convinced by this time that anything good she might here or see must be a hallucination. Hanuman having understood this, describes the whole story of Sri Rama before she was abducted (the part Sita Devi already knew) and after her abduction, which was new to her. And provides her with a ring as proof, that Sri Rama had given to Hanuman to prove his identity to Sita Devi in the eventuality that Hanuman does find her.
After having providing solace to Sita Devi, through his words and assurance of Sri Rama waiting across the ocean in India along with the army of a countless apes, gorillas, grizzly bears etc etc, Hanuman asks Sita Devi to provider him with something that he can prove to Sri Rama that the lady Hanuman spoke to was indeed Sita Devi. (think about it isn't that easy to provide such proof's, unless.....)
So as part of this proof, Sita Devi narrates the following story from her past, that ONLY herself and Sri Rama could know. (BTW, that is the only proof that cannot be messed with). This story is called " kaka sura vrutthanta"
This story is set in the aranya kanda (forest canto) of the Ramayana, (hence this is the past for the context of this story), when Sri Rama, Sita Devi and Lakshmana were living in the forest, per the wishes of Kaikeyi ( Sri Rama's step mother).
Lets recap the most important aspect of the Ramayana from the perspective of the gods, and the world:
Sri Mahavishnu agreed to take the human form, the "ava tara" of Rama on this planet for a two pronged agenda:
1. To Kill Ravana, who was troubling the gods, and creating chaos and pain around the world ( a terrorist of those times)
2. To show man the route to Dharma, and how a man is really supposed to live.
With that in context, lets continue with the story:
13 years into the the vana vasa (forest dwelling), Sri Rama, seemed to be living a very happy content life with Sita Devi and Lakshmana in the forest at Chitrakoot. Now since Sri Rama was born as a human, (yes a human), he really did not know his real purpose, except his natural state of existence was the upholding of dharma and truth (satya), and nothing else. The gods started to worry about what would really happen if Sri Rama would continue to live this happily in the forest and the 14 yrs of vana vasa would come to an end. It would not be easy for them to create situations that would lead the demise of Ravana, hence one of the main purposes of Rama's avatara (incarnation) would not be fulfilled.
And in all these years, as the life of Sri Rama progressed, nothing seemed to upset Sri Rama enough, so as to create a natural reason for enmity with Ravana.
Hence, it was imperative for them to find out, what would really cause Sri Rama, to 'lose it'. To find out, they requested the help of one "kakasura", one of the son's of Indra, to go see if hurting Sita Devi might do the trick.
So "kakasura", whose natural form is that of a crow, proceeds to find out.
In a place of privacy somewhere close to their hermit, Sri Rama and Sita Devi were hanging out by pieces of meat that were kept for the purposes of sun drying. Kakasura, initially tries to trouble Sita Devi by trying to steal the pieces of meat, which of course Sita Devi does try to shoo him away, at which point, kakasura tries to attack sita devi, and in response sita devi hurls one of her gold and diamond ornament (vaddanam), that she ties around her belly at the crow to scare it away. Amused at her plight, Sri Rama makes fun of her, for throwing a big ornament to shoo a stupid crow away. The crow keeps at bay for a while.
And then after a while, Sri Rama, rests and goes to sleep on the lap of a seated Sita Devi ( Sri Rama practiced Brahmacharya (celibacy) those 14 years). Now seeing this opportunity, the kakasura tries to avenge the ornament thrown at him by attacking Sita Devi again, coz now she is immobile and she wouldn't wake her husband up from her sleep (dharma). And in this attack the crow is successful in injuring Sita devi somewhere near her chest, and she starts bleeding. The blood now spills on to the face of Sri Rama, who is asleep, to which he wake up and find Sita Devi, injured and in tears, helpless and more importantly without any counter attack against the crow.
Sri Rama, wakes up in rage, shouting, " who dares to mess with a five headed cobra" (resembling how dangerous it can get to mess with Sita devi). He looks around and see the beak of the crow has Sita Devi's blood. At this, he does something he never did in his life before: Launches the "Brahmastra" at the crow. (something he never did before because, if you read the Ramayana, Rama NEVER uses the stronger astras (missiles) right away, always gives his opponents chances to change, and in any case the Brahmastra usually is the last resort.).
Kakasura, now roams the three worlds, for protection against the Brahmastra, which never attacks anyone who show their back to it, hence it followed him around, ultimately no one in the three worlds can assure protection to kakasura, because Sri Rama's astra had the power to decimate the universe if necessary and no one could dare oppose the astra of Sri Rama, coz they knew Sri Rama was Vishnu incarnate. Hence Kakasura had to finally plead with Sri Rama himself for mercy, which Sri Rama obliges and only take away one of his eyes (because the brahmastra that has been released has to be silenced, only through an intended target can it be silenced (advanced target seeking ballistic missiles).
(Seeing this, the gods realize that the only way Sri Rama can be brought in direct fatal conflict with Ravana is through Sita Devi. And hence concoct the happenings of the universe in such a way that they do indeed get there. The rest of the story is for you to read, or hear, or for me to describe in pieces as necessary through this blog.)
Now back to Lanka:
After having narrated this story, Sita Devi, says, asks Hanuman to ask Sri Rama the following:
On that day, when I was attacked by a stupid crow, and surrendered to you for help, you launched the Brahmastra against my attacker, why are you quite now? why haven't you decimated Lanka yet? Even know I have surrendered to you, I am not trying to help myself. But I wait for you. Why has it taken so long for you to come rescue me?
The gist (paramartha) of this above story as explained by my Guru, is that as long as you think that you REALLY can do much for yourself, you can protect yourself, the Lord will wait and watch. The day you surrender yourself completely (sampoorna Saranagati), God will come to your rescue and deliver you from your troubles. Understand, Complete Surrender, is not by word, but by heart. COMPLETE, through to the bottom of your soul, you have to surrender and God will come to your rescue.
Having said that, Guruji also in another part clearly says, that getting to that state of mind is an extremely difficult thing to accomplish. Coz unfortunately doubt always lingers in our mind, whether we like it or not, because as we know, our mind is our master for the unrealized.
Hence Guruji says, yes, keep attempting to get your mind to a state of complete surrender to the Almighty, but in the process, keep doing your dharma, your purushartha, manava prayatna, to solve your everyday problems.
Complete Surrender in Bhakti yoga is akin to God Realization (na iti) ub Jnana yoga.
And one day, when you do get to the stage of complete surrender, God will take care of you. Sri Rama in the Ramayana, and the great Rishi's of India have given us this guarantee. But the question really is:
Can you REALLY get to that state? Can we at least attempt? Most people cannot even stop themselves from giving up alcohol completely. How far far away are they from the protection of the divine?
I do not intend to speak for the Christians ( or for that matter Muslims), but I do believe and as I understand them the strength of their religions, the core of it lies in faith. Completely Surrendering to the Almighty God. The aspect of complete surrender really is the same as the Bhakti yoga.
God helps those who DO NOT help themselves - Swami Vivekanand
This quote, while ringing true, reminded me of a powerful part in the Ramayana through which the power of "Sharanagati" or Complete Surrender is explained.
This story is narrated by Sita Devi in the 5th canto of the Ramayana, known as "sundarakanda".
When our dear god Hanuman goes to Lanka in search of Sita devi who was abducted by the demon king Ravana, he eventually finds her sitting under a large banyan tree (sishupa vruksham), surrounded by demon women slaves who were ugly and frightening at the same time.
By this point in the story, Hanuman having never met Sita Devi and vice versa creates an interesting conundrum in the mind of Hanuman to prove to each other that each other are what they say they are. Remember in the Treta yuga, demons who could change forms and morph into different beings were common place. Hence the need for identification was compounded by the situation Sita Devi found herself in and vice versa. Long story short, Hanuman manages to converse with Sita devi. As a matter of fact, Hanuman being highly intelligent ( he specialized the 9 vyakaranas, which as I understand it have been mastered ONLY by a few handful in the history of mankind), figured out that the lady who he saw sobbing, with old ruffed up clothes, and weak due to lack of proper food was indeed Sita Devi. ( read the Ramayana to understand with how much difficulty he really comes to this conclusion)
But if you understand the state in which Sita Devi found her self, after having gone through what she went through for 10 months having been abducted by Ravana, including being abducted through deception (Mareecha and the golden deer, Ravana in the form of a Sadhu etc.) was not in a position to trust anything any more. She was almost convinced by this time that anything good she might here or see must be a hallucination. Hanuman having understood this, describes the whole story of Sri Rama before she was abducted (the part Sita Devi already knew) and after her abduction, which was new to her. And provides her with a ring as proof, that Sri Rama had given to Hanuman to prove his identity to Sita Devi in the eventuality that Hanuman does find her.
After having providing solace to Sita Devi, through his words and assurance of Sri Rama waiting across the ocean in India along with the army of a countless apes, gorillas, grizzly bears etc etc, Hanuman asks Sita Devi to provider him with something that he can prove to Sri Rama that the lady Hanuman spoke to was indeed Sita Devi. (think about it isn't that easy to provide such proof's, unless.....)
So as part of this proof, Sita Devi narrates the following story from her past, that ONLY herself and Sri Rama could know. (BTW, that is the only proof that cannot be messed with). This story is called " kaka sura vrutthanta"
This story is set in the aranya kanda (forest canto) of the Ramayana, (hence this is the past for the context of this story), when Sri Rama, Sita Devi and Lakshmana were living in the forest, per the wishes of Kaikeyi ( Sri Rama's step mother).
Lets recap the most important aspect of the Ramayana from the perspective of the gods, and the world:
Sri Mahavishnu agreed to take the human form, the "ava tara" of Rama on this planet for a two pronged agenda:
1. To Kill Ravana, who was troubling the gods, and creating chaos and pain around the world ( a terrorist of those times)
2. To show man the route to Dharma, and how a man is really supposed to live.
With that in context, lets continue with the story:
13 years into the the vana vasa (forest dwelling), Sri Rama, seemed to be living a very happy content life with Sita Devi and Lakshmana in the forest at Chitrakoot. Now since Sri Rama was born as a human, (yes a human), he really did not know his real purpose, except his natural state of existence was the upholding of dharma and truth (satya), and nothing else. The gods started to worry about what would really happen if Sri Rama would continue to live this happily in the forest and the 14 yrs of vana vasa would come to an end. It would not be easy for them to create situations that would lead the demise of Ravana, hence one of the main purposes of Rama's avatara (incarnation) would not be fulfilled.
And in all these years, as the life of Sri Rama progressed, nothing seemed to upset Sri Rama enough, so as to create a natural reason for enmity with Ravana.
Hence, it was imperative for them to find out, what would really cause Sri Rama, to 'lose it'. To find out, they requested the help of one "kakasura", one of the son's of Indra, to go see if hurting Sita Devi might do the trick.
So "kakasura", whose natural form is that of a crow, proceeds to find out.
In a place of privacy somewhere close to their hermit, Sri Rama and Sita Devi were hanging out by pieces of meat that were kept for the purposes of sun drying. Kakasura, initially tries to trouble Sita Devi by trying to steal the pieces of meat, which of course Sita Devi does try to shoo him away, at which point, kakasura tries to attack sita devi, and in response sita devi hurls one of her gold and diamond ornament (vaddanam), that she ties around her belly at the crow to scare it away. Amused at her plight, Sri Rama makes fun of her, for throwing a big ornament to shoo a stupid crow away. The crow keeps at bay for a while.
And then after a while, Sri Rama, rests and goes to sleep on the lap of a seated Sita Devi ( Sri Rama practiced Brahmacharya (celibacy) those 14 years). Now seeing this opportunity, the kakasura tries to avenge the ornament thrown at him by attacking Sita Devi again, coz now she is immobile and she wouldn't wake her husband up from her sleep (dharma). And in this attack the crow is successful in injuring Sita devi somewhere near her chest, and she starts bleeding. The blood now spills on to the face of Sri Rama, who is asleep, to which he wake up and find Sita Devi, injured and in tears, helpless and more importantly without any counter attack against the crow.
Sri Rama, wakes up in rage, shouting, " who dares to mess with a five headed cobra" (resembling how dangerous it can get to mess with Sita devi). He looks around and see the beak of the crow has Sita Devi's blood. At this, he does something he never did in his life before: Launches the "Brahmastra" at the crow. (something he never did before because, if you read the Ramayana, Rama NEVER uses the stronger astras (missiles) right away, always gives his opponents chances to change, and in any case the Brahmastra usually is the last resort.).
Kakasura, now roams the three worlds, for protection against the Brahmastra, which never attacks anyone who show their back to it, hence it followed him around, ultimately no one in the three worlds can assure protection to kakasura, because Sri Rama's astra had the power to decimate the universe if necessary and no one could dare oppose the astra of Sri Rama, coz they knew Sri Rama was Vishnu incarnate. Hence Kakasura had to finally plead with Sri Rama himself for mercy, which Sri Rama obliges and only take away one of his eyes (because the brahmastra that has been released has to be silenced, only through an intended target can it be silenced (advanced target seeking ballistic missiles).
(Seeing this, the gods realize that the only way Sri Rama can be brought in direct fatal conflict with Ravana is through Sita Devi. And hence concoct the happenings of the universe in such a way that they do indeed get there. The rest of the story is for you to read, or hear, or for me to describe in pieces as necessary through this blog.)
Now back to Lanka:
After having narrated this story, Sita Devi, says, asks Hanuman to ask Sri Rama the following:
On that day, when I was attacked by a stupid crow, and surrendered to you for help, you launched the Brahmastra against my attacker, why are you quite now? why haven't you decimated Lanka yet? Even know I have surrendered to you, I am not trying to help myself. But I wait for you. Why has it taken so long for you to come rescue me?
The gist (paramartha) of this above story as explained by my Guru, is that as long as you think that you REALLY can do much for yourself, you can protect yourself, the Lord will wait and watch. The day you surrender yourself completely (sampoorna Saranagati), God will come to your rescue and deliver you from your troubles. Understand, Complete Surrender, is not by word, but by heart. COMPLETE, through to the bottom of your soul, you have to surrender and God will come to your rescue.
Having said that, Guruji also in another part clearly says, that getting to that state of mind is an extremely difficult thing to accomplish. Coz unfortunately doubt always lingers in our mind, whether we like it or not, because as we know, our mind is our master for the unrealized.
Hence Guruji says, yes, keep attempting to get your mind to a state of complete surrender to the Almighty, but in the process, keep doing your dharma, your purushartha, manava prayatna, to solve your everyday problems.
Complete Surrender in Bhakti yoga is akin to God Realization (na iti) ub Jnana yoga.
And one day, when you do get to the stage of complete surrender, God will take care of you. Sri Rama in the Ramayana, and the great Rishi's of India have given us this guarantee. But the question really is:
Can you REALLY get to that state? Can we at least attempt? Most people cannot even stop themselves from giving up alcohol completely. How far far away are they from the protection of the divine?
I do not intend to speak for the Christians ( or for that matter Muslims), but I do believe and as I understand them the strength of their religions, the core of it lies in faith. Completely Surrendering to the Almighty God. The aspect of complete surrender really is the same as the Bhakti yoga.
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