Chapter Ten
The Pastimes of the Supreme Lord, Rāmacandra
TEXT 13
yad-roṣa-vibhrama-vivṛtta-kaṭākṣa-pāta-
sambhrānta-nakra-makaro bhaya-gīrṇa-ghoṣaḥ
sindhuḥ śirasy arhaṇaṁ parigṛhya rūpī
pādāravindam upagamya babhāṣa etat
SYNONYMS
yat-roṣa—whose anger; vibhrama—induced by; vivṛtta—turned; kaṭākṣa-pāta—by the glance; sambhrānta—agitated; nakra—crocodiles; makaraḥ—and sharks; bhaya-gīrṇa-ghoṣaḥ—whose loud sound was silenced through fear; sindhuḥ—the ocean; śirasi—on his head; arhaṇam—all paraphernalia for worshiping the Lord; parigṛhya—carrying; rūpī—taking form; pāda-aravindam—the lotus feet of the Lord; upagamya—reaching; babhāṣa—said; etat—the following.
TRANSLATION
After reaching the beach, Lord Rāmacandra fasted for three days, awaiting the arrival of the ocean personified. When the ocean did not come, the Lord exhibited His pastimes of anger, and simply by His glancing over the ocean, all the living entities within it, including the crocodiles and sharks, were agitated by fear. Then the personified ocean fearfully approached Lord Rāmacandra, taking all paraphernalia to worship Him. Falling at the Lord’s lotus feet, the personified ocean spoke as follows.
TEXT 14
na tvāṁ vayaṁ jaḍa-dhiyo nu vidāma bhūman
kūṭa-stham ādi-puruṣaṁ jagatām adhīśam
yat-sattvataḥ sura-gaṇā rajasaḥ prajeśā
manyoś ca bhūta-patayaḥ sa bhavān guṇeśaḥ
SYNONYMS
na—not; tvām—Your Lordship; vayam—we; jaḍa-dhiyaḥ—dull-minded, possessing blunt intelligence; nu—indeed; vidāmaḥ—can know; bhūman—O Supreme; kūṭa-stham—within the core of the heart; ādi-puruṣam—the original Personality of Godhead; jagatām—of the universes, which progressively go on; adhīśam—the supreme master; yat—fixed under Your direction; sattvataḥ—infatuated with sattva-guṇa; sura-gaṇāḥ—such demigods; rajasaḥ—infatuated with rajo-guṇa; prajā-īśāḥ—the Prajāpatis; manyoḥ—influenced by tamo-guṇa; ca—and; bhūta-patayaḥ—rulers of ghosts; saḥ—such a personality; bhavān—Your Lordship; guṇa-īśaḥ—the master of all three modes of material nature.
TRANSLATION
O all-pervading Supreme Person, we are dull-minded and did not understand who You are, but now we understand that You are the Supreme Person, the master of the entire universe, the unchanging and original Personality of Godhead. The demigods are infatuated with the mode of goodness, the Prajāpatis with the mode of passion, and the lord of ghosts with the mode of ignorance, but You are the master of all these qualities.
PURPORT
The word jaḍa-dhiyaḥ refers to intelligence like that of an animal. A person with such intelligence cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Without being beaten, an animal cannot understand the purpose of a man. Similarly, those who are dull-minded cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but when punished severely by the modes of material nature, they begin to understand Him. A Hindi poet has said:
duḥkha se saba hari bhaje
sukha se bhaje koī
sukha se agar hari bhaje
duḥkha kāthāṅ se haya
When one is distressed he goes to the church or temple to worship the Lord, but when opulent he forgets the Lord. Therefore, punishment by the Lord through material nature is necessary in human society, for without it men forget the supremacy of the Lord due to their dull, blunt intelligence.
TEXT 15
kāmaṁ prayāhi jahi viśravaso ’vamehaṁ
trailokya-rāvaṇam avāpnuhi vīra patnīm
badhnīhi setum iha te yaśaso vitatyai
gāyanti dig-vijayino yam upetya bhūpāḥ
SYNONYMS
kāmam—as You like; prayāhi—You may go over my water; jahi—just conquer; viśravasaḥ—of Viśravā Muni; avameham—pollution, like urine; trailokya—for the three worlds; rāvaṇam—the person known as Rāvaṇa, the cause of weeping; avāpnuhi—regain; vīra—O great hero; patnīm—Your wife; badhnīhi—just construct; setum—a bridge; iha—here (on this water); te—of Your good self; yaśasaḥ—fame; vitatyai—to expand; gāyanti—will glorify; dik-vijayinaḥ—great heroes who have conquered all directions; yam—which (bridge); upetya—coming near; bhūpāḥ—great kings.
TRANSLATION
My Lord, You may use my water as You like. Indeed, You may cross it and go to the abode of Rāvaṇa, who is the great source of disturbance and crying for the three worlds. He is the son of Viśravā, but is condemned like urine. Please go kill him and thus regain Your wife, Sītādevī. O great hero, although my water presents no impediment to Your going to Laṅkā, please construct a bridge over it to spread Your transcendental fame. Upon seeing this wonderfully uncommon deed of Your Lordship, all the great heroes and kings in the future will glorify You.
PURPORT
It is said that a son and urine emanate from the same source—the genitals. When a son is a devotee or a great learned person, the seminal discharge for begetting a son is successful, but if the son is unqualified and brings no glory to his family, he is no better than urine. Here Rāvaṇa is compared to urine because he was a cause of disturbances to the three worlds. Thus the ocean personified wanted him killed by Lord Rāmacandra.
One feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Rāmacandra is omnipotence. The Lord can act without regard to material impediments or inconveniences, but to prove that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and was not merely advertised as Godhead or elected by popular vote, He constructed a wonderful bridge over the ocean. Nowadays it has become fashionable to create some artificial God who performs no uncommon activities; a little magic will bewilder a foolish person into selecting an artificial God because he does not understand how powerful God is. Lord Rāmacandra, however, constructed a bridge over the water with stone by making the stone float. This is proof of God’s uncommonly wonderful power. Why should someone be accepted as God without displaying extraordinary potency by doing something never to be done by any common man? We accept Lord Rāmacandra as the Supreme Personality of Godhead because He constructed this bridge, and we accept Lord Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead because He lifted Govardhana Hill when He was only seven years old. We should not accept any rascal as God or an incarnation of God, for God displays special features in His various activities. Therefore, the Lord Himself says in Bhagavad-gītā (4.9):
janma karma ca me divyam
evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ
tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma
naiti mām eti so ’rjuna
“One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.” The activities of the Lord are not common; they are all transcendentally wonderful and not able to be performed by any other living being. The symptoms of the Lord’s activities are all mentioned in the śāstras, and after one understands them one can accept the Lord as He is.
TEXT 16
baddhvodadhau raghu-patir vividhādri-kūṭaiḥ
setuṁ kapīndra-kara-kampita-bhūruhāṅgaiḥ
sugrīva-nīla-hanumat-pramukhair anīkair
laṅkāṁ vibhīṣaṇa-dṛśāviśad agra-dagdhām
SYNONYMS
baddhvā—after constructing; udadhau—in the water of the ocean; raghu-patiḥ—Lord Rāmacandra; vividha—varieties of; adri-kūṭaiḥ—with peaks of great mountains; setum—a bridge; kapi-indra—of powerful monkeys; kara-kampita—moved by the great hands; bhūruha-aṅgaiḥ—with the trees and plants; sugrīva—Sugrīva; nīla—Nīla; hanumat—Hanumān; pramukhaiḥ—led by; anīkaiḥ—with such soldiers; laṅkām—Laṅkā, the kingdom of Rāvaṇa; vibhīṣaṇa-dṛśā—by the direction of Vibhīṣaṇa, the brother of Rāvaṇa; āviśat—entered; agra-dagdhām—which was previously burnt (by the monkey soldier Hanumān).
TRANSLATION
Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: After constructing a bridge over the ocean by throwing into the water the peaks of mountains whose trees and other vegetation had been shaken by the hands of great monkeys, Lord Rāmacandra went to Laṅkā to release Sītādevī from the clutches of Rāvaṇa. With the direction and help of Vibhīṣaṇa, Rāvaṇa’s brother, the Lord, along with the monkey soldiers, headed by Sugrīva, Nīla and Hanumān, entered Rāvaṇa’s kingdom, Laṅkā, which had previously been burnt by Hanumān.
PURPORT
Great mountain peaks covered with trees and plants were thrown into the sea by the monkey soldiers and began to float by the supreme will of the Lord. By the supreme will of the Lord, many great planets float weightlessly in space like swabs of cotton. If this is possible, why should great mountain peaks not be able to float on water? This is the omnipotence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He can do anything and everything He likes, because He is not under the control of the material nature; indeed, material nature is controlled by Him. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sacarācaram: [Bg. 9.10] only under His direction does prakṛti, or material nature, work. Similar information is given in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.52):
yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kāla-cakro
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
Describing how material nature works, the Brahma-saṁhitā says that the sun moves as desired by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Consequently, for Lord Rāmacandra to construct a bridge over the Indian Ocean with the help of monkey soldiers who threw great mountain peaks into the water is not at all wonderful; it is wonderful only in the sense that it has kept the name and fame of Lord Rāmacandra eternally celebrated.
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