Post by jksivan on Oct 1, 2013 19:03:42 GMT 5.5
Dear Children
95 '' EYE WITNESS ''
Death is inevitable for every one. It is a process. No one can avoid or escape it. Yet people are afraid of it why because Death detaches the person from his desires, his belongings and his ambitions and emotions. He is so much attached to his money, property, kith and kin and what not. He is not willing to part with them. If he is given notice that on such and such a date you will be detached, he will not be happy and cannot agree or accept the ultimatum. He will be restless, uneasy and do all that he can undoing what he did certain things before. Death therefore does not give any notice to anyone so that they dont have time or option to interfere with anything to undo it.
We talked about death of normal persons. There are very few people in history and legends who even after their mortal remains have been disposed of, are immortal for ever. We know of Mahathma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Swami vivekananda, etc., to cite a few names who lived in recent past. Legendarily there are many
You learnt about Aravan in a couple of stories sometime ago. He was a son of Arjun, and a great warrior. He offered his life voluntarily for human sacrifice to appease the god of success for the sake of victory of the Pandavas in the war.
You read about the 3 wishes he asked to be granted from Krishna and one of them was that he wanted to witness the Mahabharath war with his own eyes even after his death prior to commencement of the war. Krishna granted his wish. As desired by Aravan, his head was placed at a height in full view of the battle field of Kurukshethra, on a tall tree branch. From that height he was able to see the happenings before him in the battle field.
The war has ended after 18 days and both Kauravas and Pandavas had lost most of the participants of the war. But the war was won by the Pandavas.
Pandavas were proud that they won the war because of their might and strength and skills. Arjuna was very happy that he was able to show his valour and skill and thought he played a major role in winning the war because of his famous Gandivam, the invincible bow. Bheema for his part, was quite convinced that his mace was the root cause for the destruction of the entire Kaurava clan and he felt his strength and incomparable bravery won the Pandavas their success.
''Krishna observed them both and one day he told ''Arjuna, remember this. Your courageous feats with your famous bow Gandivam is in no way comparable to Bheema 's mace wielding. His tower of strength cannot be under estimated in winning the war. He has his own talent like you. It is difficult to compare both of your abilities. Only because both of you were together, it had become easy to win the war with Kauravas. Though the combination of both of your talents had won the war, it is very very difficult to pin point whose contribution was more effective in the winning of this war, unless any one has seen the war from the beginning unbiassed. He who has seen everything that happened on both sides alone can say with any amount of certainty whose contribution was the cause of the victory.
Bheema laughed. Whos is there now to say this? Most of them have lost their lives in this war.
Knowing them as we do, if Bheeshma was there,Dhrona existed and Vithra had seen the war till end, they only were capable for assessing the contributions properly. It is impossible to look for it now, said Arjuna laughing at Krishna. He knew Bheeshma, Dhrona and Vithura had always praised Arjuna for his special skills.
There was a moment of silence after the three discussed what we heard above.
Krishna suddenly said to both Arjuna and Bheema ''We all forgot that ther is one still available who had been observer of this war from the beginning till end. How comfortably you both have forgotten about him ”
''Krishna, what are you talking, there is no one available now excepting a few of us now after this great war said Bheema
But Arjuna understood what Krishna said and whom he referred to. ''Yes, Aravan, my son is still watching everything. I must go and relieve him to remain in peace for every''.
''Yes, you are right Arjuna, Aravan's head is still hanging on the tall tree in Kurukshethra, we have to go and remove it ''
All the three reached the tree and Krishna talked to Aravan
“My dear Aravan, I hope you are satisfied now because your desire had been fulfilled. Is n't it? ''
''Prabhu, I am very happy to have watched the greatest of wars, for the complete 18 days. lt gave me immense happiness to watch and enjoy the great skills exhibited by many of the participants in this war on both sides. Finally I felt very happy the Pandavas won the war''
''No wonder Pandavas won the war, Aravan, because you laid the foundation for this success with your precious life '' said Krishna.
"Though I offered by life it is you Krishna, who altered the date and time of the human sacrifice for the successful winning. It is your ingenuity which caused the success of Pandavas in this war.''
“I remember it now. Aravan we have one question to ask you as the common observer of the war. You are the one who can answer it properly''
Krishna then addressed ''Bheema, we have Aravan here. You may clear your doubt with him. He is unbiased and will be able to tell very clearly as he would have assessed the contributions of both of you from day one and he will categorically point out whose contribution was more in winning this war. Bheema's or Arjuna's ''
Bheema immediately asked ''Aravan you have been watching my wielding the mace and Arjuna using his Gandivam bow. Whose feats caused the utter ruin of the Kauravas and won this war for Pandavas. ?
Aravan laughed heartily
Bheema asked ''Aravan dont take this lightly. Nothing is there to laugh about. ''
''To be very plain and simple, I can only say in this war as far as I observed clearly, I neither saw Arjuna's Gandiva or your Mace, in both of your weapons, I could see only the bright Sudharshan disc of Krishna which made the stalwarts in Kaurava forces unable to counter or withstand the fury. I saw only Krishna's Panchajanyam, the conch, drawing into it, all the blood from Kaurava forces.
Though every one knew Krishna's role in the war, in spite of his not participarting in the war, was the greatest, Bheema could not tolerate Aravan not mentioning his world famous wielding of the mace and it made him get angry -- he was very short tempered -- Bheeman moved towards Aravan's head to crush it. He was one who would never tolerate anyone talking ill of his strength or the power of his mace.
Krishna stopped and pacified him. They thanked Aravan for his sacrifice once again and his observations and his head was removed from the tree. Krishna told Arjuna to drop it in the near by river Sarabarika.
On one side of the banks of the beautiful river Sarabarika, a small kingdom existed. It was known as Chandragiri. The king of Chandragiri was childless. He was praying to Lord Narayan to grant him a son to be the heir to the throne. The king one day walked along the river as usual and and heard the cry of a baby. He wondered where the sound '' Kuva |Kuva'' was coming from and saw a beautiful baby boy floating in the river. He thanked god and happily took the baby boy to his palace and brought him up.
The exact place where the child was found crying ''Kuva Kuva'' was later named as the Kuvagam (Koovagam) village. Because the baby boy was found in the river Sarabarika he was named ''Sarabalan ''
Sarabalan grew up in Chandragiri palace and later became the king of Chandragiri. He went in search of the demon Koothasur who fought with his father, the king of Chandragiri, and killed him. He wanted to avenge the death of his father and found the demon Koothasura and killed him in the fight with him. As a result of Sarabalan having killed the demon Koothsura, he got the title Koothandavar. Aravan got this name because after his head was dropped in the Sarabarika river, he became a baby boy in his next birth and the story goes as above. There is a temple for Aravan in Koovagam. His idol has no body, limbs etc., Only his head is worshipped.
95 '' EYE WITNESS ''
Death is inevitable for every one. It is a process. No one can avoid or escape it. Yet people are afraid of it why because Death detaches the person from his desires, his belongings and his ambitions and emotions. He is so much attached to his money, property, kith and kin and what not. He is not willing to part with them. If he is given notice that on such and such a date you will be detached, he will not be happy and cannot agree or accept the ultimatum. He will be restless, uneasy and do all that he can undoing what he did certain things before. Death therefore does not give any notice to anyone so that they dont have time or option to interfere with anything to undo it.
We talked about death of normal persons. There are very few people in history and legends who even after their mortal remains have been disposed of, are immortal for ever. We know of Mahathma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Swami vivekananda, etc., to cite a few names who lived in recent past. Legendarily there are many
You learnt about Aravan in a couple of stories sometime ago. He was a son of Arjun, and a great warrior. He offered his life voluntarily for human sacrifice to appease the god of success for the sake of victory of the Pandavas in the war.
You read about the 3 wishes he asked to be granted from Krishna and one of them was that he wanted to witness the Mahabharath war with his own eyes even after his death prior to commencement of the war. Krishna granted his wish. As desired by Aravan, his head was placed at a height in full view of the battle field of Kurukshethra, on a tall tree branch. From that height he was able to see the happenings before him in the battle field.
The war has ended after 18 days and both Kauravas and Pandavas had lost most of the participants of the war. But the war was won by the Pandavas.
Pandavas were proud that they won the war because of their might and strength and skills. Arjuna was very happy that he was able to show his valour and skill and thought he played a major role in winning the war because of his famous Gandivam, the invincible bow. Bheema for his part, was quite convinced that his mace was the root cause for the destruction of the entire Kaurava clan and he felt his strength and incomparable bravery won the Pandavas their success.
''Krishna observed them both and one day he told ''Arjuna, remember this. Your courageous feats with your famous bow Gandivam is in no way comparable to Bheema 's mace wielding. His tower of strength cannot be under estimated in winning the war. He has his own talent like you. It is difficult to compare both of your abilities. Only because both of you were together, it had become easy to win the war with Kauravas. Though the combination of both of your talents had won the war, it is very very difficult to pin point whose contribution was more effective in the winning of this war, unless any one has seen the war from the beginning unbiassed. He who has seen everything that happened on both sides alone can say with any amount of certainty whose contribution was the cause of the victory.
Bheema laughed. Whos is there now to say this? Most of them have lost their lives in this war.
Knowing them as we do, if Bheeshma was there,Dhrona existed and Vithra had seen the war till end, they only were capable for assessing the contributions properly. It is impossible to look for it now, said Arjuna laughing at Krishna. He knew Bheeshma, Dhrona and Vithura had always praised Arjuna for his special skills.
There was a moment of silence after the three discussed what we heard above.
Krishna suddenly said to both Arjuna and Bheema ''We all forgot that ther is one still available who had been observer of this war from the beginning till end. How comfortably you both have forgotten about him ”
''Krishna, what are you talking, there is no one available now excepting a few of us now after this great war said Bheema
But Arjuna understood what Krishna said and whom he referred to. ''Yes, Aravan, my son is still watching everything. I must go and relieve him to remain in peace for every''.
''Yes, you are right Arjuna, Aravan's head is still hanging on the tall tree in Kurukshethra, we have to go and remove it ''
All the three reached the tree and Krishna talked to Aravan
“My dear Aravan, I hope you are satisfied now because your desire had been fulfilled. Is n't it? ''
''Prabhu, I am very happy to have watched the greatest of wars, for the complete 18 days. lt gave me immense happiness to watch and enjoy the great skills exhibited by many of the participants in this war on both sides. Finally I felt very happy the Pandavas won the war''
''No wonder Pandavas won the war, Aravan, because you laid the foundation for this success with your precious life '' said Krishna.
"Though I offered by life it is you Krishna, who altered the date and time of the human sacrifice for the successful winning. It is your ingenuity which caused the success of Pandavas in this war.''
“I remember it now. Aravan we have one question to ask you as the common observer of the war. You are the one who can answer it properly''
Krishna then addressed ''Bheema, we have Aravan here. You may clear your doubt with him. He is unbiased and will be able to tell very clearly as he would have assessed the contributions of both of you from day one and he will categorically point out whose contribution was more in winning this war. Bheema's or Arjuna's ''
Bheema immediately asked ''Aravan you have been watching my wielding the mace and Arjuna using his Gandivam bow. Whose feats caused the utter ruin of the Kauravas and won this war for Pandavas. ?
Aravan laughed heartily
Bheema asked ''Aravan dont take this lightly. Nothing is there to laugh about. ''
''To be very plain and simple, I can only say in this war as far as I observed clearly, I neither saw Arjuna's Gandiva or your Mace, in both of your weapons, I could see only the bright Sudharshan disc of Krishna which made the stalwarts in Kaurava forces unable to counter or withstand the fury. I saw only Krishna's Panchajanyam, the conch, drawing into it, all the blood from Kaurava forces.
Though every one knew Krishna's role in the war, in spite of his not participarting in the war, was the greatest, Bheema could not tolerate Aravan not mentioning his world famous wielding of the mace and it made him get angry -- he was very short tempered -- Bheeman moved towards Aravan's head to crush it. He was one who would never tolerate anyone talking ill of his strength or the power of his mace.
Krishna stopped and pacified him. They thanked Aravan for his sacrifice once again and his observations and his head was removed from the tree. Krishna told Arjuna to drop it in the near by river Sarabarika.
On one side of the banks of the beautiful river Sarabarika, a small kingdom existed. It was known as Chandragiri. The king of Chandragiri was childless. He was praying to Lord Narayan to grant him a son to be the heir to the throne. The king one day walked along the river as usual and and heard the cry of a baby. He wondered where the sound '' Kuva |Kuva'' was coming from and saw a beautiful baby boy floating in the river. He thanked god and happily took the baby boy to his palace and brought him up.
The exact place where the child was found crying ''Kuva Kuva'' was later named as the Kuvagam (Koovagam) village. Because the baby boy was found in the river Sarabarika he was named ''Sarabalan ''
Sarabalan grew up in Chandragiri palace and later became the king of Chandragiri. He went in search of the demon Koothasur who fought with his father, the king of Chandragiri, and killed him. He wanted to avenge the death of his father and found the demon Koothasura and killed him in the fight with him. As a result of Sarabalan having killed the demon Koothsura, he got the title Koothandavar. Aravan got this name because after his head was dropped in the Sarabarika river, he became a baby boy in his next birth and the story goes as above. There is a temple for Aravan in Koovagam. His idol has no body, limbs etc., Only his head is worshipped.