The everyday Sugriva

So, whenever we talk about Lord Rama, one of the contentious issues is Lord Rama's killing of Vaali, while being hidden. Though that is separate topic to be studied in detail, I was more fascinated with Lord Rama's initial interactions with Sugriva, that seems to reflect in my behavior.

The scene shifts to where Lord Rama and Lakshmana are introduced to Sugriva and the Lord offers to retrieve Sugriva's kingdom from Vaali. Now, Sugriva is hardly convinced in the prowess of the Lord. Most likely will be the case, if Lord Rama, in his most merciful mood, offers darshan to a person like me. Lack of real Bhakti would certainly not make me accept that this is the Lord that I hear and pray on a daily basis. So, as I would do, do did Sugiva. He decided to TEST the Lord. He asks Lord Rama to lift the skeletal remains of Dundhubi, the demon killed by Vaali. Lord Rama, the karuna moorthi, accepts to being tested by a monkey king in exile :) He nudges the huge remains of the demon and that is sent like a missile across several yojanas :) So, what would I do in such a situation. I would say, Oh, that was not the real test, it was only the screening test ! And lo and behold, so says Sugriva, well. "that was the dead remains, and so, doing is a necessary and not sufficient condition to prove that you can protect me". Just like in today's world, pseudo-devotees like me, would consider all the miracles that the Lord does for me as a "necessary, but not sufficient condition" to accept him as the form of sat-chit-ananda. So, the next test is for the Lord to piece a mighty tree with an arrow. The lord's arrow pierced through 7 mighty trees, with the same ease as he removes the hurdles in our lives. Well, is that enough? In this case Sugriva accepts Lord Rama, atleast in his outer demeanour. Very similar to how I accept the superiority of the merciful Lord when I pray, its more outward than inward !

Now, moving to the crux. Lord Rama asks Sugiva to invite Vaali for a fight and promises to kill Vali from his hiding place. In the first round, Vaali beats Sugriva to pulp and makes him run to Rshya mookam mountain. Now, this is the important question. Is it really true that Lord Rama could not differentiate between Vaali and Sugiva? For starters, Rama was watching Sugriva calling Vaali. So, he could have killed him after he came out. After all, Sugriva was the one calling Vaali? Well, if we argue that it was unfair to kill Vaali before giving him a chance at peace, Lord Rama could have discharged the arrow when Sugiva was being chased to Rshya mookam moutain or on the way back, the Lord could have easily identified Vaali. So, its a trifle baffling as to why the Lord let Sugiva get beaten up in the first place before giving him abhayapradanam. After all, that is his vratam.

Now, there is an interesting interpretation, I heard the other day. Like many of us, when good things in life come easy, we attribute it to our superior intellectual and physical skills. In all good things and profit making ventures, the Lord is a minority shareholder :) Sugriva had still not done complete sharanaagati to lord Rama. So, if the Lord had killed Vaali before Sugiva got beaten up, he would have behaved like me. "Well, I would have killed Vaali anyways, after all I had practiced fighting all this while in the Rshya Mookam mountain. Lord Rama was just incidental, Vaali's time was anyway over", would have been the likely words of Sugriva. Now, beaten, bruised and ego grounded, shaaranagati comes easier. Something similar to my college experience. Sometimes, its good to get beaten to bring down one's ego make learning possible.

Finally, when that hurdle is surmounted, the Lord's infinite mercy shines like the glorious sun from behind the clouds :) What a nice way our rishis use to describe the Lord, being of the hue as the water laden rain clouds. Once the rain of mercy shower, the bright sunshine of Sat-chit-ananda will shine through. All we need to do, is to plant the seeds of Bhakti and nurture it with good thoughts and deeds. The karuna-bearing blessings of the Lord will automatically shower bliss and reveal the joy and glory of Sat-chit-ananda. But, till the day that the bhatki tree grows strong enough to attract the merciful Lord's attention, the everyday Sugiva lives on !!!