Extraordinary compassion

May 05, 2015 07:35 am | Updated 07:35 am IST

It is believed that the divine mother is always with the Lord and together they are ever engaged in the act of protecting the erring jivatmas. The Lord is a stern dispenser of justice but the divine mother is the very embodiment of compassion towards all beings, including those who have sinned against her, and this trait is prominently manifest in Sita, said Kalyanapuram Sri R. Aravamudhachariar in a discourse.

Sita shares with Hanuman some intimate moments from her life with Rama, known only to them, when Hanuman wishes to have some token from her to convince Rama that he had seen her and talked to her. The first of these is a very private incident that happened in Chitrakuta. Both had wandered about in the groves and rested on the ground for a while. Rama laid his head on her lap and fell asleep. A crow came down and pecked at her bosom. She drove it off. Rama was roused from his slumber and realised that a crow had harmed Sita in a base manner. He soon surmised the crow to be an asura and in great anger invested a blade of grass with the powerful mantra of the Brahmastra and aimed it at the bird. The bird flew for its life, running helter-skelter from pillar to post looking for some help from some quarter in all the three worlds. Neither its father Indra nor the gods or sages could do anything to help the bird that had wronged the divine mother. He had no option but to seek Rama’s feet.

Though Kakasura deserved to be killed, Rama, the protector of the entire creation, saved it out of compassion. Since the Brahmastra could not go waste, and Rama had to punish the crow for its offence, He allowed it to pierce the crow’s right eye. Sita’s presence makes the crow’s surrender efficacious.

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