A brief extract from Karuna Sindhu - The Life of Sri Ramanuja. The following is © 2014 Ramapriya Ramanuja & Magic Conch Publishing. Voices on the other side of some large mossy boulders brought Govinda into wakefulness. He gathered his wits and recalled that he had strolled down to this stream to slake his thirst. The last thing he remembered was lying down to gaze at the sky through the high forest canopy. It was a beautiful part of the forest with an abundance of flowering shrubs and trees. Many creepers, twining around the trunks and branches, decorated the trees with their luscious fruits, fragrant flowers and colourful berries. Birds were foraging among the flowers and the vines and monkeys were calling from the treetops and displaying their acrobatic mastery as they leapt through the branches. It seemed that the warmth of the afternoon, the gurgling of the stream and gentle buzzing of insects had lulled him off to sleep. As he began to sit up, his attention was drawn to the conversation on the other side of the boulders. At first the words were mixed with the bubbling of the stream as it worked its way among the boulders in its path but as he shook off his sleepiness he could hear his teacher, Yadavaprakasha, through the hushed tones, then a number of the older students. There seemed to be some kind of dispute . . . “ . . . there is no use going back on our plan now. I don’t need to remind you what a threat this young Ramanuja represents to the true dharma. He is intelligent, can juggle words in a manner which can confuse even the wise and is willing to challenge anybody. You have seen all this for yourselves. Since his commentary on the ‘satyam jnanam anantam brahma’ sloka has become acclaimed by many, he is gaining in stature among the dualist philosophers and some of the sentimental sannyasins who dabble in that kind of thinking and practice. These people have the potential to influence a great many others. Of course we don’t want to do such things but we simply cannot permit this to continue. We must serve the greater good even if it is at the expense of our peace of mind.” “But teacher,” one of the students replied, “we have no experience in these things, how are we to do this?” Yadavaprakasha’s reply was without emotion; “We will either smother him or strangle him when he is sleeping and throw his body into the forest. You two will hold his legs down and you two will hold his arms. When we are done, wild animals will eat the body and scatter the remains very quickly. In the morning we will feign bewilderment at his absence and then sadness that he has become lost. We will say that he must have risen in the night and been taken by a wild animal or bandits.” He stopped and looked around before continuing, “I will awaken you late tonight and we will do the needful. Keep this to yourselves and be sure to refrain from making any sounds whatsoever when I wake you. Let’s now go about our regular business.” Govinda was frozen as he overheard this terrible cold-hearted scheming. He couldn’t believe that such scholarly people, some of them who seemed to be his friends, could be planning such a thing. This wasn’t a dream. It was real. He had to get to Ramanuja and give him plenty of notice. Many fears began to swirl in his head. He had to have a plan.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 00:59:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015