mUlabala vadham

There are many instances of Sri Rama showing His great valor. Let us look at one. On the day the main army of Ravana entered the battle, even Valmiki struggles to describe the superhuman valor of Sri Rama.

First, he says that everyone saw only the destruction of Ravana's armies and that no one could even see Rama - "Chinnam bhinnam sharairdagdham prabhagnam shastrapIDitam, balam rAmeNa dadrushurna ramam shIghrakAriNam".

Then, he says that the rAkshasas saw thousands of Ramas - "te tu rAma sahasrANi raNe pashyanti rAkShasA:".

Immediately, he follows saying they saw only one Rama "puna: pashyanti kAkutstham ekameva mahAhave".

His valor was so great that the sage says that no one saw Him, that they saw thousands of Rama and that they saw only One.

Nammazhvar in his Thiruvaymozhi 8-6-3 says "oruvar iruvar Or mUvarena ninRu uruvu karandhu uLLunthORum thiththippAn". It is not known where the description of the Lord by Azhvar shown here, occured. The previous pasuram ended as "serukkaduththu anRu thigaiththa arakkarai urukkeda vALi pozhindha oruvanE". Purvacharyas have stated that this description can be understood by connecting it to the previous pasuram.

Periyavachchan Pillai, in his commentary, states that "when fighting with the main army of Ravana, first He appeared as One and then as Two and Three and eventually was moving so fast that He became invisible to the senses and disappeared".

Thus, it is clear that His prowess is beyond the description of words of even great sages and poets.

A doubt

If Sri Rama was so valorous, some may wonder why He did not kill Ravana in an instant and appeared to taks so much effort.

As said by Andal "pollA arakkanaik kiLLik kaLaindhAnai" and by Thiruppanazhvar "sadhuramAmadhiL sUzh ilangkaikkiRaivan thalaipaththu udhiravOtti Or vengkaNai uyththavan", there is no doubt that He killed Ravana without any effort. It is only due to His desire that somehow Ravana would see the errors of his ways, do the right thing and live, that He waited so long.

Vali was many time stronger than Ravana. And He effortlessly killed Vali. When Hanuman advises Ravana, he tells him "tvayA vigyAtapUrvashcha vAlI vAnarapubgava:, rAmeNa nihata: sankhye shareNaikena vAnara:". That is, Rama had killed Vali, the lord of the monkeys, with one arrow.

Ravana had been tortured in many ways by Kaarthaveeryarjuna. In turn, Parashurama had cut off the thousand hands of Kaarthaveeryarjuna with his axe and then killed him. That Parashurama was defeated by Sri Rama.

At Janasthana, Surpanaka's nose and ears had been cut by Lakshamana. She then went to Khara and complained. Khara sent 14000 demons to attack Him and then later came himself to fight - "chaturdasha sahasrANi rakShasAm bhIma karmaNAm, eka: cha rAmo dharmAtmA katham yuddham bhavishyati". Rama killed them all single-handedly. This too was done effortlessly.

Would Rama, who had such valor, struggle to kill Ravana? And if it appears that way, there must be a reason behind it. That reason was described above. This is shown in His own words as seen below.

After Ravana was killed, Vibeeshana says that he will not perform the last rites for him. At that time, Rama says "maraNAntAni vairANi nirvruttam na: prayojanam, kriyatAm asya samskAro mamApyeSha yathA tava". Normally this is interpreted by many as Rama saying 'enemity exists only up to the point of death; why continue hostilities after death?; we have accomplished our purpose (of killing Ravana and attaining Sita); let us forget what happened and let his final rites be performed'.

Purvacharayas such as Nampillai have shown that this is not fitting to His divine heart and have interpreted this as follows. Even up to this point, it was only Ravana who had enemity in his heart for Rama, whereas Rama did not have that against him. When there was a discussion about accepting Vibeeshana's sharanagati and Rama decided to accept him, He told Sugreeva "Anayainam hari shreShTha! dattamasyAbhayam mayA, vibhIShaNo vA sugrIva! yadi vA rAvaNa: svayam". That is, 'even if the person who had come was Ravana (or Vibhishana), bring him'. It is in line with this divine thought of Rama that one has to consider the efforts taken by Him.