Translated by Sri Ramanan Rajagopalan

Rudran continued ...

"thannai thozhudha bAnanai thalai pOvAdAthu nOkkugirEn endru prathigyai seydhu kalli kattu sItram pOle kai sIrrkka kandu uyir undAgil uppumAri unnalam endru netrikkaNNai pudhaithu nazhuvinapadiyAlum ...

loka pithAvAna brahmAvin thalaiyai thirugi kaiyum kaithalmumai kondu thirivAr pOle kaiyum kapAlamumai thirandhu kidantha vAsal thorum pugunthu thannai veliyittukkondAn AgaiyAlum rakshagan AgamAttan.

Banasuran was a great siva bhakta. Pleased with his devotion, rudran had promised to protect him at any cost. Once, the asura's daughter ushai fell win love with Krishna's grand son, Anirudha in her dream. Ushai's friend knew the trick to trace Anirudha's face from Ushai's dream. Anirudha was secretly transported from his place by asura kumari. Learning this at a later stage, Banasura went on war with Krishna. That time, none including rudran's relatives were able to win the war for the asura. This instance was referred by ThiruArangathamudhnAr in Ramanuja NootrandhAdhi as:

kArththigaiyAnum karimugaththAnum kanalum mukkaN
mUrththiyum mOdiyum veppum mudhugittu mUvulagum
pUththavanE! enRu pORRida vANan pizai poRuththa
thIrththanai Eththum irAmAnusan enthan sEma vaippE (22)

In the end, Banasuran's hands were cut by Krishna. Krishna purposefully left few heads and hands for him so that he can perform his pitru karma. Also, he had already promised to Prahlada that he will not kill anyone in his vamsa. This act of cutting the hands was compared by Swamy Pillai Lokachayar to cutting down the cactus plant. Looking at the situation of the asura, rudran and his relatives ran for their life so that they could enjoy some pleasure by being alive. Even during the escape time, rudran wanted to hide his third eye with the thought that none could recognise him.

The other story was the plucking of his father's head that has already been discussed by Swamy Pillai Lokacharyar. With the kapAlam in his hand, he entered all the open places for bikshA. Finally, Perumal was the only one who could make that kapAlam burst with his bikshA. That bursting is referred to dissipation of one's dream - of having plenty of welath after one has woken up from sleep. Such was the speed of reaction after Perumal's biksha.

With all the above instances, Swamy Pillai Lokacharyar clearly shows that even rudran cannot protect a soul in samsara.

To summarize:

We have looked at relatives, devatas including sun, moon, indra, brahma, rudran.

Will wealth protect us?

Let us look at how Swamy Pillai Lokacharyar answers this part in the follwoing posting.