From Ramayana: Humour in Religious Texts

The blogging practice has somewhat weakened as the euphoria over the book release has still not fully exhausted itself. A kind of resigned ennui is slowly building up, with absolutely no perceived change in either mundane or spiritual realms except the fact that angst has been substantially replaced by an acceptance that peace is not a pursuit which will find any favor from providence as the script for “Kaliyuga” simply does not include this, period.

The one major thing which has a tremendous bearing on relieving tension to my mind is a good sense of humor, which alas has very little presence in religious texts. Here therefore anger persists; I am unable to understand as to why He chooses to deprive us of even this minimal access to relieve ourselves of boredom, without the corresponding guilt feeling of straying the path.

It is in this mood that I chose to explore those very limited instances where there was this element in some of the sacred texts and to share them with others. The first of these is what this piece is about, and here I go folks!!

In the rig Veda there is a reference to sages Agasthya and Vashishta- said to be the offspring of Mitra and Varuna whose seeds were said to have fallen at the sight of the celestial nymph Urvasi. Part of this falls in a jar and from it arises sage Agasthya or kumba janman. He is the one who is credited with the humbling of the great Vindhya mountains when they try to rise higher and higher to completely block the Sun’s disc and make them prostrate before him.

When some Rakshasas were hiding in the oceans and Indra along with other Devas were unable to find them and defeat them in the battle, Agasthya helps Indra by drinking up all up all the oceans water. In the epic “Ramayan”, there is this story of Rama along with Sita meeting up with this sage on his return to Ayodhya after killing the demon Ravan.

Sita is narrating her story to Lobhamudra, the sage’s wife; how she is abducted, and how Rama after knowing where she is taken, builds a bridge across the Ocean etc. to cross over to Lanka. At this stage Lobhamudra the sage’s wife is said to have remarked jokingly, as to why Rama had to take so much of pain, all He had to do was ask her Husband!!

Incidentally Agastya was believed to be of the size of one’s thumb. That he could drink all the waters of the seas is perhaps a hint as to how such so-called great work is just a routine for seers like Agasthya. (Or a precursor to today’s Nano-technology!!) And after the defeat of the demons by Indra, the sage is said to have released all the water thru “guess what?” by answering a simple natures call to the loo. The oceans water is therefore salty, and is not considered fit for either drinking or for any purification rituals.

Not great humor but surely some feeble illustrations. The choice seems clear, one can get stuck in humor, or one can ponder over the import which is hidden. Take the above case perhaps the sage’s wife is trying to convey that instead of taking the so called simple route of asking the sage to drink up and go against nature, the Lord chooses to build a bridge, and also implying that drastic steps can be taken only if it is inevitable.

Another instance of humor from Guru Chandrasekhara Bharathi swamigal is worth a repeat. A person of mediocre merit visits him and talks about his lineage being extraordinarily great. The former replies to the effect that the Lord Himself taking a form of a Boar to kill the demon Hiranyaaksha, cannot be a factor for all the boars to stake a claim to greatness!! This surely is a much better piece of humor.

Unfortunately there aren’t enough anecdotes in religious texts dealing with humor, except perhaps to convey a deeper message, which makes me coin a vichiism …..”Humor is a very serious businessr”. Ability to enjoy humor purely for humor’s sake is for the un-evolved. This is why perhaps humor does not get to be mentioned often in texts.

Like it folks?

Love

Vichu