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Aside on Dharma

CHENNAI : Sages have explained the subtleties of Dharma in independent digests, and the epics and the Puranas describe them in interludes in the storyline. The Mahabharata of Vyasa, in fact, is known as the fifth Veda because it is a veritable ocean of knowledge encompassing all aspects of human life. One such aside in this epic, which throws light on how the subjects of a country suffer if the ruler compromised strict adherence to Dharma, is about the drought Angadesa suffered when Romapada ruled it. Romapada was a friend of Dasaratha, and as he did not have a child, Dasaratha gifted his daughter Santha to him and he brought her up with affection and care.

In his discourse, Sri B. Sundar Kumar said Vyasa mentioned that he had heard that the severe famine Angadesa faced was due to a minor lapse of Romapada towards priests for which they abandoned him. According to ancient manuals on Dharma, natural calamities like earthquakes, floods and drought struck when kings did not follow Dharma. Realising that his people were suffering on his account, the king approached the sages to find out what he should do to bring rain to his kingdom. The sages advised Romapada to bring Rishyasringa, son of Sage Vibhandakar of the Kashyapa lineage, as it would rain if such a sage of penance set foot in his country.

Rishyasringa was no ordinary sage. Ever since his extraordinary birth, Vibhandakar had brought him up in an island without any human influence and hence he had also engaged in austerities like his father from young age and had acquired immense spiritual power. Romapada on the advice of his ministers sent beautiful women with exquisite presents in a boat decorated as a floating garden so that the sage could be lured into it in the belief that it was a hermitage like his father's. The deception worked and the moment Rishyasringa came to the king's palace it rained copiously.

Romapada was very happy that his people would be blessed with plenty and in gratitude offered his daughter in marriage to Rishyasringa. But, the king was anxious that Vibhandakar would be angry about his subterfuge when he came in search of his son. So he devised another strategy to assuage his anger and the sage as expected blessed his married son and the bride.

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