Vamana Jayanthi or MahaBali's return? Are they mutually exclusive?

I got a lesson in how not to tell stories to our children about our past, about our puranas, itihasas and our festivals recently. My cousin who grew up in Kerala, went to school there apparently commented that what a state it is to celebrate a fall guy. How insensitive, arrogant it is I thought when I heard his mother say this, and immediately told her, don’t we celebrate Narakasura on Diwali.

There is a problem about how we look at our festivals, and how we narrate our puranas and itihasas to our children. For long I have been irked by, should I say the western way of looking at every festival as “victory of good over evil”.  We have no clear good and evil, for an evil can transform to good, a saintly soul can turn a sinner.

I am still angry at what my cousin had said, for his parents now live not very far from the Thirukatkarai temple, the Lord who graced Bali. When we were there last week, Onam utsavam was in full swing and we had darshan of Thirukatkappan as Narasimha Avatara. Next day we were supposed to go again for the darshan of Vamana, but we couldn’t because of time the other divya desam trip took.

I gave a quite a bit of lecture to my aunt on the issue, trying to basically tell her that we cannot forget that Bali was not banished into netherworld, or Patala as people commonly believe, but showered with blessings from Vishnu to go and lead a good life in Sutala, which is described as better than Swarga till his time comes to become an Indra. Bali in the tradition of Prahlada was a parama Bhagavata, and in our tradition the Bhagavatas are worshipped as much as the Bhagavan. In the Sri Vaishnava tradition we don’t say “I” we always say “adiyen”, for we are always in reverence of the Bhagavata. The Tamil Saiva tradition also prides in saying “Sivan adiyaarkkum adiyen”.

Two days after that conversation I was on my way back home and at Coimbatore airport found a story in TOI about the controversy over RSS magazine’s Vamana cover story. I would call that cover story also insensitive, though not factually incorrect. While Pramanas always have a highest place, we never undermine local legends, and every shrine in India has its own sthala puranas, many of them may just not match with history or archaeology.

Kerala prides itself as Parasurama or Bhargava Kshetram, but in the north eastern corner of the country, Arunachal Pradesh we have a Parasuram Kund. So who has a better claim to Parashurama?

Arunachal many still name their sons as Rukmi, as in the brother of Rukimi who as per Mahabharata was from Vidarbha. So Arunachalis are wrong in “appropriating” Rukmini to be from their land?

What does Srimad Bhagavatam say – the RSS article apparently quotes Bhagavatam to place Bali and Parashurama both in Madhya Pradesh. That is the fact. The only geographical reference to Bali in Bhagavatam is his Yagna takes place on the banks of Narmada. In the case of Parashurama too, Mahishmati inferred to be present day Maheshwar is mentioned clearly. So Bali and Parashurama belong to MP or to Kerala?

When I returned home what I did was to pick up the Bhagavatam and just read from the source, Vamana Avatara and Prashurama Avatara. I am sure people of Kerala who do Bhagavata Saptaham with devotion would also understand the essence of it before enraging about people who celebrate Vamana Jayanthi.

Does celebrating Vamana avatara means insult to Bali? Vamana himself sings praise of Bali, without which you wouldn’t be celebrating him today. It is the purana pramana that puts him in the great line of Bhagavatas.

Narrating the Bhagavata Purana, Suka calls Bali, mahanubhava. Vishnu says he will guard Sutala where Bali would reside till he becomes an Indra. Prahlada goes with him too to Sutala.

What does Vishnu say to Brahma after pushing Bali into state of despair and then granting him the boon:

To quote from Swami Tapasyananda’s translation, Ramakrishna Mission publication: “O Brahma! Whomever I really wish to bless, I first take off his wealth. For wealth makes a man proud and arrogant, as a result of which he is led to insult the world and Myself. Subject as the Jiva is to his own Karma, he transmigrates by the compulsion of Karma from species to species and from body to body, until some distant date he gets a human body. ..  a person devoted to Me never gets infatuated even when favoured by high birth prosperity etc., which generally generate pride and arrogance in  others and block all their spiritual progress. ( Such was the case with great devotees like Dhruva, Prahlada and others).”

So, does celebration of Vamana Jayanthi offend Kearlites? Does that mean Bali is not respected? If only Bali has to be respected and not Vishnu in Vamana Avatara then what happens to hundreds of Vishnu temples in the state including Thirukatkappan?

I am not trying to justify anything, but only hoping for a real understanding of how to look at our Pramanas and also understand and respect the local legends.

We didn’t erupt in anger when Anand Neelakandan said in his village Ravana is the hero, and only Ravana is worshipped. Mind you that he may not be very far from Thiruparayar or Irinjalakuda. Kerala has not only temples to Rama, but has the unique distinction of having temples named after Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrugna. So, no Rama worshipper attacked Neelakandan at the forum where he said only Ravana is worshipped in his village. The hall was full of Malayalis and a few Tamilians and others. For us Tamil Vaishnavas, a Kerala Kulashekara’s “Mannupugazh Kosalai” is “the” lullaby, the most soothing verses one can sing to Rama.

We are also the society that wanted A.K.Ramanujan’s 300 Ramayanas to be studied even as an academic textbook. The insults and distortions in Rama’s story doesn’t bother us. Valmiki may be called Adi Kavi and Ramayana Adi Kavya, but we can insult his version, and we affirm our right to do so. So, why get enraged when Srimad Bhagavatam is quoted. Please feel free to quote from Keralolpathi or Kerala Mahatmiya to counter the quotes from Bhagavatam.

Mind you, there is no anger when Onam is called a secular, harvest festival. That I feel may be better, for then there is neither a Bali nor a Vamana.