NamaskaaramThere is a reportedly interesting book on Bhima on Amazon. I did not read the book, but it has good reviews. As with everything, there is a possibility of distasteful interpretations of the itihAsa and my sincere apologies if this is the case here.
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Namaskar:
All the five brothers have distinct qualities with diverse strength with one unified Mind! Panadavas are the greatest example to illustrate the Truth of Unity with diversity! The strength Pandavas come from the unity, discipline, highest moral values along with the grace of the Divine. Even the birth of these five brothers (six including Karna) were due to the Divine Grace. There are enough materials on each of them to write a book (Many have been written and available. It is good to know about the book on Bhima glorifying his significance in Mahabharat. None of us will ever be qualified to make a comparison of the five brothers to determine who is the greatest! We are all smart enough not to make any such attempts!
This may be a time to see the roles of the four brothers Rama, Bharata, Lakhmana and Shatrughna. Shatrughna the youngest brother of Rama has only limited amount of information in Ramayana (Valmiki, Tulsi and Kambar versions). Does this mean that he played an insignificant role in Ramayana? He is the twin brother of Lakshmana and according to Valmiki Ramayana, Shatrughna is one half component of Vishnu (Rama Avatar). It is true that Ramayana does not provide any elaborate information about Shatrugana. In Kamba Ramayana (Tamil poems) Bharata has been described in much greater details and one of the verses, the poet Kambar mentions that evan one thousand Ramas will not be equal to the qualities possessed by Bharata.
Our problem is most of us don’t think of Shatrughna as a central character in the Ramayana. We should remember the fact that he stayed in Ayodhya for 14 years, taking the burden of ruling the Kingdom unselfishly as a representative of Bharata. Bharata did not rule Ayodhya and he handed it over to Shatrughna his most trusted twin brother and stayed near the edge of the forest! It was mentioned in Ramayana that Shatrughna was prepared to kill Manthara who persuaded Kaikeyi to get the two boon to be fulfilled which sent Rama to the forest. Bharata intervened to stop him and saved manthara.
In conclusion, our epics expressed the importance of Unity in diversity! The final goal of reaching the Truth is only possible with unity of mind, body and intellect and with Divine Grace!!
Warm regards,
Ram Chandran
praNAms
Hare Krishna
Bheemasena projected in bad light by advaitins (relevant ‘picks’ from scriptures) because ‘bheemasenaru’ has been given very esteemed position by tattva vAdins. These attempts is not anything directly related to bheemasena but to smear the arrogance of dvaitins. Likewise tattvavAdins do not hold any personal grudge on shiva/shankara but since we advaitins believe that bhagavatpaada is an incarnation of bhagavaan shankara they make all the attempts to tarnish the image of shankara. The dvaitins belittle the image of shankarachaarya so advaitins started abusing rAghavendra swamy & other dvaitaachaarya-s, Sri raaghavendra swamy written something against shankara and Advaita so start personally abusing him to settle the scores. If you (dvaitins) say vishNu/hari sarvOttama I (Advaitin) know how to show both are one and the same and shiva is sometimes superior to vishNu 😊 This battle of supremacy going on since ages and we the advaitins adding extra fuel of late in an effort of protecting our Advaita vedAnta from the clutches of dvaitins.
Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar