Introduction to Section 9.4

The Lord’s presence, in this dark land, alone and unaided, excited the reasonable fear of the Āḻvār that the worldlings would approach Him only to achieve their own selfish ends, with little or no care or love for Him. No doubt, the Lord allayed the Āḻvār’s fears, as we saw towards the end of the last decad. Still, the Lord has a lingering doubt that, in the exuberance of the Āḻvār’s love for Him, he might once again entertain similar fears about His safety and feel agitated. And so. He wanted to dispel the Āḻvār’s fears, with no chance whatever of their revival and revealed unto him His invulnerable abode in Tirucceṅkuṉṟūr Tirucciṟṟāṟu (in present Kerala State), out of bounds to the ungodly, attended by the mighty band of three thousand Vedic scholars, full of devotion. As a further precaution, the Lord also exhibited unto the Āḻvār, His wondrous deeds revealing His extra-ordinary strength and valour. With his fears thus eradicated in toto, the Āḻvār could whole-heartedly enjoy in this decad the Lord’s exquisite beauty.

A striking parallel to this can be found in Lord Rāma’s exhortation to Sugrīva, the monkey king, by way of dispelling his fears regarding Vibhīṣaṇa’s admission into their camp. In the heated debate that was going on, opposition to the grant of asylum to Vibhīṣaṇa was mounting high. Interveningin the debate, the Lord asserted, inter alia, that He could, if He liked, destroy the Rākṣasas all the world over (not merely those in Laṅkā) with the mere tip of His thumb. This was enough to root out Sugrīva’s fears about the possible ill-effects of granting asylum to Vibhīṣaṇa, come down from Rāvaṇa’s Laṅkā.

The reassured Sugrīva, the erstwhile leader of the opposition in the debate that preceded, exclaimed:

“Oh, Rāma, You have a thorough mastery over the subtleties of Dharma; as the Protector of the entire universe, your creed is to instil happiness in one and all and it is indeed praiseworthy. I am now quite clear in my mind about the bonafides of Vibhīṣaṇa and it is but meet that I myself go up to him, anchored in the mid-air, and bring him here.”

While Śrī Rāma quelled the fears of Sugrīva and others in His camp by a mere utterance, as above, Lord Kṛṣṇa set at naught the grim fears of the on-lookers through actual demonstration of His immense strength, making mincemeat of the monstrous wrestlers, set up by Kaṃsa, in no time.