Chapter
1
Rama - Prince and Principle
The
name 'Rama' is the essence of the Vedas; the Story of
Rama is an ocean of Milk, pure and potent. It can be
asserted that no poem of equal grandeur and beauty has
emerged from other languages or from other countries
until this very day; but it has provided inspiration to
the poetic imagination of every language and country. It
is the greatest treasure inherited by his good fortune by
every Indian.
Rama is the guardian
deity of the Hindus; the Name is borne by the bodies in
which they dwell and the buildings in which those bodies
dwell. It can safely be said that there is no Indian who
has not imbibed the nectar of Ramakatha, the story of
Rama.
The Ramayana, the epic
that deals with the story of the Rama Incarnation, is a
sacred text that is reverently recited by people with all
varieties of equipment, the scholar as well as the
ignoramus, the millionaire as well as the pauper. The
Name that the Ramayana glorifies cleanses all evil; it
transforms the sinner; it reveals the Form that the Name
represents, the Form that is as charming as the Name
itself.
As the sea is the
source of all the waters on earth, all beings are born
from 'Rama'. A sea sans [without] water is
unreal; a being sans [without] 'Rama' is without
existence, now or ever. The azure Ocean and the Almighty
Lord have much in common.
The Ocean is the abode
of the Almighty, as myth and legend proclaim; they
describe Him as reclining on the Ocean of Milk. This is
the reason behind the title given by Valmiki (son of
Prachetas) the great poet who composed the epic, to each
canto, Kanda. Kanda means water, an expanse of
water.
Sage
poet Valmiki authoring the Ramayana
It also means 'the
sugarcane'. However crooked a cane may be, whichever
section you chew, the sweetness is unaffected and
uniform. The stream of Rama's Story meanders through many
a curve and twist; nevertheless, the sweetness of Karuna
(tenderness, pity, compassion) persists without
diminution throughout the narrative. The stream turns and
flows through sadness, wonder, ridicule, awa, terror,
love, despair and dialectics, but the main undercurrent
is the love of Dharma (Righteousness, Morality) and the
Karuna (Compassion) it fosters.
The nectar in the story
of Rama is as the 'Sarayu river' that moves silently by
the city of Ayodhya, where Rama was born and where he
ruled. The Sarayu has its source in the Himalayan
Manasa-Sarovar, as this Story is born in the
Manasa-Sarovar (the Lake of the Mind)! The Rama stream
bears the sweetness of Karuna; the stream of Lakshmana
(his brother and devoted companion) has the sweetness of
Devotion, (Bhakthi); as the Sarayu river joins the Ganga
(Ganges) and the waters commingle, so too, the streams of
tender compassion and devotion (the stories of Rama and
Lakshmana) commingle in the Ramayana. Karuna and Prema
make up, between them, the composite picture of the glory
of Rama; that picture fulfils the heart's dearest
yearning for every Indian; to attain it is the aim of
every spiritual striving.
The effort of the
individual is but half the pursuit; the other half
consists in the Grace of God. Man fulfils himself by
self-effort as well as Divine Blessings; the fulfilment
takes him across the dark ocean of dualities, on to the
Immanent and Transcendent One.
The Ramayana has to be
read, not as the record or a human career, but as the
narrative or the Advent and Activities of an Avatar
(Incarnation of God). Man must endeavour with
determination to realise through his own experience the
ideals revealed in that narrative. God is all-knowing,
all-pervasive, all-powerful. The words that He utters
while embodied in the Human form, the acts that He deigns
to indulge in during his earthly sojourn, these are
inscrutable and extra-ordinarily significant. The
precious springs of His Message ease the Path or
Deliverance for mankind. Do not look upon Rama as a scion
of the Solar Dynasty, or as the sovereign of the kingdom
of Ayodhya, or as the son of Emperor Dasaratha. Those
correlates are but accessory and accidental. This error
has become habitual to modern readers; they pay attention
only to the personal relationship and affiliations
between the characters of the story they read about; they
do not delve into the values they represent and
demonstrate.
To elaborate this
error: the father of Rama had three wives; the first was
such and such, the second was of this nature, the third
had these traits! Her maids were of this ugly type ... .
The wars fought by Dasaratha, the father, were
characterised by these peculiarities
those
specialities
. In this manner, fancy leads man
astray into the region of the trivial and the colourful,
making him neglect the valuable kernel. People do not
realise that the study of history must enrich life and
make it meaningful and worthwhile, rather than cater to
the appetite for paltry facts and petty ideas. Their
validity and value lie deep within the facts and
fertilise them like subterranean water. Wear the glasses
of Bhakthi (Reverent Adoration) and Sradha (Steady
Dedication); then, the eye will endow you with the pure
Wisdom that liberates you and grants eternal
Bliss.
As men squeeze juice
out of the fibrous cane and drink only the sweetness, as
the bee sucks the honey in the flower, regardless of its
symmetry and colour, as the moth flies towards the
brightness of the flame, ignoring the heat and the
inevitable catastrophe, the Sadhaka (Spiritual Seeker)
should yearn to imbibe the Karunarasa (the expression of
the emotion of tenderness, pity and compassion) that the
Ramayana is saturated with, paying no heed to other
subjects. When a fruit is eaten, we throw away the skin,
the seeds and the fibre. It is in the very nature of
Nature that fruits have these components! Nevertheless,
no one will eat these on the plea that he has paid for
them! No one can swallow the seeds and digest them. No
one will chew the outer rind. So, too,
in this Rama-fruit called Ramayana, the tales of
Rakshasas (demons, ogres and the like) form the rind; the
wicked deeds of these evil men are the hard indigestible
seeds; sensory and wordly descriptions and events are the
not-too-tasty fibrous stuff; they are the sheaths for the
juicy nourishment.
Those who seek the
Karuna-rasa in the Rama fruit should concentrate more on
the central narrative than on supplementary details that
embellish or encumber it. Listen to the Ramayana in that
mood; that is the best form of Sravana (process of
spiritual listening).
On one occasion,
Emperor Parikshith fell at the feet of the Sage Suka and
asked for instruction on one point that was causing him
dire doubt. "Master! One riddle has been worrying me
since long. I know that you can solve it for me and that
no one else can. I have listened to the narratives of the
lives of my forefathers, from the earliest, the great
Manu, down to those of my grandfathers and father. I have
studied these stories with care. I observe that in the
history of every one of these, there is mention of Sages
(Rshis) attached to the monarch, some learned
scholar-saints who are members of the court, attending
durbars and sharing the business of government! What is
the real meaning of this amazing association of scholars
(who have renounced all attachments and desires, who have
realised that the world is a shadow and a snare, and that
the One is the only Reality) with kings and rulers
playing subordinate roles and counselling them when
asked? Those revered elders will not, I know, engage
themselves in any activity without sufficient and proper
reasons. Their behaviour will ever be pure and unsullied.
But, this makes my doubt unsolvable. Please enlighten
me".
Suka laughed at the
question. He replied, "You have asked a fine question, no
doubt. Listen! The great sages and holy scholars will
always be eager to share with their fellowmen the truth
they have grasped, the sanctifying experience they have
won, the elevating deed they have been priviliged to
perform, and the Divine Grace they have been chosen to
receive; they seek nearness to those who are in charge of
administration, those who are adepts in ruling over
peoples, with the intention to use them as instruments
for establishing and ensuring peace and prosperity on
earth; they implant high ideals in their minds, and holy
ways of fulfilling them; they prompt the performance of
righteous actions, in accordance with just laws. The
monarchs too invite and welcome the sages, seek out the
scholars and plead with them to be in their courts, so
that they can learn from them the art of government and
act according to their counsel. The monarch was the
master and guardian of the people; so, they spent their
days with him for the estimable purpose of realising,
through him, the yearning of their hearts:
"Lokaassamasthaah Sukhino Bhavanthu - May all the
Worlds be happy". They were eager to see happiness
and peace spread over the world. Therefore, they tried to
equip the kings with all the virtues, fill them with all
the moral codes of discipline, arm them with all branches
of learning, so that they may rule the realm efficiently,
wisely and with beneficial consequences to themselves and
their subjects.
There were other
reasons, too. Listen! Knowing that the Granter of Joy to
humanity, the Mentor of human morals, the Leader of the
Solar line, the Dweller in the Heaven of Eternal Bliss,
will take birth in a royal line, Sages who had the
foresight to anticipate events, gained entry into the
durbars of rulers so that they may experience the bliss
of contact with the Incarnation, when It happens. They
feared they may not get such access later, that they may
miss the Bliss they could well garner. So, they profited
by their vision of the future and established themselves
in the royal capital, in the thick of the community,
longing for the Advent.
"To this venerable
group belonged Vasistha, Vismamitra, Garga, Agasthya and
other sages (rishis). They had no wants; they were
monarchs of renunciation; they sought nothing from any
one. They were ever content. They appeared in the
audience halls of the emperors of those days, not for
polemics and the pomp of punditry or for collecting the
costly gifts offered to such disputants and guests, or
for decorating themselves with the burdensome title those
patrons confer on the persons they prefer. They craved
rather for the Darsan (Bliss of the Vision) of the Lord
and for a chance to uphold Dharma (Righteousness) in
human affairs; they had no other objective".
"The kings too in those
days were immersed in thoughts divine! Theu approached
the hermits and sages in their retreats in order to
discover from them the means of making their subjects
happy and content; often they invited them to their
palaces and consulted them about ways and means of good
government. Those were days when there were sages with no
attachment to self, and scholars with no craving for
power; such were the men who tendered advice to the
kings. As a consequence, there was no lack of food and
clothing, of housing or good health, for the people of
the realm. All days were festival days; all doors were
decorated with green festoons. The ruler felt that his
most sacred duty was the fostering of his people's
welfare. The subjects too felt that the ruler was the
heart of the body politic. They had full faith that he
was as precious as their own hearts; they valued him as
such; they revered him and paid him the homage of
gratitude".
Suka explained the role
of the sages in the royal courts in this clear downright
manner before the large gathering that was sitting around
him.
Have you noticed this?
Whatever is done by the great, whichever company they
choose, they will ever be on the path of righteousness,
on the path of the Divine; their acts will promote the
welfare of the entire world! So, when the Ramayana or
other narratives of the Divine are recited or read,
attention must be fixed on the majesty and mystery of
God, on the Truth and Straightforwardness that are
inherent in them, and on the practice of those qualities
in daily life. No importance should be attached to
extraneous matters; the means and manner of the execution
of one's duty is the paramount lesson to be
learnt.
God, when appearing
with Form for the sake of upholding Dharma, behaves in a
human way. He needs must! For, He has to hold forth the
ideal life before man and confer the experience of joy
and peace on men. His movements and activities (Leelas)
might appear ordinary and commonplace to some eyes. But,
each of these will be an expression of beauty, truth,
goodness, joy and exaltation. It will captivate the world
with its charm, it will purify the heart that
contemplates it. It will overcome and overwhelm all the
agitations of the mind. It will tear the veil of Illusion
(Maya). It will fill the consciousness with Sweetness.
There can be no 'ordinary' and 'commonplace' in the
careers of Avathars. Whatever is seen and taken as of
that nature is really 'super-human', 'super-natural',
deserving high reverence!
The story of Rama is
not the story of an individual; it is the story of the
Universe! Rama is the Personification of the basic
Universal in all beings. He is in all, for all time, in
all space. The story deals not with a period that is
past, but with the present and future without end, with
beginningless eternal Time!
No ant can bite,
without Rama's Will! No leaf can drop from its branch,
without Rama's prompting! Sky, wind, fire, water and
earth - the Five Elements that compose the Universe -
behave as they do for fear of Him, and in tune with His
Orders! Rama is the Principle which attracts - and
endears through that attraction - the disparate elements
in Nature. The attraction that one exerts over another is
what makes the Universe exist and function.
That is the Rama
principle, without which the cosmos will become chaos.
Hence, the axiom: If there be no Rama, there will be no
Panorama (Universe).
contents
of this Vahini
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