Ramayanam : (18/07/2013 )

----------------------------------------------------- Saturday, August 15, 2020. 8 : 34. PM. IV. IN WORLD LITERATURE Post-14. --------------------------------------------------- 1. Before we go over to explain the esotericism of the Ramayana, let me say a few words about the prevailing criticism about the veracity of various events mentioned in the epic. *First, there is no doubt that early Indians had an approach to history which was rather different from the present day attitude. The word for literature in India is Sahitya, i.e. which will help in the progress and welfare of mankind. While writing history, maybe they kept the objective of human welfare uppermost. 2. *Secondly there may have been some intermingling of history and mythology. Although mythology is said to be based on what C.G. Jung has called the ‘race-unconscious’ and therefore projects the innate inhibited aspirations of a race; they did not draw any definite line of demarcation between mythology and history. It is, t...

===================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, May 19, 2020. SPOTLIGHTS ON THE RAMAYANAM -13. Sri Swami Premananda III.THE PLOT THICKENS -1. Post-13. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Before returning, Hanuman was caught by the henchmen of Ravana who tried to burn him alive but Hanuman assumed a huge form and in turn caused enormous damage to Lanka. WhenRavana’s brother Vibhishana advised Ravana to return the captive, Ravana disgracefully turned him out of the court. Thus Vibhishana surrendered to Lord Rama and became his devotee for ever. ------------------------------------------------------- 2, Rama did not take any precipitate action. An emissary, Angada, son of Bali, was sent to the court of Ravana asking for the return of Sita to avoid bloodshed. Angada was told by Ravana that he would pr...

========================================== ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 20/04/2020. III.THE PLOT THICKENS -1. Post-12. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. While being abducted, Sita flapped her limbs like a caged bird, shrieked and shouted but there was none to come to her rescue. On the way she left a trail by dropping her ornaments. When Ravana was intercepted by Jatayu, a devotee of Rama, who put up a fight, the latter eventually lost the battle and fell down. Ravana thereafter reached his capital without any disturbance and confined Sita to a garden in his palace, called Ashoka-Vatika. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Rama returned to find Panchavati without its soul, its life, its Sita. He suspected foul play and went round asking for the whereabouts of Sita from birds and beasts, plants and trees, wailing and weeping like an ordinary man....

04/04/2020. II - COSMIC DRAMA : 3 3. Ideal Human Relationships Post-11. Ideal Human Relationships 1. Ramayana is an epic which delineates with remarkable clarity and the precision of a surgeon’s knife, how to conduct human relationships of all types. To my mind it appears to be an authentic interpretation in sociology, a comprehensive directory of human relations. There is no end to this variety of relations between man and man, man and woman and it may be surprising that the ideal behaviour of almost every human relationship has been depicted in this epic.  To name a few :  the relationship between father and son as represented by Dasaratha and Rama;  son and stepmother—Rama and Kaikeyi;  husband and wife—Lakshmana and Urmila;  king and his subjects—Rama and inhabitants of Ayodhya;  brother and brother—Rama, Bharata and Lakshmana;  married man and a wanton—Lakshmana and Surpanakha;  God and devotee—Rama and Sugreeva;  king and his army—Rama ...

======================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 24/02/2020. II - COSMIC DRAMA : -2. Post-10. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Rama knew this cosmic plan. He knew that he was merely a cog in the wheel of the great universe. Or, to view him as an incarnation of Vishnu, he was well aware of the meaning behind the play of the cosmos, of which he was the great central pivot. With this wisdom ingrained in him he was not elated when his father proposed his name as a king. Nor did he sink into the abyss of despondency when the next morning he was banished from the kingdom for 14 long years. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. He accepted the co...

======================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 02/02/2020. II - COSMIC DRAMA : -1. Post-9. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Events in this universe do not occur in isolation or individually. Incidents are inter-related and interdependent. There is a flux in the totality of events and the whole drama is played on a cosmic plane. Can a wave in the ocean claim to ride on the crest on its own or a whiff of wind blow independently of the atmosphere? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. You must have watched an army of ants going about their way in a disciplined manner as busy-bodies. To be sure, if they had better brains they would feel being engaged in an ...

======================================================================== ======================================================================= 16/11/2019. 7. There Was A King - Continued ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When the king visited her in the evening, she expressed her desire to reclaim the boons to which the king agreed. The first boon Kaikeyi asked for was that Bharata and not Rama, should be made the king. Secondly, she asked for the banishment of Rama from the kingdom for 14 years. The king, after painful reluctance, agreed to grant the first boon but could not bear the separation of Rama for such a long period. The queen, however stuck to her stand and Dasaratha kept his word. When Rama left for the forest, his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana also insisted upon accompanying him. After their separation the king died of a broken heart. When Bharata who had been s...