The great Epics of Bharatham:

-


The Ramayana is not history or
biography. It is a part of Hindu
mythology. One cannot understand Hindu
dharma unless one knows Rama and Sita,
Bharata, Lakshmana, Ravana,
Kumbhakarna and Hanuman. Mythology
cannot be dispensed with. Philosophy
alone or rituals alone or mythology alone
cannot be sufficient. These are the three
stands of all ancient religions. The attitude
towards things spiritual which belongs to
a particular people cannot be grasped or
preserved or conveyed unless we have all
these three.
 The characters andincidents of these
 two itihasas have come
to be the raw material for the works of
numerous poets and saints that came later
to write dramas and sing poems and
hymns to keep this nation in the straight
path.
Oral discourses have further played
with them in order to entertain and
instruct pious audiences and not a few
variations and additions have been
made to the original. All the languages
of India have the Ramayana and
Mahabharata retold by their poets, with
additions and variations of their own.
They are the records of the mind and
spirit of our forefathers who cared for
the good, ever so much more than for
the pleasant and who saw more of the
mystery of life than we can do in our
interminable pursuit for petty and
illusory achievements ill the material
plane.

We should be thankful to those who
preserved for us these many centuries-old
epics in spite of all the vicissitudes
through which our nation passed since
Vyasa and Valmiki's time. Even the poets
who wrote these epics in the original did
not create but built out of the inherited
bricks of national memory prior to their
own time. Reading the Ramayana and
Mahabharata even in the form I have
given them, we go back to live with our
ancient forbears and listen to their grand
voiceMythology is an integral part of
religion. It is as necessary for religion and
national culture as the skin and the
skeleton that preserve a fruit with its juice
and its taste. Form is no less essential than
substance. Mythology and holy figures are
necessary for any great culture to rest on
its stable spiritual foundation and function
as a life-giving inspiration and guide.

Let us keep ever in our minds the fact
that it is the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata that bind our vast numbers
together as one people, despite caste,
space and language that seemingly divide
them.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

32. KAMBAN'S SURPANAKHA :

-
Image
RAMA and Lakshmana drove out Surpanakha, as one takes a stick and drives out a donkey straying into a garden. Such is the brief and simple treatment of this incident by Valmiki. Kamban, the Tamil poet, however, deals with it more elaborately and has made a number of changes in the story. Sitting on the riverbank, Rama watched a swan walking and then looked at Sita, also walking. Noting the similarity in the gait, Rama was pleased and smiled. Sita, for her part, observed an elephant returning from the river and, reminded of Rama's gait, smiled. Thus in Panchavati, beside the river Godavari, love flowed smoothly between the banks of dharma. Just then fate conspired with lust to drag Surpanakha to the presence of Rama. The Lord Vishnu had left the Ocean of Milk and taken birth as Dasaratha's son, to rid the earth of the enemies of the gods. But how was Surpanakha to know this? Beholding the beauty of his person, she wondered: "Is this...
Read more

SPOTLIGHTS ON THE RAMAYANAM : 2.Sri Swami Premananda

-
Image
14/05/2019 2. Historical Facts Our ancestors those days did a lot of research on several subjects including the mysteries of  the soul and into the nature of the One Universal Soul which pervades the entire creation, which are still preserved in the holy and marvellous Upanishads. Besides the Vedas, the Upanishads, Ramayana and Mahabharata and some other wonderful legacies are a most valuable heritage left by the ancients to us. Time lent higher and greater lustre to the achievements of these gifted races and the age in which they flourished appeared to their descendants as the Golden Age of Bharatavarsha. Dasaratha, the king of the Kosalas, is considered as an ideal king, who laboured for the good of his subjects. His capital was Ayodhya on the bank of the river Saryu. The ruins of his fort and palaces and Hanuman Garhi are still there, approximately six miles from Faizabad, in Uttar Pradesh.The king of Videhas, Raja Janaka is accepted as a monarch and a saint of high...
Read more

49. SITA IN THE ASOKA VANAM :

-
Image
As HANUMAN stood on the high wall, he did not know why, a thrill of joy passed through his frame. It was the invisible atmosphere which envelopes an accomplished mission and influences subtly the devoted heart. As be had at last reached the spot where Sita was, his whole being throbbed with exulting expectation without any apparent reason. It was an early spring night. Trees and plants were in flowers. Hanuman jumped to a place where there was a thick cluster of trees. This disturbed the birds that rested there and they flew out with sweet noises. Deer and other animals moved about. Flowers dropped from the branches and covered the body of Hanuman. The creatures in the park, looking at the lovely figure of Hanuman covered all over with flowers, thought that the God of spring was visiting the grove in the early dawn. The garden was entrancingly beautiful. Lovely tanks, terraces decorated with gold, silver, ivory, pearl and coral crystal steps, art...
Read more