Ramayanam : (18/07/2013 )

23/03/2018 BEAUTIES OF RAMAYANAM : 2.2 2.FEATURES OF THE RAMAYANAM-2 The beauty of the Ramayana is really beyond human description, for it is a revelation to a Rishi—not merely an intellectual production of a scholar—whose meaning is ‘integral’, and no one-sided consideration of it can do full justice to it. The entire extent of the life of an Arya is delineated in the Ramayana. Social life and spiritual life are wonderfully harmonised in it. Love and heroism, Ahimsa and Kshatriyadharma are brought together in it. Bhakti and Yoga, Karma and Jnana are fused into one. Sri Rama is the crowning feature of the Ramayana, whose very name is exalted to the status of a supreme purifier of the mind of man. Rama-Nama is a panacea for all diseases, and is as invincible and irresistible as the Rama-Bana. Life in its entirety, individual, social and divine, is depicted by the poet-seer Valmiki. He commences his poem with a description of the ideal individual. He then gives the desc

16/03/2018  BEAUTIES OF RAMAYANAM : 2.1 2. FEATURES OF THE RAMAYANAM-1 The Ramayana of Valmiki is a didactic poem which has the avowed purpose of glorifying Dharma and inculcating the truths which open up for man the way to supreme perfection. It is one of the two great epics of India. It represents the true Hindu spirit of unconditional adherence to the law of righteousness and the performance of one’s prescribed duty. To assert the greatness of a life of activity based on the righteousness underlying the law of the Divine Being is one of the main aims of the Ramayana. The life of the ‘ideal man’ described in the Ramayana is an incentive to all men to strive to become embodiments of Dharma. Dharma is the soul of life and a life bereft of Dharma is not worth its name. Sri Rama, the incarnation of God, represents in himself the ideal son, the ideal brother, the ideal husband, the ideal king and the emblem of Divinity on earth. Man is expected to root his virtue in the

11/03/2018 1. THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE RAMAYANAM :1.3  Hence they had to follow one after the other, so much so, Sri Rama was in front, Sita in the middle and Lakshmana at the back. Everyone knows pretty well the brotherly affection that Lakshmana had towards his brother and it is even said that he could not exist even for a second without seeing Rama. While on their march, because of Sita’s presence in the middle, Lakshmana could not see his brother properly and at frequent intervals he used to request his sister-in-law to make room for him to see Rama. In this context, Sri Rama is to be compared to Paramatman (in fact Rama was the incarnation of the Supreme Being) and Lakshmana the individual soul, Jivatman. Jivatman constantly endeavours to attain oneness with the Paramatman but Maya (Sita) stands in the way, but with an intense yearning it is possible to get rid of Maya and attain the goal of merging oneself in the Paramatman. The possibility of attaining Godhood by the a

03/03/2018 1. THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE RAMAYANAM :1.2 For the purpose of bringing out the full philosophy of the Ramayana, therefore, one has to closely follow the part played by the figures enumerated below: (1) King Dasaratha (2) Manthara—the maidservant of Kaikeyi (3) Kaikeyi—the youngest of King Dasaratha’s consorts (4) Ravana—the demon king of Lanka (5) Hanuman—minister of the monkey chief, Sugriva (6) Sita—the beloved wife of Sri Rama, the prince of Ayodhya (7) Lakshmana—brother of Sri Rama (8) Sri Rama—the hero of the great epic. On the eve of the coronation of Sri Rama as the Crown Prince of Ayodhya the whole scheme was shelved behind though the pressure brought on Dasaratha by his wife Kaikeyi under the instigation of her maidservant Manthara and the king’s submission to the dictates of his wife whereby Prince Rama was exiled to the forest where he was to spend a period of fourteen years. (i) In this context King Dasaratha is to be compared to the ordinary man of the