BEAUTIES OF RAMAYANAM : 1.2

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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 world placed in an atmosphere of pleasure and plenty, falling a victim to the promptings of his vicious mind (Manthara) infatuated by sense-objects (Kaikeyi).


(ii) The ten headed Rakshasa, Ravana, in the absence of Sri Rama and Lakshmana steals away Sita from their forest dwelling. Here Ravana with his ten heads is to be compared with the ten sense-organs—five organs of knowledge and five organs of action. Stealing away of Sita is to be compared to the loss of reasoning power of the worldly minded deluded by Maya. The golden deer Maricha is Maya which deluded both Lakshmana and Rama and they lost their power of discrimination (Sita).

(iii) Hanuman, the intellectual giant and a strong celibate, is an invincible power which indicates that if one has to achieve success in all his undertakings one has to cultivate truth, simplicity, purity, selfless service, devotion to duty and establish himself in absolute Brahmacharya. Sri Rama and Lakshmana developed these qualities and they were able to redeem Sita from the demon Ravana, meaning, they got back their reasoning power by Brahmacharya and Tapas.

(iv) In worldly life whatever might be the spiritual progress one has achieved, he will never attain Moksha unless he is detached from all worldly ties. This aspect is fully depicted in the ascetic march of Sri Rama, Lakshmana and Sita to the forest in obedience to the wishes of Kaikeyi. The path which led the regal party to the forest was so narrow that it was not possible for them to have a safe passage.

To be continued ..
Swami Sivananda

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