BEAUTIES OF RAMAYANAM : 2.2

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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 description, in his poem, of the ideal society, of ideal administration of country, and the ultimate ideal of life, the attainment of God.

What a grand work! Valmiki’s epic gives a concrete picture of the mysterious link that connects man and the world with God, the Creator. Social life is emphasised, for man is a member of society, and without society’s good, his good cannot be achieved. And without God’s grace no individual and no society can progress.

The supreme value of the universe is in its being a field of experience for its contents are necessary for the evolution towards the Eternal Being. The reality of the universe is God. All attempts and endeavours based on Adharma, on selfishness and individual independence, are doomed to failure at the iron hands of the Divine Law.

The Ramayanam most excellently portrays the victory of Dharma and the final defeat of Adharma. Rama and Ravana respectively stand for these two forces of the universe.

To be continued ...
Swami Sivananda

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