SPOTLIGHTS ON THE RAMAYANAM -4. Sri Swami Premananda

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07/08/2019.
4. Travel Diary of The Soul

4.1
Far from being tales and legends, they rise above the ground of mortal comprehension to the height of a majesty which can only be described as a travel diary of the sojourn of the soul in the cosmos. Written in tumultuously powerful styles and with a virility that can brook no comparison, the epics of the world are the depiction of the soul of man as the chief hero in the drama of creation.

Who can read these masterpieces without an electrifying touch of the supernormal, felt within oneself? The epic poets are the messengers of eternity who speak in the language of man, charging it with the force that they receive from the depths they have plunged and the heights they have scaled.

4.2
Under such circumstances, it should look idle to cavil and carp at the messages of the epics as a grandmother’s story, amyth, a fable, a fantasy, something ‘unhistorical’. And what is history to the eye that can see all the details of creation with one sweep? How could events which have a cosmic significance be regarded as unhistorical?

Is history merely a record of events capable of physical verification confined only to this earth?

Are we, all-seeing men and there can be nothing beyond the ken of human perception? Humility should be considered as the insignia of true wisdom and insight.

4.3
Parading of modern empirical researches has often become these days a major theme in many recent journals and papers, learned editorials which denounce the super-physical nature of life and shout down anything that is superhuman. Man himself is more than man! He strides the very heavens in an inner reach of his own being. These are the regions explored in the mighty epics.

One should wish more caution and patience from these distortions of modern scholarship. This sevak is not a writer and his intellect is a poor match to the unlimited glory and exploits of Lord Raman. I may even not be qualified to write anything by way of this exceptional approach.

I hope that the generous readers will hail this new attempt believing that there may be some divine purpose, some play of divine Grace, behind this novel urge which has in one way or the other inspired this sevak to undertake this task. I hope too that learned and devout readers will not wholly denounce this new attempt and will forgive my impertinence and errors, if any.

NEXT : THE STORY

To be continued ..

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