RAMAYANA

Introduction

In the massive library of Indian literature, two vital and massive epic poems are Ramayana of Valmiki
and Mahabharata of Veda-Vyasa. These are referred to as Itihasa, meaning ‘histories. (Literally iti ha àsa–
‘so indeed it was’) The implication being that they are based on actual historical events. Not only does
each of these epic poems contain over-arching story, they also contain hundreds of short parables–stories
within the story. The Ramayana and Mahabharata as well as the many Puranas were indeed meant to
entertain. At the same time, they were also meant to educate the masses about India’s spiritual culture,
dharma, values and life itself.

The Itihasas give us beautiful stories of absorbing interest and importance, through which all the
fundamental teachings of Sanatana dharma are indelibly impressed on one’s mind. We get a clear idea of
Sanatana Dharma from these sublime stories. In fact, the exact same teachings and ideas as presented in
the Vedas are reborn in the Itihasa literature, personified in the form of stories and characters. The
Upanishads are succinct (concise); they do not mince (crumble) words. They say: satyam vada |
dharmam chara | [Speak truth. Do Dharma]; màtrudevo bhava | pitrudevo bhava | acharya-devo
bhava | atithi-devo bhava | [May mother, father, teacher and guests be God to you]. However, in the
Itihasas, such ideas are elaborated into stories. Satyam vada becomes the story of Harischandra. Pitrudevo
bhava is taught through the example of Rama happily obeying Dasharatha orders to go into exile. Àcarya-
devo bhava becomes the story of Ekalavya’s guru dakshina.

Furthermore, sections of these works have come to be considered scriptures unto themselves. The 700
verses of the Bhagavad-Gìta, from Mahabharata, contains the essence of spirituality and, along with the
Upanishads and Brahma Sutras, is considered part of the prasthana-traya–the three core scriptures of
Hinduism.

The glory of the Itihasas and purànas is that they actually transform and uplift us–not only through their
moral lessons, but also through their characters. Reading about the chastity and purity of Sita Devi, we
gain these qualities ourselves. Reading about embodiments of dharma like Rama and Yudishtira makes us
more virtuous individuals. Becoming absorbed in tails of Hanuman’s devotion gives birth to love for God
in our own heart. This is not something mystical, just basic human psychology.

The Story in Brief

On the banks of the Sarayu River stood the beautiful city of Ayodhya, the prosperous capital of the
kingdom of Kosala. The people of Ayodhya were peace-loving and happy. No one was ignorant or poor.
Each person knew his or her role in society. Yet, all was not well in Ayodhya. Dasaratha, the king was
unhappy that he had no son to inherit his throne. On coming to know of this, Sage Vasishta – Dasaratha’s
counselor (Raja Guru) and priest agreed to perform a yagna (sacrifice) to appease the gods. The offering
(Prasad) obtained from this sacrifice was distributed among Dasaratha’s three wives who gave birth to
four radiant sons. Rama was born to Kausalya, Bharata to Kaikeyi, and Lakshmana and Shatrugna to
Sumitra. All four sons grew to be intelligent men. They learned the Holy Scriptures well. They were
devoted to the welfare of others. Dasaratha was finally happy and enjoyed watching his sons grow before
his eyes. He had a special place in his heart for Rama, the eldest.
Once sage Vishwamitra takes Rama, barely 16 years old at that time, and Lakshmana along with him to
fight and kill the demons who were disturbing his Sacred Rite and were preventing it from being
completed. After accomplishing the task, Vishwamitra took them to the court of King Janaka in Mithila.
There, Rama was able to effortlessly lift the bow of Siva which normally required several thousand strong
men to lift. Rama thus won the hand of the beautiful princess Seeta, the daughter of Janaka. Following the
wedding everyone returned to Ayodhya. Rama and Sita continued to serve their parents and delight the
holy ones. They were the perfect husband and wife and were exceedingly devoted to each other. Rama
had grown up to become a perfect young prince, with all noble virtues and qualities.

Dsaratha figured that this was the right time to coronate Rama as the king and made grand preparations
for this event. All were joyous at this news including Kaikeyi, mother of Bharata. However, Manthara, the
maid servant of Kaikeyi, poisoned her mind telling her that if Rama became king, then Bharata and his
sons would never have a chance to rule the kingdom. Kaikeyi dismissed this initially, but persistent
arguments from Manthara caused her to give in eventually. She demanded from Dasaratha the two boons
that he had promised her long back for saving him in a battlefield. With the first boon, she demanded
Bharata to be made king and with the second, she wanted Rama to be banished from the kingdom for
14yrs. Dasaratha was distraught and died pining for his son. Rama cheerfully accepted his disposition and
with the voluntary company of Seetha and Lakshmana, went to the forest in order to fulfill his father’s
wish.

Upon hearing the news, Bharata, who was at his uncle’s home during these events, rushed back to
Ayodhya. He was furious at his mother for being the cause of his father’s death and for having sent his
beloved Rama away unjustly. He rushed with his army to Chitrakoot, a beautiful isolated paradise beyond
the river Ganges. By then Rama, Lakshmana, and Seetha had even built a hut in Chitrakoot and had been
living there for several days. With tears Bharat begged Rama to return and refused to accept the throne.
Rama consoled Bharata, but firmly refused to return before 14years. Bharata took Rama’s sandals to place
on the throne and vowed to rule in Rama’s name till he returned.

The three lived in Chitrakoot peacefully for more than ten years and then decided to move beyond the
Godhavari to Panchavati, another beautiful forest area filled with birds and flowers. Shoorpanaka, sister
of the notorious demon-king Ravana, tried to harass Lakshmana and got her nose chopped off. This
resulted in a major war with Shoorpanaka’s brother-demons, but barring this incident, everything was
peaceful. One day though, Sita was captivated by a beautiful golden deer, which was nothing but demon
Mareecha in disguise. When she pleaded Rama for the same, he reluctantly rushed off behind the deer
leaving Lakshmana to take care of Sita. After luring Rama deep enough and being hit by Rama’s arrow,
Mareecha imitated Rama’s voice asking Lakshmana for help. When Lakshmana tried to put sense into
Sita telling her that it was none other than Mareecha, Sita abused Lakshmana. Finally having no other
choice, Lakshmana went warning Sita to be careful. At this juncture, Ravana appeared in the guise of a
mendicant and abducted Sita. While he was taking Sita in his aerial chariot, the faithful bird Jatayu tried
to intervene and was fatally wounded by Ravana. Not finding Sita in the hut, Rama and Lakshmana’s
search finally lead them to Jatayu and upon knowing the details, they started moving in the direction of
Lanka, where Ravana ruled.

Despite repeated entreaties from Ravana, Sita blatantly refused to be his wife and had to be housed in
Ashoka Vana, a garden near the palace. Everyday he would visit her and ask her to be his wife and Sita
firmly refused, having given her all for her Lord Rama. Ravana also used the services of demonesses who
tried to persuade and taunt Sita in various ways, but without success. Ravana’s wife Mandodari and his
good brother Vibheeshana pleaded with him to return Sita to Rama and warned him of dire consequences,
but Ravana would not heed their warnings. In the mean time, the distraught Rama vowed to find Ravana,
and befriended Sugriva in the monkey Kingdom of Kishkinda. In exchange for helping him find Sita,
Rama destroyed Vali, the evil brother of Sugriva and restored to Sugriva his kingdom and wife. In return,
Sugriva gathered his huge monkey army and with their help started building a bridge across the ocean to
reach Lanka. In the mean time, Hanuman, a friend of Sugriva, agreed to leap across the ocean to find out
the whereabouts of Sita in lanka. With faith in Rama, he leapt across the ocean and reached Lanka, where
he found Sita in the Asoka Vana gardens.

Pitfalls while reading Itihasas

There are many examples of the confusion resulting from not knowing the proper meaning of a story. One
of the biggest is found at the end of the Ramayana. A few years after Rama rescues Sita and returns to
Ayodhya, a rumor begins to spread that Sita was unfaithful during her imprisonment in Lanka. One day
Rama learns of this rumor from a washer man. He immediately sends Sita off the forest; despite the fact
that she is pregnant. This causes a lot of confusion in people. Some of them of attack Rama and Sanatana
dharma, saying “What is this? Rama is supposed to be the embodiment of dharma, and here he is acting
like a mahà adharmi!”

Here, Rama-the husband is not being stressed. This is not the teaching. It is Rama’s glory as a king that is
being highlighted. The point being that a king should be ready to sacrifice anything for his people. He is
first married to the kingdom, secondly to his wife. Here, the teaching is about the dharma of a king and
how he has to consider his subjects before his personal life. If you want to learn about the dharma of a
husband, look at the portion in Ramayana when Sita first disappears and Rama is depicted wandering
through the forest, searching her everywhere.

Another famous example takes place in Mahabharata. Ekalavya is a tribal who wants to become an archer.
He knows Drona is the greatest archery acharya, and wants to become his disciple. However, Drona will
not accept Ekalavya as a student because he is not a Kshatriya. Ekalavya builds an idol out of mud of
Drona, bows down before it and somehow manages to become the greatest archer in the world. However,
when Drona learns of this, he asks for Ekalavya’s thumb as his guru dakshina. And Ekalavya, without
even thinking about it, happily cuts of his thumb and gives it to Dronachrya. Naturally, everyone thinks,
“How horrible! What an ungodly story!” But what we are supposed to focus on is the glory of the disciple
and his devotion to his guru. If we focus on Ekalavya’s purity and honesty and dedication and gratitude to
his guru for all the guru has taught him (even though he didn’t even actually teach him) then we see the
beauty. Ekalavya was the embodiment of the Upanishadic principle achrya-devo bhava.

This technique of highlighting certain points and not others is common throughout the Itihasas and
Puranas. Although it is an especially common teaching technique in Indian culture, we in fact find it
throughout the world. If we find a particular story does not taste right to us, it is probable because we are
eating the cane stalk and not the sugar juice! We should approach a guru and ask him or her to clarify our
doubt.
Ramayana-its universal acceptance

The Ramayana is one of the rare literary masterpieces that are eternally relevant and useful. The various
types of situations depicted in Ramayana are very similar to those that commonly occur in our lives and
hence relevant to all mankind.

The epic Ramayana composed in India, traveled to South East Asia more than one thousand years before.
The Khmer of Cambodia had Reamker and the Thais of Thailand had the Ramakien. Indonesians, Malays,
Vietnamese, Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Mongols, Siberians, Tibetans, Burmese, Sri Lankans, Nepalese,
the ancient Turks, Arabs and the Persians too had their own versions of Ramayana. The story of
Ramayana was recomposed as Yama Watthu in Myanmar.

The capital of early Thailand was called Ayutthaya, possibly named after Sri Ram’s capital of Ayodhya.
Another ancient city in Thailand is Lavpuri named after Ram’s son Lav. The country Laos is named after
Ram’s son Lav. Burma is named after Lord Brahma and the old name for Vietnam is Champa. Singapore
is called the lion city from its Sanskrit origin. The capital city of Brunei is Bandar Sri Bhagwan and that
of Indonesia is Jaya Karta, the city of Victory.

The current monarch of Thailand is called ‘Bhumipal Athulyatej, Rama IX’. The Prime minister and his
cabinet in Malaysia take oath of office in the name of Lord Ram’s Paduka ‘Urusan Seri Paduka’ and the
agong or royal president takes oath of office in the name of the dust of Ram’s Paduka ‘Urusan Seri
Paduka Dhuli’. (They too consider the dust of the Paduka to be holier than the Paduka itself). The
Southeast Asian Games in 1997 used Sri Hanuman as its mascot, which shows his wide acceptance in all
these countries.

Message of Ramayana: Individual and Social Ideals seen in Ramayana

The epic illustrate the concept of Ramarajya, an ideal society based upon dharma, justice, truth, and
peace. This can be understood through an analysis of the main characters of the story:

Ratnakara the highway robber begins as a robber and ended up as Valmiki the poet. He robbed others to
feed his family. When his family readily shared his loot and reluctantly refused their share in his sins,
realization downed on him. To alleviate his sins, Ratnakara as advised by sage Narada, started chanting
Rama nama. He was so lost in his chanting and meditation that, he was unaware of the ant-hills that
formed around him. He came to be called Val-Mika:-the ant hill and Ramayana- the Ithihasa of Rama
came to be written by him. When he saw a hunter, who shot dead a male dove, plunging the female in to
sorrow, the poetry came to his mind.

Rama is the personification of dharma, nobility, goodness, humility and valor. As a son of a noble and
virtuous king, he scarifies his personal life in order to assist his father in fulfilling his promise to his wife
Kaikeyi. He leaves for exile in the forest without any grudge or hatred against, his stepmother Kaikeyi,
who was the cause of his exile. Rama advices his brother, Bharata, who was very angry at his mother
(kaikeyi) for sending Rama to exile, to love his mother and extend her the respect and reverence worthy
of a queen. At his own risk, Rama always fights the demons in the forest who harass the sages and the
holy men. He weeps for Sita when separated from her by Ravana. As a devout brother, he weeps when
Lakshmana, appears dead when hit by an arrow in the battle with Indrajit, the valiant son of Ravana. As a
man of dignity and honor, he fights Ravana and kills him. As an ideal king, he banishes Sita to the forest
in order to satisfy the wishes of the people of his kingdom.

Sita is the ideal of love, devotion, and chastity in marriage for women. She loves her husband with single
hearted devotedness during all trails and turbulences of her life. She fights Ravana’s every attempt to win
over her during the period of her forced possession.

Lakshmana symbolizes the ideal of sacrifices. He leaves young wife behind in the palace and chooses to
accompany Rama in exile. He scarifies the amenities of his personal life in order to serve his elder
brother.

Bharata is the ideal of brotherly love. He becomes angry at his mother when he learns that she conspired
to exile Rama. He follows Rama all the way to the forest in an attempt to persuade him to return home
and assume kingship. When Rama refuses to come, Bharata assumes kingship only as a caretaker and
does not actually live in the palace.

Hanuman is the symbol of unprecedented physical strength, devotion, ultimate obedience, selflessness,
sincere love and humility.

Mystical essence of Ramayana

“Rama” denotes the atman, the omnipresent and the omniscient divine spirit, the core of all beings.
“Dasharatha” consists of two parts: Dasa (ten) and ratha (carriage). Dasharatha, means a person who can
ride the chariot in ten different directions. This symbolizes the human body made of 10 sense organs (5
internal and 5 external). Sita symbolizes the mind. The city of Ayodhya signifies a place of no conflict.
(Ayodhya means not to be warred against). The forest denotes samsara, the physical world of life’s trials
and turbulences. Lakshmana symbolizes dharma and the austerities that protect an individual from the
troubles of samsara. The golden deer symbolizes the lust for sense objects. Ravana represents the ego.
The island of Lanka represents the physical body. Thus the story of Ramayana depicts great philosophical
truths of Sanatana dharma in a simple way, so that even layman can understand it. At the outer level,
Ramayana is a story of abduction, rescue, destruction and justification. At the deeper level, it is a
symbolic epic, each individual having a cause of its own, each character designed to act in a particular
manner, all coming under a divine design by the infinite designer.

Further reading

1. The Ramayana of Valmiki - an appraisal, Swami Harshananda

2. Lectures on Ramayana, VS Srinivasa sastri, Madras Sanskrit academy

3. Ramayana around the world, Ravi Kumar

4. Epilogue of Ramayana, M.R.Yardi, BVB, Pune

5. http://vidya/indiastudies/Ithihasa/Ramayana_studies/