The story of
Ramayana is embedded in the heart of every Indian, educated and uneducated
alike, irrespective of religious affiliation. It is very much doubtful if there ever was another work by a single person, inspiring and influencing in such an
undiminished manner for more than two
millenniums. Many in India and the world have continued to celebrate the birth
of Rama on the Ramanavami day with same
reverence and religiosity as has been done for centuries. However, after
having read and re-read this epic and its multiple interpretations many a times
over, I had recently started to wonder if in fact we had failed to recognize
the real hero of this epic. Valmiki, the author of Ramayana, didn't name the
book as Rama katha (story of Rama) or Rama Charitha (historical exposition on
Rama). He instead chose to call it as Rama ayana ,i.e., Rama's journey. It is
quite reasonable to suspect if Valmiki had seen a reflection of his own
spiritual journey in Rama's travails. Is the
story of Valmiki deftly hidden inside this story of Rama and is he the
real hero here?
The story of the
origins of Valmiki is that he was a robber in the forest, who would
mercilessly attack the passers by for loot. He is supposed to have been
transformed by a group of Rishis who forced him to consider the futility of
living such a sinful life. This robber, Rantakara, takes to a life of contemplation and is so lost in his
meditation that a Valmikam, i.e., anthill forms all around him. Awakened from
this deep meditation, Ratnakara emerges from the anthill as a Rishi and is
named Valmiki.
Now, consider this.
Aren't each of us actually living the life of a robber, taking from the world
what comes by, for own survival? Isn't
this very system of having to kill in order to live that actually bothered Ratnakara? We again find this agony coming from
Valmiki, when he encounters a hunter who kills the male partner of a pair of
birds. The answer of saints and
philosophers to this fundamental question has mostly been practical only to
those few who were ready to withdraw into a shell from the general
society. And, to that scenario arrived
Valmiki, refusing to stay in the shell and asking the question, is a perfect
life feasible while living in the midst of this world? And, thus begins the
spiritual journey of Valmiki and the story of Ramayana. (Ramayana starts with
the words 'thapa' and 'swaadhyaya', contemplation and self-learning, the two fundamental
'must have' s for a a spiritual journey)
The story begins
with the four sons who are born to King Dasharatha; Rama, Lakshmana, Bharatha and Shatrugna.
This could be an attempt to represent the self as partitioned into four; an
intelligent self (Rama), an aspirational self (Lakshmana), a transactional self
(Bharatha) and a survivalist self (Shatrugna). Logically, every one of us have
these four parts within us. It is ideal for the intelligent self to be the
ruler. However, the attempt of the intelligent self to be the ruler is
prevented by the Rajo guna of Prakriti, (Kaikeyi) who prefers the transactional
self to be the ruler. The pathway for the intelligent self to become the ruler
of self is a journey inward, which is depicted in Ramayana as a banishment to
the forests of the south.
Encountering and
eliminating many negative forces, Rama mostly spends his time in forest at
Chitrakoota. From the perspective of the inner world, Chitrakoota or the place
where the images are formed, is where our many perception of external world conglomerate. One of the major steps in the
spiritual journey is to be able to have an objective view of these images and
destroy the negative tendencies that adversely impact them. From Chitrakoota,
Rama moves to Panchavati, the mount with five gardens. The concept of the five
Pranas as the energy fields of the life force is well known in the
Hindu schools of philosophy. Again, the
control of Prana and objective disassociation of one's self from the movements
of prana is the next important stage in spiritual practice.
We haven't yet
discussed the important character of Rama's wife, Sita. The word 'Sita' appears to be derived the word 'Satva', the quality of
goodness and luminescence. The goal of every spiritual practitioner is to
increase the Satva nature of self and minimize the Rajas and Tamas natures. In
the context of Ramayana, Sita appears to be the sole companion of Rama, as
goodness must be that of the intelligent self of a spiritual practitioner. As
Rama comes to find out soon, there is an extreme difficulty to being good.
More of that journey
on the next blog post. Have a wonderful Sri Rama Navami!
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