Ramayana - A spiritual journey?

Continuing from the last blog post "Ramayana - The autobiography of a Rishi?")

Here is a million dollar ethics question. What exactly makes someone 'good'? Is it the person's actions, virtues, thoughts or intentions?  Valmiki, in his wisdom, seems to have come to the conclusion that it is intention that ultimately matters. For example, in Ramayana, we see the negative character of Ravana who was a great devotee of  Lord Shiva and had performed a long, arduous penance to Brahma (all good actions) but, at the same time, had the bad intent of perpetuating evil. On the other hand, we see Sugriva who had made a bad decision to close the mouth of the cave where his brother Vali was fighting with a demon, having assumed that Vali was dead.  Sugriva was severely punished by Vali, who had survived the fight with the demon. He was meted out this unfair punishment in spite of him having done his 'bad action' with a good intent. Vali who didn't care for Sugriva's explanation and acted 'unethically' was ultimately punished by Rama.

Later in the epic, we see the positive character of Vibheeshana who deserted the side of his brother Ravana and allied with the enemy to bring him down.  His actions in this regard could be interpreted as completely unethical based on the general norms. However, Vibheeshana does his actions with the good intent of preserving righteousness in the world and hence is respected and rewarded.

In general, we find  this effort to delineate good from evil based on intention, all across Ramayana.  It is in this context that we need to see Valmiki's attempt to symbolize the abstract idea of 'goodness'  through the character of Sita, deriving her name from the sanskrit word 'Satva' meaning purity. Moreover, it was important for Valmiki to see 'goodness' married to the 'intelligent self', to depict the ideal human he had sought in Rama.

As we all know, good intentions can get easily misled by misconceptions that are the mirages (mareechika) of life. A golden deer desired by Sita, lured Rama away into the forest. A trickery by the disguised Rakshasa, aptly named Maareecha, forced Lakshmana to leave Sita unguarded.  Ravana who is completely convinced that Sita deserves to be his queen and no one else's, abducted her to Lanka. Thus, we get introduced in the epic to the Rakshasa brothers Ravana, Kumbhakarna and Vibheekshana. Ravana, who is also known as Dasagreeva, i.e.,  ten headed, has come to be one of the greatest symbol of evil in India's Ithihasa tradition.

Now let's look at this from a spiritual journey perspective. The primary obstacle in the path of a spiritual seeker is the mind. We all know that this mind of ours, sometimes has 'a mind of its own', compelling one to act against own will. Hence it has been rightly said, "the heart has its own ways that the intellect will never understand".  Manojaya or the overcoming of the compulsive nature of mind is the goal of every spiritual seeker who is seeking moksha, i.e liberation and freedom. 

Coming back to the context of Ramayana, those of you familiar with the geographical shape of the island of Lanka, would know that it is shaped like a heart. Valmiki places the ten-headed Dashagriva, the power of conscious mind with its control  over the five sense organs and five organs of action, as the king of Lanka. His brother, the power of sub-conscious mind, is Kumbhakarna or the 'potbelly eared'. The sub-conscious is mostly asleep but has the incredible ability to listen to everything happening and retain impressions. And, as Freudian thinking goes, the subconscious mind  is a giant in terms of the power it wields. The third brother, Vibheeshana, is fearless in voicing his considered opinion like the conscience within us. Conscience becomes an ally to the intelligent self. Thus it appears to me that the stage set in Lanka for the war as depicted in Ramayana,  is a symbolic representation of  the struggle of a spiritual seeker to gain mastery over mind, that too with the goal of releasing 'goodness' from subservience to the compulsive powers of emotions and mental impressions.

Now, let us look at the allies of the intelligent self in this war. They are primarily Sugriva, the firm-necked one, who symbolizes mental discipline and Hanuman, the symbol of Shraddha (faith) and Bhakti (devotion). Vali who symbolizes the prolific nature of mind which is highly distracting and prone to unethical behavior, is killed and Sugriva is established as king of 'vanara'. The ocean that represents the continuous disturbances arising from the heart, is overcome with a bridge built with the blessings of Varuna, who is the God of universal order. This march to Lanka by the vanara army of Sugriva and Hanuman may very well represent the process that Patanjali calls in Yogasutra as 'pratiprasava', i.e., the reversal of the process of origination.(More on this at another time}

On attaining victory, the intelligent self, Rama, is now reunited with goodness, Sita, and regains the kingdom of Ayodhya. Sita is accepted by Rama only after she proves to be untainted from association with the compulsive natures of mind. This spiritual evolution of being good and becoming completely devoid of any selfishness or motives is what Valmiki considers as 'pattabhisheka' and 'Ramarajya'  or the attainment of true lordship over life. This feels like the culmination of the story, but Interestingly, Valmiki  doesn't end the spiritual journey with this attainment. 

In the Uttara Ramayana, we find Rama's abandonment of Sita and the birth of Lava and Kusha. For a spiritual seeker who has reached the highest level of maturity, even goodness is only a relative consideration from the earthly life's perspective. In the journey to the absolute, the Satva quality is also finally given up by the seeker and thus Sita is depicted as being abandoned and  returned to her mother, the Earth. 

The story of Rama's journey is then elaborated by Sage Valmiki and shared though the twins Lava and Kusha.

Lava, his name derived from the word Lavana meaning salt, is symbolic of the Grihasta Asrami (those who stay on the family oriented life). Kusha, indicative of the kusha grass used by ascetics is symbolic of the  Vanaprastins and Sanyasins (those who have retired to the forest for contemplative life). This could mean that there are two interpretations possible of Ramayana, one based on Bhakti for Grihasta Asramins  by Lava and other based on Gnana for ascetics, by Kusha. The former is better established and known widely while what you see here is an attempt to discover more of the latter.

Ramayana is an incredibly resourceful scriptural text and has remained a beacon of enlightenment for many over the centuries. That it continues to offer still new perspectives only speaks volumes to the greatness of this story and the genius of the mind of Sage Valmiki.

PS: The interpretation above is by no means an attempt to belittle or nullify the other existing views. It is only an alternate, exploratory view from a purely spiritual perspective