The Influence of Epics on Indian Life

[Guest guest]

Swami Tathagatananda

Spiritual Leader: The Vedanta Society of New

York<http://www.vedanta-newyork.org/ved-soc-ny.htm>

 

http://www.vedanta-newyork.org/articles/vedanta101_9.htm

 

The Influence of Epics on Indian Life

 

*A nation lives by the idealism that shapes its destiny.*

 

The soul of a race can be known by a sympathetic study of its heritage of

visions and aspirations, its inner inclinations, and its constant endeavors

to achieve its noblest goals. We must acknowledge the inevitability of human

shortcomings which are responsible for its failures. Still, an authentic

study of a nation demands the understanding of its ideals and the ways and

means it chooses to actualize those ideals. Therefore the soul of Hinduism

has to be known through the idealism cherished in the collective Hindu

consciousness.

 

The Vedas <http://www.vedanta-newyork.org/glos.htm#vedas>, the

Upanishads<http://www.vedanta-newyork.org/glos.htm#upanisads>,

the epics, the

Bhagavad-Gita<http://www.vedanta-newyork.org/glos.htm#bhagavad-gita>,

the Bhagavatam <http://www.vedanta-newyork.org/glos.htm#bhagavatam>,'>http://www.vedanta-newyork.org/glos.htm#bhagavatam>, and

other scriptures are highly respected by the Hindus in general, irrespective

of the particular sects they belong to.

 

In Hinduism God is not an extra-cosmic spectator of the world-process. God

is immanent as well as transcendent. The immanence of God permeates every

bit of matter. God guides the cosmos (Bhagavad-Gita IX-10). It is the

function of God to protect the world, to keep it going on lines of

righteousness. God assumes human form in times of spiritual crisis and

guides the people to move higher in their spiritual evolution (Bhagavad-Gita

VI-7,8). The divine incarnations by their holy lives, activities, and

teachings have had a far reaching effect on human life. They leave behind

rich examples of holiness which become the subject matter of meditation and

the inspiration for holy living for the generations to come.

 

The Hindu mind is prone to accept something when it has a stamp of authority

of a God-man. Thus the

Ramayana<http://www.vedanta-newyork.org/glos.htm#ramayana>,

the Mahabharata <http://www.vedanta-newyork.org/glos.htm#mahabharata>, and

the Bhagavatam <http://www.vedanta-newyork.org/glos.htm#bhagavatam> which

depict the spiritual glory of Rama and Krishna have inspired countless

people down the ages. They are ever fresh.

 

The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are two great epics illustrating the ideal

character of Rama and Krishna who are regarded by the Hindus as divine

incarnations. Old truths get fresh representations through such God-men and

thus help people to have faith in the truths exemplified by them. The

Ramayana contains 24,000 couplets in

Sanskrit<http://www.vedanta-newyork.org/glos.htm#sanskrit>.

It was composed from about 400 B.C. to 200 A.D. The Mahabharata, containing

1 00,000 verses in Sanskrit, was composed at about the same period. The

Bhagavad-Gita, the Divine Song of the Lord, occurs in the Mahabharata.

 

For over two thousand years these two great epics have formed the strongest

single factor that has sustained and held together Indian cultural life.

Their deep and pervasive influence is felt in religion, morality,

literature, and other arts. Declared Swami Vivekananda:

 

"In fact, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, are the two encyclopedias of

ancient Aryan life and wisdom, portraying the ideal civilization which

humanity has yet to aspire after." (Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda,

Vol. VI, p. 101)

 

Abstract truth is very difficult to comprehend. Epics and other scriptures

are very helpful in understanding the real import of spiritual truth, for

that truth is exemplified in the great lives. The books are replete with

inspiring stories of wisdom.

 

"In these two masterpieces we are brought closer to the atmosphere and

ideals and customs of ancient Hindu life than by a hundred volumes of

commentary on the Upanishads. . . .Hindu men and women became real to us." (The

Wisdom of Asia, ed, Lin Yutang (London: First Edition, 1949), p. 125)

 

In spite of illiteracy, the Indian masses gained insight about religious

life from the epics and

Puranas<http://www.vedanta-newyork.org/glos.htm#purana>,

through the media of sculpture, painting, dance, drama, music, religious

discourse, recitations, and temple festivals. In this way popular religious

instruction was conveyed in a manner which both entertained and uplifted the

people.

 

"In the quiet hours of evening, when work is finished, men, women, and

children meet together in villages throughout the land and listen eagerly to

recitations from them by specially trained storytellers. Thus are brought to

the humblest cottage the essential moral lessons and the great spiritual

truths of an immemorial tradition. The beneficent effect upon the vast

masses of the Indian population can scarcely be exaggerated. By virtue of it

one may say that even the lowest Indian peasant or laborer, though

illiterate, is still in a deep sense cultivated. Though he may be ignorant

in all else, he is spiritually informed. These common entertainments always

draw huge crowds." Swami Prabhavananda, The Spiritual Heritage of India,

London: Allen and Unwin,1962), p. 80

 

Many individuals recite a portion from the epics daily as a discipline which

will give them spiritual merit. The Hindus find in them "a deep well of

strength." In various ways these epics have spread to every part of India

and beyond. They form the basis of popular narratives which were turned into

ballads recited by wandering minstrels.

 

About the impact of the Ramayana we quote the remarks of Western scholars.

The historian Vincent Smith, in his book, Akbar, the Great Moghal, says:

 

"Yet that Hindu was the greatest man of his age in India and greater even

than Akbar himself, inasmuch as the conquest of the hearts and minds of

millions of men and women affected by the poet was an achievement infinitely

more lasting and important than any or all the victories gained in war by

the monarch." (Quoted by S.N. Sharma, Bombay, 1954)

 

Tulsidas (1532-1623) is the name of the Hindu saint for whom such

preeminence is claimed. George Grieson, an important Western scholar of

Hindi, thought that Tulsidas was the best man of his century in India. About

the impact of his great book, also known as the Tulsidas Ramayana, Grieson

wrote:

 

"I have never met a person who had read it in the original and who was not

impressed by it as the work of a great genius."

 

And he added:

 

"I give much less than the usual estimate when I say that fully ninety

millions of people base their theories of moral and religious conduct upon

his writing. If we take the influence exercised by him at the present time,

he is one of three or four writers of Asia. . . .over the whole of the

Gangetic Valley his great work is better known than the Bible is in

England." (Tulsidas, Poet and Religious Reformer, Journal of Royal Asiatic

Society, 1903)

 

The Ramayana glorifies the domestic relations which form the nucleus of the

entire structure of family life. The chastity of Sita, the perfect wife; the

sacrifice of Rama, his filial piety, his love for truth, and his ideal

character in every respect of life; the heroism and brotherly affection of

Lakshmana; and the great spirit of renunciation of Bharata have entered into

the bones and marrow of the Hindus.

 

The Mahabharata contains episodes covering the entire gamut of life. All

shades of life are fully depicted and hence agnostics, mystics, common

people, and philosophers are drawn to its variety, immensity, and beauty.

The reader or listener is deeply impressed, and the moral values get

themselves imprinted in the hearts of the people. The main story relates to

the victory of righteousness over unrighteousness. The Mahabharata's story

of Harishchandra (who sacrificed everything for Truth) inspired Mahatma

Gandhi. In his autobiography he said:

 

"This play Harishchandra--captured my heart. I could never be tired of

seeing it. But how often should I be permitted to go? It haunted me and I

must have acted Harishchandra to myself times without number. "Why should

not all be truthful like Harishchandra?" was the question I asked myself day

and night. To follow truth and to go through all the ordeals

Harishchandrawent through was the one ideal it inspired in me. I

literally believed in

the story of Harishchandra. The thought of it all often made me weep. My

common sense tells me today that Harishchandra could not have been a

historical character." (Gandhi, An Autobiography, pp. 7-8)

 

If one reads and contemplates these stories and characters, the spiritual

law that righteousness is sure to triumph in the end is deeply imprinted in

one's mind. Meditation on the lives of the divine incarnation being a great

source of spiritual development, both the epics are valuable to humankind.

 

 

--

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