Sunday April 21 - Rama Navami

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RAMA NAVAMI by

Swami BV Tripurari

 

[An excerpt from a lecture given by Swami Tripurari 04/12/00.]

 

Ramacandra is a very popular deity; in India he is perhaps more popular than

Krsna. The reason for this is that the divinity of Rama is easier to

understand than that of Krsna. Rama exhibited the life of an ideal moralist,

so much so that even today in India you hear people clamoring for rama-raja

(the kingdom of Rama), even though they take a bribe on the side. Of course

this is very far from the high dharmic and moral standards of Ramacandra.

This is more or less sentiment and is not based on any deep understanding of

the tattva of Rama in Vaisnava philosophy. Gandhi popularized the idea of

rama-raja, calling for it in the context of his political reforms. He died

with the name of Rama on his lips, "Rama Rama," as he was shot and fell to

his death. But it was a political Rama that he had in mind, not the Rama of

the Ramayana. So his destination was not Ayodhya. We should learn how to

utter the vaikuntha-nama, the spiritual name of the Lord. Rama has his place

in Vaikuntha, in which there are so many departments. Ayodhya is one such

department in the aprakata (unmanifest) lila.

 

While Rama sets an ideal example for leading the country and the people, his

lila is meant to teach us more than how to make humanity moral. In fact the

lila, conforming to moral principles, frustrated some of the members of the

nitya-lila. Laksmana was repeatedly frustrated with Rama's standard of

morality and dharma, especially in relation to Sita. Krsnadasa Kaviraja

Goswami says:-

 

ramera caritra saba,--duhkhera karana

svatantra lilaya duhkha sahena laksmana

nisedha karite nare, yate chota bhai

mauna dhari' rahe laksmana mane duhkha pai'

 

"The activities of Ramacandra were full of suffering, but Laksmana,

although independent, tolerated that suffering in accordance with the lila .

As a younger brother he could not stop Ramacandra from his resolve, and thus

remained silent, although unhappy in His mind." (Cc., Adi 5.151-152)

 

After one lila of that, Laksmana made a vow never to take birth again as

younger brother, but rather always as the older brother. So he came as Rama

himself: Balarama in krsna-lila and Nityananda in gaura-lila. Laksmana's

adherence to dharma was frustrating because, after all, his lila and the

ideal of love for Rama far exceed mere adherence to the ideals of moral,

dutiful life. Although, in one sense, duty is the basis of love in

Vaikuntha, it is a loving sense of duty that transcends adherence to moral

principles. Although Pujyapada Sridhara Maharaja once said that rama-lila is

more or less mundane, what he meant by that was that the stress of the lila

is that one should be an ideal person. We should follow dharma, but we

should do so in the context of being concerned with going back to Godhead,

and not with a view to be a great moralist.

 

While Rama is dutiful and honest to the extreme, Krsna is stealing and

breaking his promises. While Rama had taken eka-patni-vrata (the vow to have

only one wife)--which as a ksatriya, a king, was extraordinary--Krsna had

many wives in Dvaraka and many extramarital affairs in Vrndavana. Thus it is

difficult to understand Krsna in comparison to Rama, but Caitanya Mahaprabhu

comes to teach us the significance of krsna-lila, along with the morality of

Rama, by his adherence to the principles of sannyasa, varnasrama-dharma, and

so on in the midst of his pursuit of Radha bhava. Caitanya Mahaprabhu

himself sometimes showed a six-armed form: two arms of Rama holding the bow

and arrow; two arms of Krsna holding the flute; and two arms of himself

holding the kamandalu (the waterpot of the sannyasi) and danda (staff).

 

We find that Caitanya Mahaprabhu taught krsna-bhakti and in some cases to

such an extreme that he converted rama-bhaktas into krsna-bhaktas. Those who

were taking rama-nama, even from their very birth, he converted to chanting

krsna-nama. However, this is not always the case. Rupa and Sanatana, for

example, had a brother named Anupama. Under the influence of Mahaprabhu, the

three of them met and discussed tattva and came to the conclusion that

highest ideal was the worship of Radha-Govinda. So they made a pact to spend

their lives together worshipping Radha-Govinda. Anupama, however, could not

sleep that night because he found himself attached to Rama. In the morning

he told Rupa and Sanatana, "I could not sleep. Although I understand what we

talked about, I cannot bear the thought of leaving the service of Rama."

Mahaprabhu did not try to interfere with this. In fact, when he heard the

news, he said "Glorious is that devotee who will not give up his Lord and

glorious is that Lord who will not give up his devotee." He was very

satisfied to hear of Anupama's standard of devotion for Rama.

 

Different devotees have different destinations, their dynamic finality in

rama-lila, krsna-lila, different departments of krsna-lila, and so on. We

should aspire to bring that out, and as we see as spark ignite, we should

fan it. We should teach the tattva, so that people know what rama-lila is,

what krsna-lila is, so that their chanting of "Rama Rama" will not cause

them to fall short of Vaikuntha. We want the real and spiritual conception.

This we can get from Caitanya Mahaprabhu's teaching. Mahaprabhu is Krsna

himself, svayam bhagavan. Any type of love of Godhead that we have interest

in, we can get from Mahaprabhu, and we can get it from the maha-mantra.

Therefore Bhaktivinode Thakura has said, "Oh! He has the power, Caitanya

Mahaprabhu, to unite all the sampradayas. Whatever anyone wants from any

sampradaya, he can get from Caitanya Mahaprabhu and from this maha-mantra."

So it should be distributed widely. This was the policy of Caitanya

Mahaprabhu. Let it do its work.

 

We respect all devotees and all forms of the Lord. We see different forms of

God as manifestations of our Lord, Krsna, appearing with different devotees,

great devotees who have love for him in a particular way. Mahaprabhu showed

us this standard, and he honored that love when he saw it budding,

blossoming, and blooming in the hearts of advanced devotees. Gaudiya

Vaisnavism is actually very, very broad, very, very accommodating. I've said

before that the idea of Gaudiya Vaisnavism is something like "Do your own

thing." We preface that only by "Know who you are, and what you are. Know

that you're spirit, not matter. Then fly as high as you can into the

spiritual sky of you life, of your heart."

 

We cannot paint the picture of our spiritual prospect without coming on to

the canvass of advaya jnana tattva. This means that we must distinguish

between that which is real and that which is unreal, knowing oneself to be

spirit not matter. Transcending the dualities of material life we arrive at

advaya jnana tattva, non dual consciousness. Without coming on to this

canvass you cannot paint your picture in a particular role in the drama of

the Lord's lila.

 

Srila Prabhupada Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura used to say that real

bhajana is done on the plain of advaya jnana tattva. That is the canvass on

which the art of krsna-lila manifests. We have to come to that, not by a

separate process, but within the context of hearing and chanting about

Krsna. But we should look and see for the signs of our development along

these lines. Coming to understand the difference between matter and spirit

is a prerequisite for realizing the full significance of rama-lila or

krsna-lila. Otherwise we may pray "Rama Rama" like Gandhi and take birth in

India, not Ayodhya.

 

Gandhi was a great man by moral standard, and much can be learned from him

about human conduct. However, we cannot learn how to go back to Godhead from

Gandhi, even though he seemed to teach the virtues of rama-nama. For that we

have to learn from the Vaisnava. And a Vaisnava by contrast may even be

sudaracarah (misbehaved). It's possible. Krsna has mentioned it in the

Bhagavad-gita:-

 

api cet su-duracaro

bhajate mam ananya-bhak

sadhur eva sa mantavyah

samyag vyavasito hi sah

(Bg. 9.30)

 

What is the meaning? Gandhi had such good acara, good behavior, good

character. We should have good character also. Mahaprabhu taught this.

Example speaks louder than precept. Mahaprabhu taught by his example.

However, it's possible that a devotee may misbehave, but if he's properly

situated in terms of having deep faith in bhakti, we should hear more from

that person than from a man of perfect character who has no bhakti. In fact

Bhagavatam says:-

 

yasyasti bhaktir bhagavaty akincana

sarvair gunais tatra samssate surah

(SB. 5.18.12)

 

A bhakta has all the good qualities of the devas. The devas worship him. But

one who is not a devotee, even if he has all good qualities, he simply lives

in the mental world. His honesty is like that amongst thieves who are called

to divide the loot honestly.

 

bhagavad-bhakti-hinasya

jatih sastram japas tapah

apranasyaiva dehasya

mandanam loka-ranjanam

(Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya 3.11).

 

A life devoid of bhagavad bhakti (bhagavad bhakti hinasya), even if it has

all kinds of other decorations (jatih sastram japas tapah), it is no more

than a decoration of a dead body. So the soul is the life in the body, and

the soul feeds on bhakti. If it's not being nourished by that, then all of

our activities are simply decorating a dead body.

 

We should find a real devotee of Krsna to serve under. A real devotee of

Krsna will appreciate Rama and all visnu-avatara and all the devatas

appropriately. He should never have any disrespect for even an ant: amanina

manadena kirtaniyah sada harih (Siksastaka, 3).

 

We see this so often in the name of devotion, taking the idea cheaply in the

name of gopi-bhava, with no respect for Rama. "We don't care for the

Ramayana!" It's true; we don't study Ramayana. I never read the Ramayana,

but if our ista-devata is Krsna, then we should think of Rama as another

form of our Lord, and we should try to understand that form of Rama in the

light of his being a manifestation of Krsna. If we have real feeling

(bhava), then that is another thing, but that cannot be imitated, nor should

it be openly displayed.

 

As devotees of Krsna we can find something charming Krsna's lila as Rama.

The love of Rama's devotees for him, especially that of Laksmana and

Hanuman, are charming and instructive to all devotees. That should be

heralded; that fire in their hearts will give encouragement to any devotee.

We have to come kindle such fire in our own hearts. And we shall be able to

do that by respecting every living being, what to speak of Rama, Nrsimha,

Vamana, etc. That is the standard of Mahaprabhu: amanina manadena kirtaniyah

sada harih, "Show respect to all and expect no honor for oneself." If you

want to enter into what krsna-nama or rama-nama is all about then you must

do this. On this we should all agree: kirtaniyah sada harih. This will

dissolve all differences other than those that arise from a heart of pure

devotion. And those differences are what the spiritual world is constituted

of. So on this day, Rama Navami, we honor Sita-Rama, Hanuman, and Laksmana.

 

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This lecture can be obtained on Audio CD from the Sanga website at:

http://swami.org/sanga/CD_Audio/CDSanga.html

 

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