Concept of Dharma in Valmiki Ramayana

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The concept of dharma in Valmiki Ramayana

By Benjamin Khan

 

 

Yavat sthasyanti girayah saritas-ca mahitale

Tavad Ramayana-katha lokesu pracarisyati

 

THE Ramayana in the East and the New Testament in the West have

influenced the moral thoughts and the conduct of men in the course

of their mutual relationship and with God. Valmiki wrote the

Ramayana and immortalised Rama, the Prince of Ayodhya. He

confidently declared, "This lifegraphy will remain for ever." He

openly rejected the view of all those who said, "We should not

follow the character of deva", or those who said, "what grand sires

do, one should not mind but what they say, one should follow". He

wrote the Ramayana to show to the people of India and the world at

large that there are men, women, brothers, mothers, friends and

servants whose footprints should be followed for a good and

spiritual life. He wrote to tell the world that one should live the

life of Rama and how this Rama, a great personality, creates a moral

standard by what he does and suffers and how he illustrates it in

highly critical moral situations. Valmiki did realise that abstract

moral principles, detached from the real life of human beings, can

only be logical abstractions failing to influence the course of

human conduct, being devoid of practical utility.

 

"Deal Rama not as a man in whom there was all knowledge, all

propriety, all virtues from the very beginning, unfailing till the

very end. That is not the way to read his life but as a man who

struggled, was tempted, who had his weaknesses. These characters are

full-blooded men", who, at times, like many other men, have

emotional explosions under the stress and strain of life.

 

Though ethics is treated as a normative science, its practical value

can be gauged by looking at it as a natural science.

 

We know that "we speak accurately of ethics as a natural science

only when we regard the conduct of men in their mutual relations as

something by itself." Thus, the fundamental excellence of Valmiki

Ramayana is the "practical moral principle, lived and loved by men"

depicted in the lives of those men and women, whose characters and

sayings should be followed by mankind, or should be avoided.

Srinivasa Sastri says, "It seems to me that if a person read the

poet in order that his soul may be deified, he would find that

object would be best gained by fixing attention on the main

characters as human beings everytime....If you miss this point, you

will miss everything...If they were gods, they could do anything."

If the reader takes them as gods, "he misses the whole story; he

reads for nothing and listens for nothing at all. They were full-

blooded men with superior moral stature. The man who reads the

Ramayana thinking that from the beginning he is dealing with God,

will get nothing out of it."

 

The Hindu ethical theory is an organic coherence in which the

experience and reason flow mingled up together. It was dynamic

always. Environment was taken into account yet without break from

the past.

 

"Deal Rama not as a man in whom there was all knowledge, all

propriety, all virtues from the very beginning, unfailing till the

very end. That is not the way to read his life but as a man who

struggled, was tempted, who had his weaknesses. These characters are

full-blooded men," who, at times, like many other men, have

emotional explosions under the stress and strain of life. Thus we

find Rama saying to Lakshmana when Sita was abducted and there was

no trace to be found, "O, Lakshmana, while virtue did not protect

Janaki being devoured or taken away by stealth, what person else

gifted with heavenly power, on the earth shall bring about my well

being?"

 

Sita abducted by Ravana and under very harrowing circumstances

bursts out, "Alas, this my devotedness unto my husband, my

forgiveness, my lying down on the bare earth, my observance of

religious vows, my wife-like virtues are lost like unto service done

for an ungrateful wretch. In vain are my pious rites and in vain is

my devotedness unto my husband."

 

Rama, who suffered because of the royal intrigues in the palace,

humiliated by the abduction of his wife and with the obstacle of the

sea to cross before he could reach Lanka, in utter despondency

exclaims, "Behold (the God of) the proud ocean is not presenting

himself to me; calmness, forbearance, candour, soft speech, these

virtues of the good, are by the insolent taken for the effects of

incompetence. The person that is self-laudatory, wicked and bodily

bold, publishes his own praise, and meteth out chastisement, (he)

everywhere is honoured in the world. By moderation, one cannot

attain victory on the eve of battle."

 

Lakshmana, Bharata and Sumantra, in their emotional upheavals also

behave like common men, when in turn they say, "I deem the

brahmacharya mode of life or study or meekness or sincerity, as

attended with no fruits." These and such other utterances show that

the best characters of Valmiki are to be reckoned as human beings,

with the same human frailties and limitations, yet morally superior,

and by their noble character they have left their foot-prints for

our moral and spiritual guidance and perfection. With such a notion

of these beings in my mind, I have dealt with the ethical standards

they employed whenever any concrete moral situation arose in their

way, in the hope that my account of their conduct may be morally

instructive.

 

One of the other reasons that inspired me most to take up this

stupendous task with all my limitations and ignorance was Valmiki´s

superb characterisation of Rama, the hero of the epic, as a man who

devoted his whole life to the `interest' and `service of others'. He

who promised `no fear' to all; even to his enemies whenever they

approached him for protection, "I declare no fear to all who come to

me for protection, even if Ravana comes."

 

Equally memorable is the poet´s delineation of the character of Sita

whose wifely virtues are unparalleled and matchless, seasoned with

the quality of forgiveness. The poet draws her character in these

memorable lines when she herself tells Hanuman who was bent upon

killing all Ravana´s female slaves, "No one should return evil for

evil, but should try to maintain his own moral excellence. This is

what good men should do. It is proper to show compassion even to

those who are criminal and worthy to be slain. Who is there who doth

not commit a crime? It is not proper to act cruelly with these

rakshasas. I forgive these miserable ones."

 

Similarly, his portrayal of Kaushalya, as a divided personality, who

is torn between her duties towards her royal husband and love

towards her only child. Kaikeyi, a co-wife is a good mother, but

when passion, ambition and lust for power inflame her heart, she

becomes like a poisonous serpent destroying all she loved and

dreaded. Lakshmana is the ideal brother, extremely loyal towards his

elder brother, suffering in his sufferings and protecting him in

danger, yet a man of action enthused by a realistic philosophy and

like a real Kshatriya always upholding artha "as the mainstay of

dharma and kama." Bharata is the embodiment of self-sacrifice, self-

denial and devotion.

 

Ravana is the great one who would break but never bend, and in the

language of Vibhishana, possessed of the following sins: A

slaughterer of sages, rebellious against all the gods, over-weening

conceit, anger, long continued enmity and running amuck of counsel.

The destroyer of sacrifice about to be completed, of villainous

nature, the slaughterer of Brahmana, of cruel deeds, harsh and

kindless and ever bent upon doing evil unto all creatures. Yet, he

is great when he tells Sita, "Though it is our dharma to seduce a

woman forcibly, yet I shall not touch thee without thy consent, for

thou art not under the influence of amour, but for me, I am

completely under its sway."

 

Hanuman, in his devotion to Rama, displays a monumental example of

service that asked no recompense. These are some of the most

remarkable characters who typify virtues and vices. Their study in

itself in the different moral situations will afford much food for

thought to any student of ethics, who wishes to understand the

complexity of human life and the ultimate triumph of righteousness

over evil.

 

Ramayana is the bedrock of Hindu morality. In Rama, Lakshmana and

Bharata as the concrete matchless examples of brotherly love,

Hanuman as a devoted servant, and Sita a true wife, in the ideals of

kingship and friendship, we have the basic requirements of moral

life provided to every Hindu who cares for the social and moral

virtues.

 

Through these concrete moral situations and characters, the

pragmatic law of Valmikian dharma finds its fullest expression. It

is wrong to suppose that in the Ramayana there are bits of moral

precepts strewn here and there, hard to be threaded together.

 

Valmiki was a realistic moral philosopher; he interpreted the law of

dharma in practical terms of utility to be followed more in order to

benefit human life and, through it to establish character and

association values for society at large than to deal with abstract

eschatological values. M.A. Buch says, "The Hindu ethical theory is

an organic coherence in which the experience and reason flow,

mingled up together. It was dynamic always. Environment was taken

into account, yet without break from the past." This is perhaps most

true about Valmiki. I have tried to develop this idea as the major

point of my thesis.

 

I have also devoted some pages to show that the Ramayana is the

bedrock of Hindu morality. In Rama, Lakshmana and Bharata, as the

concrete matchless examples of brotherly love, Hanuman as a devoted

servant, and Sita as true wife, in the ideals of kingship and

friendship we have the basic requirements of moral life provided to

every Hindu who cares for the social and moral virtues.

 

Our picture of moral life would not be complete until the anti-

social acts and vices which every human race carries along with it

through the corridors of time are also depicted. "Where the old

Greeks emphasised the perfection of physical and intellectual

virtues as the goals of human life, the ancient Hindus emphasised

the perfection of worldly life, possession, happiness, joy, sexual

enjoyment, family life; but it is not all and enough, the perfection

of this natural man must pave a way for a perfection of spiritual

man." This was the Valmikian goal and I have tried to bring it out

fully in its different aspects. Valmiki was never over-shadowed by

religious supers-titions, orthodoxy or metaphysics. He has presented

to us concrete facts from which we can arrive at a very distinct and

clear notion of a realistic and pragmatic view of dharma always

relative to time and place.

 

(Extracts from the The Concept of Dharma in Valmiki Ramayana by

Benjamin Khan.)

(To be concluded)

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