Ram Navami

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>From today's Times of India, for Rama Navami:

 

Prince of Ayodhya, Prophet of Peace

 

 

S RAGI SIMHAN

 

[ SUNDAY, APRIL 21, 2002 12:46:41 AM ]

 

SRI Rama is an avatar of Maha Vishnu. He is the Adi

Purush — the Ancient One — who, out of compassion for

humankind, descends to Earth in human form, taking

upon himself the trials and tribulations of human

existence, willingly suffering ordeals to protect the

virtuous and annihilate the wicked.

 

Indeed, the Ramavatara is one of the most splendid of

Maha Vishnu’s manifestations in order to redeem His

pledge to “appear in bodily forms whenever virtue

decays and evil causes misery to the good and the

virtuous, and the earth itself”. (Sant Tulsidas).

 

Maha Vishnu’s innumerable qualities defy description

and His energy pervades the whole cosmos. Whether

sporting with prakriti, primordial matter, or

playfully performing his numerous lilas, He as the

Lord of the past, present and future, assumes the form

of the Trinity — Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva — to create,

sustain and dissolve creation, that emanates from Him

and merges into Him.

 

>From His Consciousness emerges knowledge of the Vedas,

Yoga, Sankhya, sciences, architecture, the 64 human

perfections, scriptures and the ultimate wisdom of

seeking one’s true Self.

 

Sages of yore, from revelations that came through

intense meditation, gathered a thousand namas or names

for Maha Vishnu, each as Sri Ramanujacharya explained,

containing a hundred meanings expounding the

quintessence of the Supreme Being. These are called

the Sri Vishnu Sahasranama.

 

In the Mahabharata, Bhishma, awaiting death on a bed

of arrows, revealed the esoterics of the namas to

Yudhishtira. Part of the revelation was that

meditating on the essence of each nama frees one from

fear and sins and leads to the Lord’s perennial grace.

 

Parvati once asked Lord Shiva the way to attain Maha

Vishnu, who was beyond comprehension. Shiva, with

delightful simplicity, answered that by meditating on

the sweet name of Sri Rama, one attained blissful

union with the ‘Immaculate One’ as the persona of Sri

Rama embodied the Vishnu Sahasranama.

 

According to Tulsidas, the two syllables of Sri Rama’s

name, ‘ra’ and ‘ma’ are like the sound of a clap that

drives away birds of doubt, leading to unclouded faith

in the redeeming nature of the Divine.

 

One realises the truth of this when reading, hearing,

singing or seeing an enactment of the Ramayana. The

emotions it invokes within one range from excruciating

sorrow to the sublime, from the ennobling to the

enlightening, ending in a truly humbling experience.

 

Faith in Sri Rama, who was an embodiment of dharma,

thus translates into peace, happiness and true wisdom.

 

The Ramayana first and foremost expounds dharma, the

Universal Law, which for every individual, translates

into conquering the enemies of lust, anger and greed.

In the Sundar Kand, a brahmastra-bound Hanuman advises

Ravana to return Sita or face ruin at the hands of Sri

Rama. He tells Ravana that although the power to do

good or evil equally stem from dharma, he who commits

evil strikes at the root of his own freedom of choice,

inviting upon himself sure death — the truth which

Ravana realises only too late.

 

The Ramayana is as much a guide to right living for

the commoner as it is for the rulers. The epic

emphasises rajdharma, that rulers can never be above

the law but must forever sacrifice their personal

interests, their paramount consideration being only

the welfare of the state and all its citizens.

 

Secondly, the Ramayana tells the story of God taking

the form of a human being who has full control over

his senses and leads a life as ordained by the

scriptures, teachings of seers and in keeping with his

own conscience.

 

One among Vishnu’s Thousand Names is Samukhaya nama —

the One with the beautiful face. Illustrating the

Vedic injunction that one must lead a life of

detachment with serenity, neither overreacting to the

pleasant nor bemoaning pain, Kamban, the great Tamil

poet taking a cue from this nama, describes Sri Rama

upon hearing Kaikeyi’s harsh words: “That beautiful

face which, both when asked by his father to accept

the imperial crown as well as when commanded by his

mother to leave all and live in a forest, like the

pictorial lotus, was ever the same”. (V V S Aiyar’s

Kamba Ramayana).

 

Indeed Sri Rama is an exemplar, the Maryada

Purushottam and his thoughts, acts and deeds are a

guide to human beings effectively realising the four

Purusharths — Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha (true

faith, economic well-being, sensual enjoyment and

spiritual salvation).

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

JAI SRI RAM!

 

Keval

 

 

 

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