Musings on a Homecoming-3

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Dear "bhAgavatOttamA-s" of the Bhakti-Group,

 

Here are some excerptive gists from a discourse on the Ramayana by

Sri.Mukkur Swamy last week at Triplicane:

 

a) The Ramayana is a many-splendoured jewel. It can slake your

intellectual thirst; it can whet your literary appetite; it can give you

unfailing comfort of moral counsel; it is a magnificent hand-book of

reference to ethical human behaviour under inimical circumstances in

life (I might add from personal experience that it is also an

entertaining read on a dusty train journey anywhere in India !!).

 

b)Even if you were to baulk at approaching the Ramayana as "mere

mythology", you cannot miss noticing and appreciating its great treasury

of profoundly allegorical truth.

 

For example, in the entire script of the Ramayana, you might, if you so

choose, cease regarding the characters of Rama, Bharatha, Lakshmana and

Shatrughna as dramatic characters. Instead, for a change, try and look

upon them as each personifying the 4 great "chatur-vida-arthA-s" or ENDS

of life. Look at them that way in the unfolding story of the Ramayana

and it will provide you with a different set of insights:

 

Thus say,

Rama = "dharma"

Lakshmana = "artha"

Bharatha = "mOksha"

Shatrughnan = "kAma"

 

With the above equations in mind let's push the analysis along :

 

"dharma" as we all know is described as "the path of RIGHTFUL conduct in

life" (I deliberately desist from using the expression "righteous

conduct" as it always seems to me to smack of "self-righteousness").

 

"artha" is, briefly, described to us as the "material means of obtaining

fulfillment in life".

 

"kAma" is, again very briefly speaking, described to us as the "sum of

all desires that fuels our actions in life". "kAma" is the locomotor

that drives the engine of our journey through life. It is a tribute to

the wisdom of our great sages that they recognized "kAma" or Desire as

an inclusive element in the General Aims of Human Existence. (Most other

religious systems in the world we know are centrally pre-occupied with

the outright rejection of "desire" in the human heart)

 

"mOkshA" is a term we are all very familiar with. It denotes eternal

liberation from mortal coils and from the cycle of re-birth.

 

Now, in the Ramayana, one will certainly notice that in chapter after

chapter, "kAnda" after "kAnda", the respective fates of Rama and

Lakshmana are inseparably bound up with each other. Nothing happens

indeed to the one without affecting the circumstance of the other also,

isn't it ? So much so, we notice that Lakshmana hardly leaves Rama's

side for even as much as a moment right through the dramatic script!

 

Quite similarly, we know from the story-line that Shatrughnan never left

the side of his brother Bharatha. They were indeed as inseparable and

intimate with each other as the other set of brothers, Rama and

Lakshmana.

 

The allegorical moral to be derived from all this is :

 

The 4 objectives of life ("chatur-vida-arthA") are in essence TWIN

in character and in alignment with each other i.e. they can be

paired-off as "dharma-ArthA" and "kAma-mOkshA". And so indeed they ought

to be in the life of man.

 

The attainment of "arthA" (the material means of fulfillment in

life) can be realised only through "dharmA" i.e. "rightful conduct".

Obtaining material fulfillment any other way will not be "arthA" but

"un-arthA" (non-fulfillment in life i.e. frustration of the true purpose

of human existence).

 

"arthA" and "dharmA" are therefore to be regarded as inseparable and

inter-twined as were Rama and Lakshmana. Impairment of one causes

impairment to the other. Promotion of one accompanies promotion of the

other. There is a relentless, self-perpetuating law operating in all

this. You cannot attain true "arthA" by employing anything other than

"dharmA". And by corrollary, the ends of "arthA" (material fulfillment)

and the ends of "dharmA" (right conduct) ought never to exclude each

other.

 

The entire story of the Ramayana, if you analyse it well, is indeed

nothing but a record of how the twin-principles of 'ArthA' and "dharma"

operated in inseparable tandem in the furtherance of the interests of

human society. Thus, as long as Rama and Lakshmana operated together we

saw how Sage Viswamitra realised his great social missions in life, the

sages of DandakAranya completed their lives' work, Ahalya and Sabari

found their fulfillment and how Sugriva and Vibheeshana had their

kingdoms restored to them.

 

We also see from the Ramayana how attempts to separate or divorce the

twin principles of "dharma" and "arthA" i.e. Rama and Lakshmana,

resulted in unfortunate events. The demoness Surpanaka, if you recall

wished to possess and ravish either Rama OR Lakshmana but there is no

record to show she propositioned both together (we must leave it to our

own imaginations to fathom what turn the story of the Ramayana would

have then taken!!). She soon perished. In the "Aranya-kAnda" Maricha too

manipulated the "separation" of Rama and Lakshmana temporarily and met

his fatal end soon thereafter.

 

Thus the message is subtle but very clear : the Pursuit of "ArthA"

or "material fulfillment" divorced from "dhArmi-c" considerations leads

to great un-happiness in the affairs of men in all times.

 

By the same token, "kAma" and "mOkshA" are what Shatrughnana and

Bharata were to each other. According to this life-principle, the only

human "desire" worth desiring is the desire for "mOksha"! All other

desires are inimical to the human condition.

 

In the story of the Ramayana, references to Shatrughana are indeed

scant. Valmiki it is said has no more than 3 or 4 shlOkA-s earmarked for

this youngest scion of the Raghuvamsa family.

 

And yet in the few verses devoted to Shatrughna Valmiki extols his

greatness as a loyal and steadfast follower of Bharatha.

 

Valmiki is actually extolling the highest and rarest of human

aspirations --- the "kAmA" that afflicts the "mu-mookshu" (the seeker of

liberation).

 

Bharatha as "mOkshA" and Shatrughna as "kAma" together thus represent

for Valmiki what is the natural and most primal urge of the human

species in its march towards spiritual evolution.

 

Together they represent the eternal hankering ('kAma") of the human

spirit after its natural state called "mOkshA".

 

More on these weighty subjects later.

 

adiyEn,

sudarshan