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Source: The Hindu (http://www.the-hindu.com)

 

Ramayana contains many lessons for human beings

 

CHENNAI, MAY 25. Statements of sages and saints and also of

people in authority, known for their intellectual acumen and

character, are unquestionable and irrefutable. But on some

occasions, some of them though made under extraordinary

circumstances, appear to contradict the codes of conduct.

Commentators have explained that they might have been uttered

when these luminaries were in a happy mood or caught under

inescapable situations. For instance, an emperor who ruled his

domain for years maintaining justice and winning people's

admiration, promised his queen, who seemed to have been upset, to

hang anyone she wanted to, or save from gallows anyone sentenced

to death. He also asked her the reason for her displeasure: ``Has

any fool, weary of his life, slighted you? Does anyone wanting to

die put an insult upon you? If you are angry, tell me the name of

the wretch who had dared to offend you. If anyone is to be

rewarded, I shall shower him with anything. What beggar shall I

make a prince? What lord should be made a pauper?''

 

These words of Dasaratha in the Ramayana appear flippant and

unpleasant. Does he not know the law of the land? Can he punish

anyone without a trial or can he release a convicted person

without reason? It may be possible to make a poor man rich but

there is a procedure to deprive a wealthy man of his possessions.

These promises were extended out of his love for Queen Kaikeyi to

whom he was deeply attached. Even if he had wanted to carry out

such inadvertent statements, borne out of passion and haste, his

ministers would have objected and told him that these acts were

against law. The emperor was only emphasising that he would

gladly abide by her wishes. Unfortunately, emboldened by his

promises, Kaikeyi resolved to pierce his loving heart with cruel

demands and set about to bind him by dreadful oaths, said Sri V.

Srivatsankacharya in a discourse.

 

The Ramayana unfolds several lessons for man to get himself

elevated to the level of the divine if only he tries to emulate

the glorious values for which Rama stood and demonstrated how the

Law of Righteousness should never be transgressed. How the act of

the hunchback maid, by her tempting words made Kaikeyi ignoble,

warns us not to be associated with wicked persons. She reminded

the queen as to how she had insulted Rama's mother and lacerated

her feelings which would result in the latter wreaking vengeance

upon her (Kaikeyi), when Rama ascended the throne.

 

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