Ramayana

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Sri:rama:yana is called as Itiha:sa. Itiha:sa is one

of the

vedo:pabrumhana:s. upabrumhana means one which

elaborates the meaning of Veda. So

Sri:rama:yana elaborates the meaning of the Veda .It

reveals the

secrets of Veda and equivalent to the Veda. Veda

establishes the form and

attributes of the Supreme one. Our Lord is called as

Ve:dave:dya. When

that Ve:dave:dya incarnated Himself as Srirama being

the son of

Dasaratha Veda took the form of Sriramayana and came

into this world through

the sage valmiki .

 

Veda contains two parts. The first part is

called as pu:rvabha:ga

which deals with the Dharma:s to be practiced by the

mankind. The

second part of the Veda is called as uththara bha:ga

or upanishathbha:ga and

reveals about the Para Brahman. One has to practice

one's dharma and

has to do upa:sana by gaining knowledge about Para

Brahman. These two

things are literally shown by Sri Rama. Being the

nara he showed how to

practice one's dharma and got the credit to be called

as Ra:mo:

vigrahava:n dharmaha. Being Para Brahman He was

worshipped by everyone .Even

today we are worshipping him. One has to possess the

inner knowledge in

order to practice one's dharma. How? Let us come to

Sriramayana.

 

Before entering into the grandha it is customary to

do pranama to the

author so that we can get his blessings and understand

the grandha

well. Let us pray to sage valmiki before entering into

Sriramayana.

 

Ku:jantham ra:ma ra:me:thi madhuram madhura:ksharam

A:ruhya kavitha:sa:kha:m vande: va:lmi:ki ko:kilam.

 

In this poem sage valmiki is compared with a

nightingale. It sings

sweetly by sitting on the branch of a mango tree. Sage

valmiki is singing

the lettersRa and ma which are sweet in nature by

sitting on the branch

of poetry. I think all of you know about the sweet

voice of a

nightingale. Madhura means sweetness. He is taking the

support of poetry to

reveal the greatness of Rama. To such valmiki maharshi

I am doing pranama.

 

If we take Sriramayana as a kavya it is a

beautiful poetry with

so many beautiful words and chandas. And if we go deep

into the meaning

it can reveal about the inner self and Para Brahman.

If we take the

outer meaning only it will be like a simple cinema

story. There will be

Hero (Rama), leading lady (Sitamma) and villain

(Ravana). As usual

villain kidnapped Sitamma and hero saved her at last.

If we see the story

like this we need not study Sriramayana. But our

Ramayana is not a simple

cinema story. It is a great kavya. It is a great

dharmasasthra. It is a

great Neethi sasthra (morals). It is the incarnation

of Veda for

spiritual seekers. It reveals so many things which

are necessary for all

levels of mankind or in other words we can say it is

the story of the

mankind.

 

Valmiki reveals so many dharmas through His

characters of

Sriramayana. Through Rama Valmiki wants to convey the

message how to enjoy the

purusharthas. We are having four purusharthas. Dharma,

artha, kama and

moksha. Among the four everybody knows artha and kama

only. Few more

people will think about dharma and rarely some one

will think about

moksha. So let us leave about the moksha at present

and know about the

other three purusharthas. Among these three " Dharma"

is the important

one to be practiced by everyone. But most of us like

artha and kama

(desire to get anything). While getting these two we

don't care about the

dharma. So we have to face so many obstacles. Rama

practiced and

showed us how we have to earn artha(wealth) and kama

according to dharma

only. Then only we can enjoy them. According to

puthra dharma he left

kingdom to keep Dasaratha's words true and later he

ruled His kingdom

along with Sita without any obstacle. So we need not

crave for artha

without dharma.

 

Like this we can learn many things from Ramayana.

Before going into the

Ramayana let us know how Ramayana came into the world?