The Influence of Epics on Indian Life

August 30, 2005

Swami Tathagatananda

Spiritual Leader:

The Vedanta Society of New York

http://www.vedanta-newyork.org/articles/vedanta101_9.htm

The Influence of Epics on Indian Life

A nation lives by the idealism that shapes its destiny.

The soul of a race can be known by a sympathetic study of its heritage of visions and aspirations, its inner inclinations, and its constant endeavors to achieve its noblest goals. We must acknowledge the inevitability of human shortcomings which are responsible for its failures. Still, an

authentic study of a nation demands the understanding of its ideals and the ways and means it chooses to actualize those ideals. Therefore the soul of Hinduism has to be known through the idealism cherished in the collective Hindu consciousness.

The Vedas, the Upanishads, the epics, the Bhagavad-Gita, the Bhagavatam, and other scriptures are highly respected by the Hindus in general, irrespective of the particular sects they belong to.

In Hinduism God is not an extra-cosmic spectator of the world-process. God is immanent as well as transcendent. The immanence of God permeates every bit of matter. God guides the cosmos (Bhagavad-Gita IX-10). It is the function of God to protect the world, to keep it going on lines of righteousness. God assumes human form in times of spiritual crisis and guides the people to move higher in their spiritual evolution (Bhagavad-Gita VI-7,8). The divine incarnations by their holy lives, activities, and teachings have had a far reaching effect on human life. They leave behind rich examples of holiness which become the subject matter of meditation and the inspiration for holy living for the generations to come.

The Hindu mind is prone to accept something when it has a stamp of authority of a God-man. Thus the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the Bhagavatam which depict the spiritual glory of Rama and Krishna have inspired countless people down the ages. They are ever fresh.

The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are two great epics illustrating the ideal character of Rama and Krishna who are regarded by the Hindus as divine incarnations. Old truths get fresh representations through such God-men and thus help people to have faith in the truths exemplified by them. The Ramayana contains 24,000 couplets in Sanskrit. It was composed from about 400 B.C. to 200 A.D. The Mahabharata, containing 1 00,000 verses in Sanskrit, was composed at about the same period. The Bhagavad-Gita, the Divine Song of the Lord, occurs in the Mahabharata.

For over two thousand years these two great epics have formed the strongest single factor that has sustained and held together Indian cultural life. Their deep and pervasive influence is felt in religion, morality, literature, and other arts. Declared Swami Vivekananda:

" In fact, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, are the two encyclopedias of ancient Aryan life and wisdom, portraying the ideal civilization which humanity has yet to aspire after. "

(Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol. VI, p. 101)

Abstract truth is very difficult to comprehend. Epics and other scriptures are very helpful in understanding the real import of spiritual truth, for that truth is exemplified in the great lives. The books are replete with inspiring stories of wisdom.

" In these two masterpieces we are brought closer to the atmosphere and ideals and customs of ancient Hindu life than by a hundred volumes of commentary on the Upanishads. . . .Hindu men and women became real to us. "

(The Wisdom of Asia, ed, Lin Yutang (London: First Edition, 1949), p. 125)

In spite of illiteracy, the Indian masses gained insight about religious life from the epics and Puranas, through the media of sculpture, painting, dance, drama, music, religious discourse, recitations, and temple festivals. In this way popular religious instruction was conveyed in a manner which both entertained and uplifted the people.

" In the quiet hours of evening, when work is finished, men, women, and children meet together in villages throughout the land and listen eagerly to recitations from them by specially trained storytellers. Thus are brought to the humblest cottage the essential moral lessons and the great spiritual truths of an immemorial tradition. The beneficent effect upon the vast masses of the Indian population can scarcely be exaggerated. By virtue of it one may say that even the lowest Indian peasant or laborer, though illiterate, is still in a deep sense cultivated. Though he may be ignorant in all else, he is spiritually informed. These common entertainments always draw huge crowds. "

Swami Prabhavananda, The Spiritual Heritage of India, London:

Allen and Unwin,1962), p. 80

Many individuals recite a portion from the epics daily as a discipline which will give them spiritual merit. The Hindus find in them " a deep well of strength. " In various ways these epics have spread

to every part of India and beyond. They form the basis of popular narratives which were turned into ballads recited by wandering minstrels.

About the impact of the Ramayana we quote the remarks of Western scholars. The historian Vincent Smith, in his book, Akbar, the Great Moghal, says:

" Yet that Hindu was the greatest man of his age in India and greater even than Akbar himself, inasmuch as the conquest of the hearts and minds of millions of men and women affected by the poet was an achievement infinitely more lasting and important than any or all the victories gained in war by the monarch. " (Quoted by S.N. Sharma, Bombay, 1954)

Tulsidas (1532-1623) is the name of the Hindu saint for whom such preeminence is claimed. George Grieson, an important Western scholar of Hindi, thought that Tulsidas was the best man of his century in India. About the impact of his great book, also known as the Tulsidas Ramayana, Grieson wrote:

" I have never met a person who had read it in the original and who was not impressed by it as the work of a great genius. "

And he added:

" I give much less than the usual estimate when I say that fully ninety millions of people base their theories of moral and religious conduct upon his writing. If we take the influence exercised by him at the present time, he is one of three or four writers of Asia. . . .over the whole of the Gangetic Valley his great work is better known than the Bible is in England. " (Tulsidas, Poet and Religious Reformer, Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, 1903)

The Ramayana glorifies the domestic relations which form the nucleus of the entire structure of family life. The chastity of Sita, the perfect wife; the sacrifice of Rama, his filial piety, his love for truth, and his ideal character in every respect of life; the heroism and brotherly affection of Lakshmana; and the great spirit of renunciation of Bharata have entered into the bones and marrow of the Hindus.

The Mahabharata contains episodes covering the entire gamut of life. All shades of life are fully depicted and hence agnostics, mystics, common people, and philosophers are drawn to its variety, immensity, and beauty. The reader or listener is deeply impressed, and the moral values get themselves imprinted in the hearts of the people. The main story relates to the victory of righteousness over unrighteousness. The Mahabharata's story of Harishchandra (who sacrificed everything for Truth) inspired Mahatma Gandhi. In his autobiography he said:

" This play Harishchandra--captured my heart. I could never be tired of seeing it. But how often should I be permitted to go? It haunted me and I must have acted Harishchandra to myself times without number. " Why should not all be truthful like Harishchandra? " was the question I asked myself day and night. To follow truth and to go through all the ordeals Harishchandra went through was the one ideal it inspired in me. I literally believed in the story of Harishchandra. The thought of it all often made me weep. My common sense tells me today that Harishchandra could not have been a historical character. " (Gandhi, An Autobiography, pp. 7-8)

If one reads and contemplates these stories and characters, the spiritual law that righteousness is sure to triumph in the end is deeply imprinted in one's mind. Meditation on the lives of the divine incarnation being a great source of spiritual development, both the epics are valuable to humankind.

-- devishakti_india( divyabhakti )