Sri Ramayana Tatthva Deepika - Ba:la Ka:nda (1)

[Guest guest]

Respected Ramanuja Bhaktas,

 

With the consent of Sri Raghuram Mudumbai, who has recently started the

series on Sri Vishnu Sahasrana:mam, I am blessed and honored to share

with all of you a series on Sri Rama:yana that is being posted by his

mother, Mrs. Ramanujamma Mudumbai of Hyderabad, India.

 

Sri Rama:yana is a scripture that is known to all of us. This beautiful

prose work of six books recounts the epic adventure of the seventh

Avatha:ra of Sriman Narayana, Sri Rama:chandra, the noble prince and

hero, who along with his brother Lakshmana, and his devoted servant

Hanuman, rescues his wife, Sita Devi from the clutches of the

power-hungry king of Sri Lanka, Ravana. The magnificent tale of heroes

and villains, demons and mystical weapons, parallels other hero journeys

such as the Illiad, the Odyssey, the Legend of Charlemagne and Roland,

and of course, the Arthurian legends with its sense of valour, courage

and honor, and the intertwining of these ideals with the pathos of human

emotions.

 

But unlike any of these works, Sri Rama:yana is a sacred history, a

detailed account of how God, out of His Boundless and Unconditional

Love, made the ultimate sacrifice of coming in the form of a mere mortal

to set an example for all of us as to what it means to be a good human

being.

 

It is little wonder that the mystical and ethical understanding of this

work has been brought to light and passed down over the centuries by the

scholars of Bhagavad Sri Ramanuja Siddha:ntam. Mrs. Ramanujamma's

postings are intended to share the wisdom of one of the most respected

experts on Sri Rama:yana of the present day, the eminent U. Ve. Sri

Sribhashyam Appalacharya Swamy of Andhra Pradesh, India.

 

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan

Mohan

 

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Jaisreemannarayana!

Asmad Gurubhyo Namaha!!

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha!!!

 

With Manahpurvaka Padabhivandanas to our Sri Sri Sri

Jeeyar Swamiji here is a humble attempt to present

Sri Sribhashyam Appalacharya Swamivari Srimad

Ramayana Tattvadeepika in English .

 

A:pada:mapahartha:ram Da:tha:ram Sarvasampada:m

Lo:ka:bhira:mam Srira:mam Bhu:yo Bhu:yo Nama:myaham

 

Srimad Ramayanam is the Veda given by Valmiki to

this world. Vedam contains two parts;Purvabhaga

and Uttarabhaga. The former explains the dharma

the mankind has to practise to attain happiness.

The later part enumerates how one should behave

to achieve one's goal. A human being has to

perform his duties to this world and possess

the knowledge of 'brahma'. That is one should

practice 'dharma' and aim to attain 'brahma'.

This human life has been blessed by the Supreme

to achieve these two. The Upanishad says

'a person who fails in these two, before his life

ends, is a " kripana " , 'a miserable loser'.

 

We all do not know to make good use of this human

life. We are incapable of deciding what is

happiness for us or what is misery using our

commonsense or intelligence. It is impossible to

try to perceive this or try to understand this. Only

'VEDA' can enlighten us on this subject. But it is

not within the reach of everyone. So to bless the

mankind with the " Veda " , the 'rishies' selected

'Ruksha', a hunter by profession, and

initiated him with the 'Rama Mantra' and transformed

him to 'Valmiki'

 

Ruksha’s sole aim in life was to earn his daily

bread and support his family. The Lord has taken

the incarnation of 'Rama' to establish in this

world the right practice for the humanity

('manavatthvam’). Rishis thought an enlightened

person was necessary to present His story in the

form of a narrative.

 

Ruksha did a deep penance chanting Rama nama and

became unconscious of his surroundings. There grew

a great ant hill around him. The God of Rain known

as Varuna or Prachetasa, showered with all his might

and cleared the ant hill (Valmikam) and the sage

Valmiki appeared. Since the Rishi appeared from an

ant hill he started being addressed as Va:lmi:ki

and as the God of Rain was responsible for his

emergence he is also addressed as Pra:che:tasa.

 

Rama Nama is so powerful that it can change a

powerful ‘ra:jasa’ or a ‘tha:masa’ into a great

sa:twik just like the transformation of Ruksha

into Valmiki.

 

to be continued...

 

Jai Srimannarayana!

Ramanujamma Mudumbai RD

 

 

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ramanuja dasi