Significance of Ramavathara

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Dasaratha, meaning one with ten chariots represents man carried away by the ten indriyas, sense organs, and his wivesKausalya, Kaikeyi and Sumitra stand for bhakthi, karma, and jnana respectively. Rama as Valmiki says, was vigrahavan dharmah , dharma incarnate. Dharma has its root in Vedas and the purport of the Vedas is Paramatma, the Supreme Self. So, Rama is thus shown to be none other than the Lord. Lakshmana denotes Artha, the second purushartha which should always follow dharma ,the first. Bharatha implies Moksha, and satrugna indicates the third purushartha, Kama which must be always about Moksha, the fourth purushartha

 

When the man , Dasaratha gets attached to karma, without jnana, he becomes bound by it Desire motivated karma, Kaikeyi is instrumental in banishing dharma, Rama from the kingdom. The reluctance of Dasaratha to do so denotes the conscience of man which makes him guilty in doing something he should not do but bound by his attachment and desire he becomes week and succumbs to the temptation as a result of which he faces destruction.

 

Sita and Rama are the jivatma and Paramatma as depicted in Upanishad as two birds which are one in reality.Dvaa suparnaa sayujaa sakhaayaa , of which one wanders away from the other eating fruits sour and sweet while the other simply looks on from above Thayorekah pippalam svaadhu atthi anasnan anyah abhichaakasithi.. When the former, jiva, climbs up and up while eating the fruits and nearing the other realizes that it is just the shadow of the one above, the Paramatma and .merging with it becomes free from sukha and duhkha and enjoys infinite bliss.

 

Sita relinquishing the comforts of the royal palace accompanied Rama to the forest which shows that the real happiness of the jiva is to be with the Paramatma and not in enjoying the sensual pleasures which are mixed with sorrow, As long as the jiva remains with the Lord it is enjoying infinite bliss. But the moment the jiva is tempted by the pleasures of the world, like the desire of Sita for the golden deer it gets separated from the Lord when the ten indriyas represented by the ten headed Ravana carries the jiva away and the jiva is imprisoned in Lanka which is the sarira and becomes surrounded by the sorrows of the samsara, the rakshasis of Asokavana. The jiva never realizes that the world is asokavana , a garden without sorrow in reality and only due to the ignorance of the jiva it appears as a sokavana, a forest of sorrow until the acharya helps to unite the jiva with the Lord.

The golden deer stands for the desires of the world, the most dangerous being that of gold, wealth Once it enters the heart one is carried far away into the land of demons, surrounded by the sea of samsara. Hanuman coming to the rescue of the grieving Sita signifies the acharya who is instrumental in uniting the jiva with Isvara, the Lord. The ordeal of entering the fire for Sita is the anthahkaranasuddhi, purification of the mind and intellect through bhakthi when the ignorance is destroyed and the jiva gains back its original state. Vibheeshana, the good brother of Ravana stands for sattva, while Ravana depicts rajas and Kumbhakarna, tamas. With the help of sattva , rajas and thamas, metaphorically potrayed as rakshasaas, are conquered.

 

Lakshmana, was supposed to be the incarnation of Adhisesha, the thousand hooded serpent who served as the bed of Lord Narayana. He never leaves the Lord. Sesha means one who is the property of and dependent on the seshi for whose purpose he exists. The lord is the seshi and all beings are His seshas. Of them Adhisesha as his name indicates is the oldest because he existed with The Lord forever. The thousand hooded serpent is only our mind with thousand thoughts and when they are all with the Lord it becomes Adhisesha

 

Thus the epic Ramayana was a drama enacted by the divine in order to teach man how to live .Rama lived like a man, expressed His feelings like a man but His divinity could be discernible to those who had insight like Vasishta and Visvamitra. Even when Rama was depicted as being engrossed with the grief of separation from Sita it only indicates that the Lord is as sorrowful, if not more, when a jiva goes astray and takes the necessary steps at the right time to bring it back into the fold. Thus even His retribution is for redemption.

The other avatharas will follow.