Friday, March 18, 2005

Advaitic Ramayan

Advaitic Story
Some sages believe there was an advaitic message. If Valmiki, an ascetic devoted to tapas (austerity) and swadhyaya (study of the vedas) created this epic to help mankind understand human characteristics he must have used the vedic philosophy as the basis.
Indian mythology is full of symbolism. One view is that, Sita portrayed as an Ideal Woman reflects how Jiva should pursue its Spiritual Path to realize the Supreme Truth - the Godhead. Ram means, the One who revels in all beings and things, the Atman, the Self of all. Ram is wedded to Sita, the Mind. Ram is born in the bosom where there is Self control and no conflict (Ayodhya). When Ram, the Self, is wedded to Sita, the Mind, there is expression of life and its activities. We do not know from where Sita (mind) appears. From Mother Earth Sita came and into Mother Earth she disappeared. From where the mind came and where it disappears in Samadhi, nobody can say. As long as Sita, the Mind, remains in perfect attunement with Ram, the Self (the higher nature) there is only joy and happiness whether in Ayodhya or in the forest in exile.
The moment Sita desires the Golden deer, the Mind identifying with the lower nature, becomes extrovert and desires the sense objects. The fall of the individual starts. Sita forgets the might of Ram and forces Lakshman (tapas) to go to Ram's help. Sita becomes an easy victim of Dasamukha Ravana (the ten sense organs) and is carried away to Lanka, the Material World, away from the Land of Dharma and Spirituality.
Sita is penitent, regrets her action and prays with single pointed devotion to be saved. Ram (Self) destroys Vali (Lust) and organizes monkeys (thoughts) to cross the ocean and reach Lanka. The ocean to be breached is the delusory attachments and fascinations in a deluded Mind. The forces (Rakshasas) that fight against Ram are the negative tendencies.
So when Sita (Mind) is turned towards Ram (the Self), continuously and constantly such a mind is no mind at all. Ram the man of perfection allows the Mind to remain in him but is not affected by it.
Finally, when the inner personality is purified and rehabilitated and the Mind disappears to become One with the Self. Ram, thereafter, the Man of Realization rules over the Kingdom of Life. Sita, the mind, was banished, but having lived with her for sometime something must emerge. It did in the form of Luva and Kush perfected Masters of Wisdom emerge in the form of Books singing the Glory of the Lord.

1 Comments:

Blogger Venu said...

Your encapsulation of the message of Ramayana shorn of its external forms is indeed the spiritual revelation. Looked the other way, self-realised master Valmiki wanted the masses to understand the difficult-to-grasp spiritual truths and hence put it in a story form. The story itself came alive because an Avatar had taken birth. So Ramayana is the product of a rare concord of an Avatar, a master story teller and the spiritual goal. In fact, like there is the Bhagawad Gita ensconced in the Mahabharatha, ensconced in the Ramayana is the less known but more potent Rama Gita.

9:07 AM  

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