Thoughts on Rama

April 14 is Ramnavami, the day of celebration of the birth of Lord Rama. Traditionally Rama is the seventh incarnation of Vishnu. Vishnu is the preserving aspect of God, or Brahman. In order to restore and preserve order, righteousness, and to serve as exemplars of spiritual values and virtues Vishnu incarnates. Krishna, the eighth incarnation of Vishnu said it most beautifully in the Bhagavad Gita.
When goodness grows weak,
When evil increases,
I make myself a body.
In every age I come back
To deliver the holy,
To destroy the sin of the sinner,
To establish righteousness.
He who knows the nature
Of my task and my holy birth
Is not reborn
When he leaves this body:
He comes to me.
Flying from fear,
From lust and anger,
He hides in me
His refuge, his safety:
Burnt clean in the blaze of my being,
In me many find home.
Translation by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood

The Ramayana (or Ramayan) is one of the most powerful puranic stories. In my opinion, these puranic stories are not meant to be an accurate history of events on earth. Indeed we have more than one version of the Ramayana. Puranic stories embody not historical truth, but a higher truth. They illustrate spiritual principals. While some, like the Ramayana, are based on history, we would miss the main benefit if we were to judge their value on historical accuracy or plausibility. Swami Vivekananda put it this way, "Some historical truth is the nucleus of every Purana. The object of the Puranas is to teach mankind the sublime truth in various forms; and even if they do not contain any historical truth, they form a great authority for us in respect of the highest truth which they inculcate."

A decade ago I was privileged to sing in musical dramatization of the Ramayana. Being in a dramatic performance is a wonderful way to immerse yourself in a religious story. Even the preparation of the costumes became a spiritual practice, as I felt I was preparing the cloth for Lord Rama himself. Each character represents one or more archetypes or principals. Sita, for example, represents the divine feminine as the manifestation of God in this earthly realm. She also represents Chastity and the ideal wife. Rama represents the divine masculine, the ideal king, and the upholder of dharma. Lakshman and Bharata are loyal brothers. Rama is so respectful of animals that they come to his aid. Jatayu paid with his own life in trying to prevent Ravana from abducting Sita.

There is a charming story about the forming of the land bridge from India to Sri Lanka where all the animals pitch in. Again, in Swami Vivekananda's words:
The monkeys removed whole hills, placed them in the sea and covered them with stones and trees, thus making a huge embankment. A little squirrel, so it is said, was there rolling himself in the sand and running backwards and forwards on to the bridge and shaking himself. Thus in his small way he was working for the bridge of Rama by putting in sand. The monkeys laughed, for they were bringing whole mountains, whole forests, huge loads of sand for the bridge -- so they laughed at the little squirrel rolling in the sand and then shaking himself. But Rama saw it and remarked: "Blessed be the little squirrel; he is doing his work to the best of his ability, and he is therefore quite as great as the greatest of you." Then he gently stroked the squirrel on the bank, and the marks of Rama's fingers, running lengthways, are seen on the squirrel's back to this day.

This episode shows us that greatness is doing what you can to the best of your ability. Also it gives us a clever way to think of Rama every time we see a squirrel! And the more times you can remember God, the better.

In the scene where Sita is patiently waiting for Rama to rescue her from Ravana, I was struck with the idea that we must have the same patience in our spiritual practice, waiting for the Lord's grace.

I believe the reason Sita's purity is not believed by the people illustrates how we frequently forget the imminent quality of God and only think of God's transcendent aspect. Remember that Sita represents the feminine aspect of God, or the manifest aspect. So the people not being convinced of her purity is like our not accepting the manifest aspect, i.e. not remembering that everything is a manifestation of God.

This divine mystery of the transcendent and imminent is symbolized by the relationship between them. It is expressed by Sita as follows:

The picture opens when she was in the forest with her husband, whither they were banished. There was a female sage whom they both went to see. Her fasts and devotions had emaciated her body.Sita approached this sage and bowed down before her. The sage placed her hand on the head of Sita and said: "It is a great blessing to possess a beautiful body; you have that. It is a greater blessing to have a noble husband; you have that. It is the greatest blessing to be perfectly obedient to such a husband; you are that. You must be happy".Sita replied, "Mother, I am glad that God has given me a beautiful body and that I have so devoted a husband. But as to the third blessing, I do not know whether I obey him or he obeys me. One thing alone I remember, that when he took me by the hand before the sacrificial fire--whether it was a reflection of the fire or whether God himself made it appear to me--I found that I was his and he was mine. And since then, I have found that I am the complement of his life, and he of mine".
From the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
So as you read the story of the Ramayana, look for the spiritual meaning behind the narrative.