Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals :Ch-3. Part - 8.

Chapter-3. Rama – The Apotheosis of Human Perfection ( Sri Ramanavami )


Part-8.

What we see is the form of their lives and what we cannot see is the essence, the meaning and the significance of what they live. In the Ramayana,


we have such a contradictory picture of the personality of Rama, presented by Valmiki, where we are asked sometimes to look upon him as the perfected man and sometimes as a perfection of Divinity itself manifest.


It is in the Yuddha Kanda of Valmiki's Ramayana, (I am not talking of Tulasidas's Ramayana because that has a different approach altogether) for the first time, we have a proclamation of the divinity of Rama, where Mandodari in deep sorrow over the death of Ravana, her husband, exclaims that it is Narayana that has come as Nara which fact is unknown to Ravana and due to his ignorance, he has mistaken Rama for a human being.



The contradiction which Valmiki brings out is that while he puts these words in the mouth of Mandodari, he puts a different type of statement in the mouth of Rama himself.

When the whole theme is over, the drama played out, Brahma comes and speaks to Rama, "Thou art Lord Narayana, Thy play in this world is over, and we seek Thy entry back into Vaikuntha."

And Rama says in reply, "What are you speaking? I do not know anything. Am I Narayana? I think I am only a man – atmanam manusham manye. Whatever you may think or speak about me, I think I am a man, I am a human being."


These are the words of Rama himself.


Swami Krishnananda

To be continued  ...