Bits of life

J-26 Words-2000

Sumantha and other chieftains awaited the arrival of the princes at the entrance with music and drums playing the songs appropriate for such a grand occasion.

Rama and Sita arrived and people were pleasantly stunned at their loveliness. Soon the ceremony began. A number of priests and rishis were invited to be present on the auspicious occasion of anointing Rama as the king and Sita as the queen of the land. They chanted mantras from the Vedas. Gods and goddesses witnessed the occasion and they showered flowers from heaven on the royal couple. Hanuman, Angad, Nal, Neel, Jambavanta and others who went to fetch holy waters from various holy rivers and seas had arrived on time and the priests used it for the anointing ceremony. The celestial entities were happy that Narayana the very avatar of Rama had once again succeeded in restoring peace by winning over the powers of darkness in the world. An eon had come to an end with the fulfillment of establishing order and dharma in the world.

After Rama had taken over the rule of the land, the kingdom knew no evil experiences. People were righteous in their behavior. Rama had set an example in leading a life of morals and practicing ethics in his daily business of conducting administration. Seasons had come in time and there was never a drought or any natural disasters. Life was one long happy dream. They say that Rama Rajya (Rama’s rule) spanned eleven thousand years.

Why is Ramayana important to Indian believers?

The Ramayana and the Maha Bharata, the two great epics of India teach us the way to live and find happiness.
While the Ramayana is idealistic, the Maha Bharata is about practical life. Both are sources of inspiration and motivation in various walks of life.

Rama, the main character from whom the title is derived teaches us the values of life and how to preserve them. Through his character, we learn the principles of day to day life. His relationships with various people show the way we need to conduct ourselves both in personal lives and in society. His devotion to his father even when he was asked to leave the palace and go on exile never underwent change. This would be a difficult thing to follow. Yet by reading about him makes us look inside and assess our own character. Another important aspect of Rama that has a long standing influence is his love of brothers. Although they were born of different mothers, he loved them all as his own. Despite the circumstances, he never misunderstood them or had any differences. For example, when Lakshmana misunderstood Bharat’s intention in coming to Dandakaranya to meet Rama, it was Rama who told him about the true character of Bharat.

Whenever brothers of our own contemporary society have differences, they should think of the way Rama dealt with his own brothers and found sound relationship with them. Absence of anger and depression or for that matter any other negative emotion is obviously absent in Rama’s character. It is truly amazing that even under indescribable pressure, like when he was asked to abandon the kingdom and banished to exile, not once do we see Rama getting excited or with emotions playing havoc on him. This balance of mind in him is worth noting and if possible worth emulating.

Rama’s friendship with Guha, the chieftain of the river folk or his respect for Jatayu the buzzard that sacrificed its life while fighting with Ravana are worthy of note. Same is true with his sympathy and love for Sabari, the devotee who waited for him for decades to arrive at her ashram. We cans see through these characters true feelings of love and devotion are always rewarded. Spiritual happiness is possible only if we share our love and live for others, is what we can glean from the above examples. We can see that they are all ideal. Ideal son, ideal brother, ideal wife, ideal friend, ideal servant and ideal king, and ideal guide and philosopher are found in different characters portraying these roles. Sita and Urmila represent the ideal womanhood. They stand for sacrifice, obedience and devotion to their husbands. They were loved and adored for these values they demonstrated in their lives. The Ramayana also means Rama’s journey. What we need to look at the way Rama journeyed forth not only literally from Ayodhya to Dandakaranya to Kishkinda to Lanka and back to Ayodhya, but also how he progressed in life from childhood to youth to maturity. There are several milestones marking different stages of his life.

On the other hand, the examples of the lives of Ravana or his sons and some of his brother delineate the fact that material desires, arrogance and lust, selfishness and craze for power and pomp are of temporary nature. We see and learn through their lives that the happiness they give is fleeting and of no lasting value.

Ravana’s fall teaches us never to crave for another man’s wife or envy his physical or mental and spiritual abilities. He was powerful by virtue of his penance to Lord Shiva. He was one of the most celebrated devotees of Lord Shiva. He had obtained effective and irrevocable weapons and astras from Shiva and Brahma. Yet, he was not able to use them for the welfare of humanity. Rather, overcome with ego and selfishness, he used them only to get his desires fulfilled and his absolute command over the three worlds established. That is an important difference between the characters of Rama and Ravana. By virtue of their words, thoughts and actions, they stand for the good and evil forces. They represent the sublime and the dark forces that rule the world and make it what it was. This conflict between the forces of light and darkness is eternal and universal. Wherever there is good, the negative side too prevails.

The Ramayana represents the struggle between the good and bad and manifests it through various characters in an appealing manner.

Temples of Rama, Sita and Lakshmana are found in the width and length of India and elsewhere in the world. Their names are still popular and found frequently in India.

The Mahabharata-

The Maha Bharata was known to have been written by sage Vyasa. He was the spiritual son of sage Parashara and Satyavati, a rare beauty among the fishermen community. She was the daughter of Dasaraja, the chief of fishermen. She used to row the boat on the river Ganga and helped people in crossing the river from one bank to another. Once, sage Parashara needed to cross the river and Satyavati was rowing it. The sage was in a hurry to attend a yaga. Pleased with her speedy way of conveying him to the other bank, the sage taught her a mantra by means of which she could call a god and conceive a child by him. Satyavati chose this boon herself. Sage Parashara desired her and wanted a union with her. She immediately conceived and gave birth to Vyasa. Parashara blessed her to be a woman of an appealing and pleasing fragrance. She told no one about her special gift. Her son Vyasa turned into an adult and told his mother that he would come to her any time she called him. His education was done under the supervision of Brahma and the celestial yogi, Narada. It was Vyasa who wrote the famous Vishnu purana.

The Maha Bharata was the most quintessential epics of India. It is one of the most thought provoking epics of the subcontinent. Unlike the Ramayana, the characters in the Maha Bharata are not idealistic but they are characters that we come across in our day to day lives. They are practical, logical, emotional and individualistic. They have the same kind of struggles that we have and they bear with the same kind of tensions and problems. Jealousy, envy, ego, lust, selfishness, ambition, success, failure, pride and possessiveness, desperation, disillusion and depression are commonly found in the life and career of these characters. Rivalry, cunning, wickedness and contempt for the inferiors are too found in them. They are the mirrors of human nature. The Maha Bharata makes us reflective of own nature and makes us self examine and analyze our own nature and the way we behave in society.

Legend has it that when Vyasa intended to write Maha Bharata, he requested Vinayaka or Ganesha to write down the epic as he recited it. Ganesha had a condition to write the text down. He said that once he started writing recitation of the epic should continue nonstop till he finished it. Vyasa agreed to it.

In the Adi Parva (part1) of the Maha Bharata, Vyasa said that the dynasty of Bharatas was founded by King Bharata. He was an ancestor of Pandavas and Kauravas of the epic Maha Bharata. Bharata was the son king Dushayanta and shakuntala. Shakuntala was the daughter of Viswamitra and Menaka. When sage Viswamitra went to the forest to concentrate on penance to achieve the title of Brahmarshi, the devas (deities) wanted to test his spiritual strength. So they had sent the celestial dance Menaka to dance before the king turned sage, Viswamitra. He was distracted from his tapas by the beauty of Menaka and lived with her till one day he came back to senses and realized that it was the work of the devas. He got disillusioned with his conjugal life and returned to his penance.

Menaka was pregnant when Viswamitra went away back to the forest. A few months later she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. She left the baby under a tree and returned to her celestial home. The little girl was brought up by birds named shakuntalams. Once, a rishi named Kanwa saw this little baby under a tree and a few birds were around her. He understood the situation and brought the baby to his ashram. He named her shakuntala because she was brought up by the birds named shakuntalams. She grew up as his adopted daughter. The other children in the hermitage played with her and kept her company. Her two most beloved friends were Priyamvada and Anasuya. Shakuntala loved nature with its flora and fauna. Even wild animals craved for her touch. She would get up early and pick flowers from around the hermitage for her father, who did the daily puja. She took care of the plants and trees around and had several pets like birds and does, deer and so on.

Shakuntala turned into a beauty and a girl with great love for flora and fauna. Priyamvada and Anasuya, her two dear friends were with her as she went about her work around the hermitage.

On an evening on one day, as she was strolling in her front yard, a tall man came to the hermitage. He looked tired and in want of water. She saw him as he approached her ashram and got down from the steed he was riding. He saw shakuntala watering the plants with a mud pot. He went near her and promptly fell in love with her. She saw him and blushed as he fixed her gaze on her lovely face. He asked her if she could pour some water for him and bent to drink. Shakuntala then gave him some water to drink.

Then he introduced himself as the king of the land of Kurus. He ruled from the city of Hastinapur. He told her that his name was Dushyantha and he was on a hunting trip. He was on his way back to Hastinapur and on the way spotted the neat ashram and stopped by to rest awhile. He told her that he was in love with her. Shakuntala too loved him. King Dushyantha courted her for some time and married her in secret. Mother Nature was the only witness to their wedding. They spent a few days enjoying the married life. Dushyantha had