Om Rama
My salutations to the
Devotees of Sri Rama, My salutations to Sri Rama and my salutations to
Ramayana, the Lore of Sri Rama!
Mavelikara is our own place.
Here in Mavelikara we have a Ramakrishna Ashrama at Kandiyoor. This ashrama is
related to Belur Math, the Headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission, near
Calcutta. From its beginning in the
1920s it was under the direct supervision of Belur Math but since late 1960s it
is not being administered by Ramakrishna Mission.
I
have come to speak here in place of Swami Kaivalyananda of Kayamkulam Ramakrishna
Ashrama, who is a bit indisposed.
We are in the midst of
Ramayana Mela. This is the month of Ramayana. One Swami of our Mission used to
say that the best thing that ever happened in India since 1947, after
Independence, was the telecast of serials of Ramayana and Mahabharata over mass
media. Many children and many of the grown up people too, came to know Ramayana
better after seeing these serials. They might have heard and known something
about the names in Ramayana: Rama, Sita, Hanuman, etc. But after seeing these
serials they came to know these names and their doings much better. This was a
very good thing, that Swami used to say.
This is not only the month
of Ramayana but this is also the first month of Chaturmasya vrata. This is the season
of rains. Sadhus all over India bring their wanderings to a temporary halt and
stay somewhere for four months and study the Shastras. You know, the tradition
of sadhus is, not to stay in any place for more than three days. They keep wandering
from place to place, generally from one holy place to another holy place. They
do this so that they don’t develop possessive attachment to any person or
place. But during rainy season travelling is very troublesome. So they fix
their stay at one place and go into study of scriptures. This is our tradition.
Our Ramayana masam is the observance of this practice for the first month of
these four. In this month, householders first pay their debts to their ancestors
on the day of Vavubali and then start paying their debt to Rishis by study of
Ramayana. Our Rishis, our teachers, have left their works for us to help us in
our lives. We pay our debt to them by reading their works and trying to follow
their teachings. This is a good thing. Only in Kerala we
find that Ramayana is given such special attention and respect during this
month and people so earnestly go about reading it.
Today, we heard a complaint
from a previous speaker, that there were quite good many people at this place
for another programme but there are very few here now; here we are about forty,
fifty. Well, people come to places where they can connect to. Something so, so old as Ramayana, how do people make
connection now? Will you buy an older version of software or an electronic
gadget? You always want the latest version. In Religion too, people want the
latest. So God answers their prayers and needs and comes again and again as a
latest version. We do need old teachings but we need new Acharyas to show us
how to use them in these present times and needs.
Swami Vivekananda gave a
lecture on, Sages of India, in
Madras. That was about Rishis of India. He added Sri Rama to the list of
Rishis. There were Rishis during the times of Upanishads. We know many names
but very little of their life details. Take for example, Yagnyavalkya, we know
little about his life. Then when the times of Itihasa come, we get to know many
details. When we come to know many great things about their lives, we are
overwhelmed and we give a new name to these sages, we call them Avataras. Such
are Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Sankaracharya, Ramanuja, Chaitanya and Ramakrishna.
This is the lineage of the Rishis. Sri Rama is a Rishi in this parampara.
Now, what interest can we
have in reading Ramayana? If we are assured that we will get something now in
reading Ramayana, than we will read Ramayana. Well, Swami Vivekananda says,
that even if almost the whole of the Hindu population dwindles, God forbid such
happening, if there were only a handful of Hindus, speaking a far cousin
patios, of its classic languages, even then there will be a version of Ramayana
current amongst them. In such a way has the story of Rama entered the very
veins of Hindus. It courses through our body and soul.
So Ramayana is in us. Here a speaker mentioned about
common stories of hidden treasure put in a pot and kept buried in our backyard,
hidden by our ancestors, so as to escape the hands of plunderers and later, be of
use to us, their descendants, but we have forgotten about it or we are clueless
where to dig; in such a way, Ramayana is inside
us, but we don’t make use of it or don’t know how to make use of it. So let us
start considering Ramayana and figure out ways to get things of great benefit
out of it. What do we get from Ramayana? Well, I will say, we get four things essentially….
One, we get Ramakatha, Rama’s story, from Ramayana. Ramayana is the tale of Rama’s doings. It is
good to read the story of Rama as early as possible. I, as far back as my
memory go, read the story of Rama when I was about eight years old. I was in
class 3. That was the Ramayana written by Rajaji (C. Rajagopalachari), in
Tamil. Later I must have read it ten, twelve times. The many incidents that we
read in Ramayana will come useful to us when we come across similar situations
in our lives. We will get tips from Ramayana on how to handle our situations
here now.
Two, we get Ramarupam, the Rupa of Rama, the form of
Rama.
Okay, we have read the story of Rama and draw our lessons and use that
to handle the present problems. Is that all? No. We have to think deeply. We have to meditate. To
help us in that we need the form of Rama. If we meditate on the form of Rama
together with Sita, then we get strength.
What are the
forms of Rama that we meditate on? There is the form of Ramlala, the Child
Rama. We have heard much of Kochu Krishnan, Unni Krishnan, the Child Krishna,
but in South we have not heard much of Kochu Rama, though we have the name
Ramunni quite commonly. There have been great people who have meditated on
Child Rama and have had Vision of Child Rama. The Rama in Ayodhya is Child
Rama. We find in Sri Ramakrishna’s life, incidents where Child Rama moved and
played with him. The form of Child Rama is an ideal form for meditation. Or one
may meditate on the form of Rama with Sita. We think of Rama, we meditate on
Rama, and then very soon He becomes our own Rama. So on meditation one gets
Rama. Generally we don’t meditate on the heated Rama threatening to dry up the
ocean. Maybe, that Rama is good to look up sometimes but when we meditate, we
let our mind stay with serene Rama, like Ramlala or Sita Rama.
So this much about Ramakatha and Ramarupam.
Then comes Rama Namam. The highest thing we get from Ramayana is the Name of
Rama. The repetition of the Name of Rama is called Taraka Mantram, the Mantra
that that liberates the soul and gives Salvation to the soul. One has to do
Japa of Rama Nama. We don’t know if Mahatma Gandhi read the story of Rama
frequently but we know he repeated the name of Rama incessantly. So let us try repeating
the Name of Rama.
So after reading the Ramayana and applying the lessons
we learn to situations in our present times, after meditating on the form of
Rama and after repeating the Name of Rama, and while we are doing all these, we
happen to get doubts. We stand still on our tract and doubt if we are doing
things right. We doubt if it really works. We want proof that things will work
out all right.
At this juncture we get the fourth benefit from
Ramayana. Ramabhaktas, a grand succession of devotees of Rama starting with
Hanuman. There were always Ramabhaktas with us: from Hanuman to Ramakrishna,
Vivekananda and many till today, we have devotees of Rama with us. Shivaji was
a Rama Bhakta. He was a devotee of Durga but he was a Rama Bhakta too. There
had hardly been anyone who had done great good to the country who had not heard
the story of Rama in their youth. We see that every one of them had heard the
story of Rama from their mother or father or grandmother or grandfather or
someone. The boy Gandhi was once afraid and a servant in the house told him to
chant the name of Rama to ward of that fear, so he started repeating Ramanama
and found it beneficial. So we hear when we go to Porbandar. They show a place
where he received Ramanama. He went on to repeat it till the last moment when
he faced death.
So we have to read the lives of the devotees of Rama
and get inspiration from that.
Now comes the last word, the bottom-line. Why do we do
all this? We hear Rama’s Story, we think of his Form, we repeat his Name, we
familiarize with his devotees; where do we go after all this?
We are here to get to see
Rama. We have to meet Rama. We may be enjoying the story of Rama and all the
world’s poetry on that; We may be pundits knowing minutest thing to do with the
Story of Rama; But the real thing is to see
Him. To see Him as you see me, as you see each other, or even more directly, as
Ramakrishna said to Naren, when he answered his question about tangibly seeing
God. You think of him and try to call him by your mind, you try to establish
contact through telephone, or you try to Google search for him and contact him,
or you may search for him in Facebook. Somehow or other, you have to get Him
face-to-face. And, once you get the touch of Rama on your shoulder, then that
instant you understand this is the real Rama, the living Rama who is with you.
Your life becomes fulfilled, Sampurnam.
So the Last Word is Vision
of Rama. For that we have to plead to Hanuman to show us the way. That is what
Tulasi Das did. Or you beseech Sita to do this favour for us, to put in a word
for us...
May Sita shower Her grace on us; May Hanuman grant us
all strength; May we all get the Vision of Rama. This is my Prayer.
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti
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