Ramayana – Yoga Vashishtha and Ahalya Udhdhar

After the completion of study, Shri Ram returns to Ayodhya with brothers. All mothers are very happy to see their sons being so grown up. The one thing that we notice here is Kaikayi’s love for Ram. She loves Ram as much as her own son – Bharat, may be more than that.

Though Ramayana does not include this part, Yoga-Vashishtha is very important in Shri Ram’s spiritual enlightenment. Shri Ram goes for pilgrimage and gets sahaj vairagya after seeing the apparent reality of the world. This worries his father, King Dasaratha. Sage Vasistha consoles the king by telling him that Ram’s vairagya is a sign that he is now ready for spiritual enlightenment. He says that Ram has begun understanding profound spiritual truths, which is the cause of his confusion and he just needs clear guidance. The sage begins the discussion with Ram which is called “Yoga-Vashishtha”. Ram talks about impermanence of all things and shows his disinterest in any Karma. He argues that nothing is permanent and no Karma gives permanent joy. Then why should we do Karma? Guru Vashishtha narrates him various stories and teaches him about science of Karma and more. Yoga Vasistha is considered amongst the most important scripture of the Vedantic philosophy.

Sage Vishwamitra comes to Ayodhya to get the help of Ram for the protection of yagna from demons. King Dasarath reluctantly agrees for that. When Ram is going somewhere, Lakshman can’t stay behind. They have never parted with each-other and he also goes with Ram. The motive behind Vishwamitra’s plan to take Ram was two fold. First, he wanted Ram to come out of Ayodhya and meet common men in their journey. Till now Ram had studied at Guru-ashram and then stayed at Ayodhya’s palace. People really didn’t know him well yet. By going to their place, people got to see virtues and noble character of Ram. Ram was going to be Yuvraj of Ayodhya. He must have jan-mat (people’s consent) for it. This was the first motive.

Second motive was much more important. He knew that there will be “Sita-Swayamvar” at Mithila. Knowing Sita’s virtue and character, he knew that Ram is the only fitting groom for her. So he took Ram with him for this grand purpose. Protecting Yagna was not at all difficult for a Sage like Vishwamitra. If he wanted, he could have done it by himself.

After Ram-Lakshman killed all the demons and successfully protected the Yagna, they got the news about Sita-Swayamvar. Vishwamitra tells Ram that there is a very age old holy Shiv Dhanush at Mithila. They should go there to have darshan of that. They will also take part in Sita-Swayamvara. During the journey, they found Gautam Ashram which was completely deserted. Vishwamitra tells them about story of Gautam muni and Ahalya. As the story says, Indra disguised as Gautam and did adultery with her. Gautam cursed both Indra and Ahalya. Some reference says he cursed her to do Tapas to remove materialistic desires. Some says she was made into a stone. Vishwamitra tells this story and told them that she is waiting for someone. When Ram asked waiting for whose coming? Vishwamitra replied: “One who can uplift the fallen. All know how to judge, blame and punish someone but the redeemer of sin who raises the fallen is rare indeed. Touch of such a great soul’s feet redeem all sins”. Then Ram touched the stone with his feet and Ahalya got freed.

One may think that Ahalya did not know that it was not Gautam and she should not be blamed for that. However, Gautam muni understood it. Why he cursed Ahalya was because they were living an austere life there. Getting materialistic desires is considered as a setback in their spiritual sadhana. He asked Ahalya to do austere penance in rectitude so that she can come out of her desires. The symbolic meaning of this tale is quite deep.

Indra having adultery with her should not be taken in literal sense. Indra represents our five Indriya and Mind. Here adultery means mind and Indriya took control of Ahalya. When instead of your consciousness your mind runs you, materialistic desires can haunt you anytime. Once our spiritual power becomes weak, any novice sadhak feels the attraction of materialistic pleasures to be greater that spiritual joy. Sadhak gets carried away with it and it requires more sadhana to come back to same stage. Thus, Gautma muni advised her to do more sadhana and went for hermitage.

The symbolic story that she became a stone says that she took all the Indriyas inside her such that she became as inert as a stone. A materialistic mind always reacts. A stable mind watches. A Sthit-pragya Sadhak has all its Indriyas in control of oneself. One can then see how mind plays all the tricks in making you believe all that it wants. Ahalya was doing this sadhana for quite a long time. When Ram comes to meet her, she met them and realized that her penance is completed. She might have had some satsang with Vishwamitra and Ram-Lakshman. Ram was embodiment of love and wisdom. By the touch of him, Ahalya realized that she has become pure now. She then left to meet Gautam Muni.

Ram-Lakshman started for Mithilapuri along with Vishwamitra. Their fame had already reached there. People of Mithila were eager to see the princes who conquered demons and transformed Ahalya from a stone to a woman.

Jay Shri Ram !

[Continued...]

P.S: Watch episode 5 online.

Ramayana

Ramayana and Mahabharata are heart and soul of India. They are the two pillars of Indian culture. They both are written about Lord’s incarnation on earth. There might be few debates about them being only mythological and not real, but irrespective of that, they have affected people of India beyond any other book, incident, person or time.

I was one of those fortunate who had a chance to see these epics on television in my early childhood. I remember watching Shri Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayana when I was in 1st standard and B.R. Chopra’s Mahabharata when I was in 4th standard. Because of this early age, all I could remember of Ramayana was the war between Shri Ram and Ravan. The jazz sounds playing and colorful rays coming out of arrow as it tries to pierce the enemy. Every time one of the two arrows will make other disappear and the warrior whose arrow is gone will get shock of his life!! Joking apart, I was obviously not grown enough to get the main rasa of Ramayana – Bhakti rasa.

Before 2-3 months, I was just searching for Morari Bapu’s online Ram Charit Manas satsang and I suddenly thought: “what if I get Ramayana online”. I just searched on Google and found that!! I was happy beyond words. Next 6 weeks were Ramayana weeks for me. Everyday after 7 P.M I used to watch 2-3 episodes of Ramayana. And I tell you, it was one of my best experiences in life.

Generally, we have a feeling that Mahabharata serial was made better than Ramayana in terms of technicality, content, artists, dialogs, story etc. Ramanand Sagar’s serials lack pace – they are too slow, lack technical superiority – improper dubbing, indoor shootings, primitive graphics etc. However, we must understand that Ramayana was made 3-4 years ahead of Mahabharata and it was the first of its kind so there has to be some limitations. Ramanand Sagar was more of a devotee than a technical director. The lack of pace might actually be intense devotional and pure emotional moments which need more time to get proper justice. Ramayana is obviously based on poem Ramayana by Muni Valmiki but main source is taken from Tulsidasji’s Ram Charit Manas. Ramayana by Valimiki is a neutral person’s account about Shri Ram while Ram Charit Manas is a devotee’s account of his God.

I was also a bit worried about the content. But what I found was pure Joy. Ramayana starts with Tulsidasji writing Ram Charit Manas and then he shows different devotees who has written Ramayana in different religion languages. Then starts the real story. Baal-kand is presented most beautifully. It shows “Thumak Chalat Ramachandra” song which is eternally dear to all Ram Bhaktas. In as early as the 3rd episode when all four brothers are at Guru Vashishtha aashram, Guruji teaches them about meditation, Kundalini, seven spiritual centers, Yoga and Maya. I was literally mad with joy when I saw it. Here are few excerpts of that.

Shri Ram asks Guruji : “what is virtue and what is sin ?”
Guruji replies one of the most simplest but true answer: “To relieve pain of any being, to give happiness and Love, this is virtue and Dharma. And to cause pain to others is sin and against Dharma. Love is virtue and Hatred is sin.

Then Guruji talks about Soul. He says: “what is alive in us is Soul. All individual souls are like atoms of light flowing eternally on the stream of Time. In Truth, each individual soul on this infinite path journeys alone. Ram asks: “Where does it end”? Guruji says: “Soul’s salvation is the end. Man gets salvation when he is free of virtue and sin as both are binding chains. One is of iron and other is of gold. There is a symbolic scene of an energy point going into cluster of energy points and then again departs it, going to unknown.

Ram asks: “But he will act while he lives. The action may be sinful or virtuous. Then how shall he escape this bond of illusion?”

Guruji: “One has to act. But when action is devoid of desires for reward, then the being is freed from results of Karma.

Guru Vashishtha then shows them what is Real and what is Maya. He shows them that Atma is not bound to body and fruits of action and does an experiment with Ram. They both leave their “sthool sharir” and linger on “sukshma sharir”. Guruji says: “See, there is Vashisht who thinks he is a great seer, trying to dominate over his students with his learning. What he is doing is very noble. Still it can induce arrogance and ego. One should be very careful. In Real, we all are equal.

And did I mention the songs? They are just wonderful. Be it the new tune of “ya kundendutushar haar dhavala” or the lorry by Gurumaa while all children are missing their mothers. Mother’s tenderness and care is shown very effectively. There is also a music class song by Gurumaa and Shiva shtotra by students.

This episode was more of Jyana Yoga. But next few episodes are full of Bhakti rasa. I am planning to continue this Ramayana series with many more memorable incidents and divine ecstasy that I found while watching it.

On the eve of Rama-navami and Hanuman Jayanti, this is a humble service on Prabhu’s feet from a devotee of Shri Ram.

Jay Shri Ram !

P.S.: Watch Episode 3 on Google video.