Swami Tejomayananda

In its simplest form, the Ramayana is the story of a great noble prince who was an ideal son, brother, disciple, husband, and king. Generally we find someone may be an ideal husband but not an ideal son; another may be an ideal son but a monstrous husband or an uncaring father. To find someone ideal in all of his or her relationships, in all fields of activity, and full of noble virtues is nearly impossible. Yet in the Ramayana, Sri Rama, achieves what we consider the ‘near impossible’.

Sage Valmiki, wrote the Ramayana and presented Rama as the perfect person because society is always in need of an ideal. It is a fact that when people have a higher goal in their lives, they strive hard to improve and so bring out the best in themselves. But if the ideal is low and there is no higher goal to aspire to, one drifts along in life, carried away by the whims and fancies of the mind or the society around.

Some people believe that Sri Rama was not an actual living person and the Ramayana is therefore imaginary, not historical. Why do we think like this? Perhaps because we are rarely able to live up to even the simplest of noble principles and therefore conclude, that a life as perfect as His is not possible. But such a view is false. Sri Rama was a living person, and, in fact, even now lives in our hearts – everywhere. The Ramayana is not just a fictitious story or novel; it is true history. A mere novel would never have gained such great respect. It certainly would never have been worshipped and venerated as it is now.

Sri Rama was not only an ideal man. It is said that He was a form of the Lord Himself, who came to earth in the human embodiment – to teach us to live our lives correctly. Because Rama’s life was the embodiment of dharma, of righteousness, the Ramayana is also considered to be a dharma-sastra. Its method of teaching is different from sruti and smrti. These teach by way of commandments or injunctions – prabhu vakya; they state directly what we ought to do and what we ought not to do; what is right and what is wrong. But there is another way of teaching, called mitra vakya, which gives friendly advice on what conduct is best to practice and what to avoid. The Ramayana is considered to be mitra vakya (friendly advice).

Most of us, however, need more than just commandments or advice. We need demonstrations in practical life, and our question always is, ‘Has there ever been a person who has lived this life of perfection?’ We want to see him, not far off in the Himalayas somewhere but right here in front of us, where we are now, through all the ups and downs of life!

Through a careful study of the Ramayana we discover how to perform our day-to-day duties and also deal with the greater conflicts in life. Consider, for example, how one day Sri Rama is told that He will be crowned king and the very next morning He is told that He must be exiled to the forest for fourteen years. The whole population of Ayodhya, including King Dasharatha, begged him to stay. Despite the many other arguments against His going, Rama left, knowing it was His dharma to fulfill the boon his father had promised Kaikeyi.

These are subtle ways by which we must determine our dharma. It is often difficult for people to determine dharma because, as it is said, ‘the mystery or the secret of dharma is hidden.’ The great importance of the Ramayana, is that it teaches us to observe situations and come to the right decision.