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Back to Subjects - Religion

Mahabharata

Mahabharata The whole of the Ramayana is an Epic of humanity. Humanity does not mean mankind but that which particularly human nature. It is in this sense, Sri Rama is oftentimes called the paragon of humanity, an example of the perfection of human nature. This perfection is not inclusive of the foibles of man in his lower endowments. That majestic feature of bodily personality, the ideal perfection of physiological structure, the beauty of understanding, dignity of behavior, exemplary nature of conduct--to put it in one word 'perfection' as conceived or as conceivable by the human understanding--this is what comes forth as an answer from the great sage Narada. We have two Epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, just as in the West they have two Epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. These two parallel movements of Epic stories, known as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, give us a complete picture of the process of the advancement of the human soul towards its Perfection. It is not to be taken as a surprise that the culture of Bharatavarsha is a culture of the Spirit, "so that anything that is said and done or believed in, is directly or indirectly connected with the march of the Spirit to the recognition of its Perfection." We have no other culture here except the culture of the Spirit. A connecting of the visible phenomena with what underlies the phenomena is the significance of the Epics. And these two masterstrokes of genius given to us by Valmiki and Vyasa, in the form of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, give us the religion of India. In the Ramayana, there is such a contradictory picture of the personality of Rama, presented by Valmiki, where it is asked sometimes to look upon him as the perfected man and sometimes as a perfection of divinity itself manifest. There, for the first time, is a proclamation 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 in fact is unknown to Ravana and due to his ignorance, he has mistaken Rama for a human being. The contradiction that 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 has been played, 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. While Rama himself is thinking that he is only a man, Brahma speaks of Him as Narayana and wants Him to go back to His Abode, as His drama in this world is over. These interesting dramatic contradictions are brought into play by the genius of Valmiki, deliberately to fulfill the purpose of the Epic. Otherwise, there would be no meaning in the play itself. It was not at all given to Rama to proclaim himself as Narayana. That was not the purpose of the Avatara at all. Sometimes, we are told that the ten Avataras, incarnations of Visnu beginning from the incarnation as Fish, the Matsya Avatara; the incarnation as Tortoise, the Kurma Avatara; the incarnation as Boar, the Varaha Avatara and so on, represent the process of the evolution of the human consciousness to the perfection of its realization. From this point of view of understanding of human nature and its evolution, the stage, which was enacted by Rama, God in human form, was the ultimate step, which consciousness takes in its attempt at self-realization. He showed what human perfection is and how it becomes a stepping-stone to divine perfection. So what was the power of Rama? Why was he so powerful and forceful? We say that he was an incarnation of God, but why is God so powerful, while we are not? What is the difference? What makes these masters, heroes and incarnations centers of such energy, force and activity, while we are the contrary of it? The simple reason is that they are connected with the forces of the universe, while we are cut off from them. This is the difference between mortal men and divine incarnations that are immortal, eternal emblems moving on this earth. So, in these contemplations today, as on similar such occasions, we should recharge the cells of our personality by introducing a new light of divinity into ourselves. "Let not the day pass in waste, in idle talk or merely hearing a few words about Ramayana from someone. These celebrations are only indications for you, pointers to you, to help you to raise yourself up to a state higher than you were yesterday. If your days have not been spent without getting at least an iota of satisfaction or contentment that you have become a worthy child of God, in His eyes, you should consider your life as unworthily spent." Many people come to a point in there lives when they ask themselves "What am I in the eyes of God?" when their question should be "What does God think about me?". The moment you begin to know what God thinks about you, you will not speak afterwards for two reasons. One reason is that you would look so small and insignificant is that all your importance vanishes when you compare yourself in his light. The other reason is that you would feel lifted up into a state of joy that the time has come for you to realize your true duty as a human being, which is nothing but realization of God. The moment you begin to recognize your true status in this world, you become powerful, not because you own large wealth or you have a seat in the Parliament or in the cabinet, but because you have a seat in the constitution of the universe. When this seat is given to you, you become a member of the government of the cosmos. People do not raise hands to make you a member. Something else, mysterious and miraculous, takes place. Your cells become revitalized. They get charged with a power unknown totally unto this time. This power does not come from anywhere. You keep yourself open to the powers that 'are' and allow them to enter into you, while up to this time, you were preventing them from entering into you. What are we doing now? It is something like building a house with four walls without any ventilation and sitting inside in pitch darkness while the sun is shining outside in all its might and glory. The sun has come up wanting to enlighten the whole world with its luster and force. But we live in a dungeon covering ourselves with a blanket and closing our eyes so that the energy and the light of the sun may not have any effect on our personality. This is what we do in our relation to God and in our relationship with the forces of the universe. The forces of the world are just here, within this hall, wherever we are. They are not far away in the skies. You can keep yourself open to them or keep yourself shut to them. Thoughts which are directed to the body and to the center of the personality called the ego, prevent the entry of universal forces into our personality, so that the more important we look in our own eyes, the more impervious we are to the entry of the forces of the cosmos. The bigger we are in the world, the worse we are from the point of view of spiritual strength and knowledge. Because, this self-importance, self-assertion, Ahamkara, personality-consciousness, body-consciousness, social-consciousness and status-consciousness--all these put together act as psychological barriers which shut off the forces of the cosmos from entering into us. These forces are not absent. They are just here, and the moment we think in terms of them, they enter into us. When we think in terms of our own personality, they run away from us. So contemplation on the Masters and Incarnations and the recognition of the forces of divinities, which manifest as incarnations and sages are the ways in which a Sadhaka should observe Ramanavami, the day of God's incarnation or a celebration of a birthday of a superhuman Master. "Our birthright is to imbibe the grace of the Masters, to assume the contour and personality equal to theirs, to attain Sarupya or equality of personality with there, to become like them and to imbibe their characteristics by meditation on them." So the Epic of Ramayana is a long meditation on the superior manifestation of God in the form of Sri Ramachandra. Terror was Rama, thunderbolt was Rama--says Valmiki. "But butter was Rama, a rose petal was Rama, all compassion was Rama--says the same sage Valmiki. In anger, Rama was fierce like fire,--fire comparable only with the fire during the dissolution of the cosmos, and at the same time nobody could be so compassionate, good-hearted and simple as Rama himself was." This is the dramatic contradiction of personality, which Valmiki introduces into his Epic, to bring out the greatness of the divine personality. What are the characteristics of great men? They are harder than a diamond but softer than a lotus-petal. The great masters are harder than a diamond and, therefore, you cannot do anything to them and they will never budge from their principles. You cannot shake them by your powerful logic and argumentation. This is only one side of these great Masters. The other side is that no person can be so good, merciful and tenderhearted as they, which characteristics are revealed in proper time. Such is the mysterious combination, a terrific manifestation of divinity combined with most perfect humane characteristics and features that we see in Sri Rama. Honesty of conscience has a very important significance that we have to make note of. Many times we may look honest, but we are not really honest in the deepest core of our feelings. Then it upsets the whole structure of our endeavor in the life spiritual. Because, spiritual life is nothing but the life that we lead in the bottom of our being, and not the life that we live in our rooms or in our offices or colleges or factories. What our conscience speaks is our spiritual voice. And if our conscience is not honest and pure, well, you will see the sure outcome of it, an utter failure in the spiritual path. It is difficult to be true to one's conscience, because of the circumstances under which people generally live. The pressure of society, the needs of the body and the weaknesses of flesh are such that it is difficult to be true to one's conscience. It only means that it is difficult to live the spiritual life, to have divine characteristics imbibed into our personality, and to be a devotee of God; in short, it is difficult to realize God. For this purpose--the purpose of overcoming these unavoidable limitations of our personality--the remedy is to contemplate on the lives of saints. To be a man of God, is to be a fool in the eyes of the public. This seems to be a necessary outcome of turning one's face towards God. The greatest fortress of our pleasure is our own personality-consciousness, our egoism. We have many other pleasure-centers, no doubt; but the greatest among all of them is what we call dignity of personality, self-respect. This self-respect was unknown to great masters and saints. They respected God and so they were humiliated in the eyes of people, put down as 'no-ones' in the eyes of the world. What torture and what suffering they underwent--it is something terrifying, if you think over it. We have only to read the lives of a few saints of the past. While it is easy to think that we believe in God, it is really difficult to be true to ourselves. No one can love God, unless one is prepared to die, wholly and totally, to the so-called good, beautiful and pleasant in this world, to this body and to the ego. Bibliography: Bhattacharya, Pradip. Themes and Structure in the Mahabharata: a Study of the Adi Parva. Calcutta: Dasgupta and Co., 1989. Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. and Sister Nivedita. Myths of the Hidus and Buddhists. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1967. Krishnananda, Swami. The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad: an Interpretive Exposition. India: Divine Life Society, 1984. Pandharipande, Rajeshwari Vijay. The Eternal Self and the Cycle of Samsara: Introduction to Asian Mythology and Religion, Third Edition. Needham Heights, MA: Simon and Schuster Custom Publishing, 1996.

Word Count: 2085