raamaayaNa

General Introduction: raamaayaNa and mahaabhaarata, the two great epics, have captivated the hearts of the people of India for thousands of years. There is no aspect of life which is not influenced by these epics - religion, social values, literature, arts, crafts, music, dance, drama, painting, sculpture, temple motifs, whatever. raama, kRSNa, and other characters in these epics live in the minds of people all the time. There is no place that does not have an affectionate bond with the immaculate heroes in these epics - this rock contains the foot print of raama, that mountain split into two unable to bear the weight of hanumaan, the water of this rivulet is coloured since siita washed her clothes here or kRSNa played with his friends here. raama and kRSNa are the very avataara-s (incarnations) of Lord viSNu - they always live in the hearts of the people.

raamaayaNa and mahaabhaarata are considered to be itihaasa (literally "verily did it exist thus"), that is history. These are not mere stories or imaginations. Modern scholars also accept that at least the characters must have really existed and the core parts of these epics must have actually happened. There are simply too many connections to things we can see today, to rule out the whole thing as mere fiction.

There is something in raamaayaNa for everybody - there are stories for children, there is literary grace and beauty for the rasika-s, there are morals and guidance for our everyday issues and problems, there is deeply philosophical insights and values for the seekers of knowledge. We find all kinds of characters here, both worldly and divine. raama was the very embodiment of dharma (righteousness). The constant struggle between the good and the bad, the right and the wrong, keep pulling us into the right direction, away from the path of the bad. raamaayaNa is part and parcel of our daily life.

raamaayaNa gives us an ideal man who stood for satya (truth) and dharma (righteousness), come what may. It has given us an ideal woman, the paragon of feminine grace and virtues. It has given us an ideal family system where everyone thought of the welfare of the others first. It has given us ideal brothers, ideal friends, ideal servants, ideal devotees. It has given us the definition of an ideal state and an ideal king. It has placed before us enough ideas and ideals to inspire us and to raise us from the level of ordinary mortals to divine heights. Our society has not only survived incessant attack from all quarters but also thrived and flourished because the people hear, sing, read, pray raamaayaNa and cherish the values it contains as a matter of daily life. It is more important today than at any other point of time in the past, to keep up our value systems by ensuring that the children and youth of today do not alienate themselves from these traditions in their eagerness to adapt the more fanciful western concepts of standards of living. Life is not measured in terms of GDP or purchasing power or the share market indices. Life is measured in terms of human values. Success is measured not in terms of how many Millions or Billions you make but in terms of how humane your are. Plenitude is not signalled by the size of your house but by the size of your heart. Power is not indicated by the weapons of mass destruction and how many people you can kill at the press of a button. Power comes from knowledge, knowledge that God has neither created your country nor mine. That all are equal in the eyes of God. That there can be only one God. That there cannot be a higher God or a lower God. That there cannot be anybody superior to you or inferior. That cheating others is the same as cheating yourself. What is required is not smartness to overtake your competitors. What is required is compassion to take everybody along. Power is not measured by what you have. Power is measured in terms of what you can give. Give up false values. Read raamaayaNa. Think of it. Ponder. Contemplate. Meditate. Until the truth dawns.

raamaayaNa is written is simple Sanskrit. You must read the original. You can read it, you can understand it.

paaraayaNa: raamaayaNa is a big book and not something you can read in a few hours. It requires many days of effort. paaraayaNa means a planned, regular daily reading aloud of the book in parts, usually along with lectures explaining the meaning to the other listeners, until the whole book is completed. This is considered to be a sacred activity performed along with ritualistic worship etc. raamanavami (birth day celebrations of raama, around March) and navaraatri (during the dasaraa festival and durgaa puuja, around September-October) are considered especially holy for raamaayaNa paaraayaNa.

Date and Authorship: The occidental historian is pre-occupied with dry statistics such as date, time, or location. He is carried away by the discovery of a piece of pottery or a coin or a stone implement and gets busy trying to prove or disprove if something 'really' happened and if yes where and when. This is what he thinks is history. The Indian mind does not think this kind of history has much value. So what, we ask. What is important, on the other hand, is the effect a thing of the past has had on the minds of the people, the effect on the life-style of people and the values that the society cherishes. raama is the very breath of millions of people even today - we greet one another not with a hollow 'good morning' but with a sincere 'jay raam-jii-ki' (victory/glory to raama). History is a thing of the past whose effect is seen today. raamaayaNa is surely history in this sense. Dry facts do not enthuse us so much. That is why most students do not like history as it is taught in schools today.

The western scholar thinks that time is linear. If it is linear, it must have a beginning and an end. Do you know anything about when time began and when time will end? What happened before time began and what happens after time ends? Or is it infinite? The Indian mind understands time as cyclic. We speak of yuga-s (epochs), manvaMtara-s (total or near total extinction and re-start of life on earth) and cycles of creation and destruction. The manifest world today is under constant change and is thus unstable. At some point of time or the other, it must come to a stable state, which is termed destruction. In this state it may lie for unlimited amount of time. When it starts becoming unstable again, a cycle of creation starts. The western mind is constrained by the self-imposed restrictions of linear time and a concept of history defined in terms of dry facts, and tends to conclude that raamaayaNa is merely a piece of literature, mythology, coming out of the imagination of a poet and is 'unreal'. For the western mind, joys and sorrows, agony and ecstasy, pains and pleasures are not real, mud and stone, and all the dead matter of the world is 'real'. What we experience in our minds is real. Indians live in their own internal world, the world within ourselves. The western mind thinks that we live in a world that is external to us. We value live feelings and aspirations, not dead material. The lessons we learn from raamaayaNa are far more significant than the dry facts of history.

Not that Indians never paid any attention to dates, times and locations. There is enough astronomical data in raamaayaNa to fix dates according to the Gregorian calendar. According to N Mahalingam, we can fix the important dates in raamaayaNa as follows:

Modern scholars, like journalists, are all the time on the look out for sensational discoveries. In fact they cannot justify their existence if they say the same thing as what others have said in the past. There is always an urge to say something new, claim something different, preferably in line with one's own likings. There is no dearth of such misplaced theories. Some claim that raama is the same as the Pharaoh of Egypt. Others link raamaayaNa to das'ratha jaataka of the Buddhists. Western scholars would be happier to place raamaayaNa around 400-200 BC. It is best to simply ignore such claims.

maharSi vaalmiiki, the celebrate author of this great work, considered to be the first poem ever composed, was a contemporary and appears as one of the personages in the story. raama first visits sage vaalmiiki's aas'rama after leaving ayoodhyaa. When raama banished siita, it was vaalmiiki who gave her shelter and brought up and educated her twin sons, who later sang raamaayaNa in the court of raama himself. Indians never considered their name and fame to be more important than their service to God and humanity and like in most other cases, vaalmiiki has given very little information about himself. vaalmiiki was the son of sage praceetas (sometimes identified with varuNa), a braahmaNa of the bhaargava gootra. He was brought up by a family of robbers as fate would have it. His contact with the great RSi-s like naarada (and the saptaRSi-s) changed his life. He sat in tapas for so long that a valmiika (anthill) had grown all around him. Hence the name vaalmiiki. He attained the supreme state of a maharSi (great sage) by japa of the raamanaama.

Origins: The origins of raamaayaNa appear in the beginning of the epic itself. vaalmiiki asks naarada who visits him whether there is any person who has all the great qualities that makes a man perfect. naarada says it is indeed difficult to find such a person and then goes on to narrate briefly the story of raama, the very embodiment of all great qualities and perfection. Immersed in the contemplation of the story of raama, vaalmiiki walks towards the tamasaa river, where he encounters a hunter who just then kills one of the two birds in love. Moved by the piteous wailing of the distressed surviving female bird, vaalmiiki spontaneously utters a curse. Strangely, the curse comes out as a perfectly metrical composition, considered to be the first metrical composition by man on earth. When he returns to his hermitage, brahma the creator appears and commands him to compose an epic poem on the story of raama. brahma also grants a boon that the whole story of raama in all its glory and all its secrets would automatically reveal themselves. Accordingly, vaalmiiki composes the first epic and names it raamaayaNa (the way, the conduct, or the life-story of raama). vaalmiiki later teaches raamaayaNa to lava and kus'a, the twin sons of raama and siita, and through them it got currency and acclamation. raamaayaNa has lived in the hearts and minds of millions of people through the ages, and continues to do so even after more than 6000 years. Need we say more? If there is one book that every human being born in this world must read, it is vaalmiiki raamaayaNa.

Structure: vaalmiiki raamaayaNa contains 24,253 s'looka-s or verses, divided into 7 kaaMDa-s or books. Each kaaMDa is subdivided into sarga-s or chapters. There are a total of 647 sarga-s. The work is almost entirely in the anuSTup chaMdas, the metre in which vaalmiikii's curse to the hunter came out spontaneously. However, a few bigger metres like iMdravajra and upeeMdravajra have also been employed.

Three paaTha-s or recensions have been discovered so far. They are the daakSiNaatya (southern), gauDiiya (Bengali) and vaayavya (north-western) recensions.

There is a possibility that some parts of the extant text are prakSipta (not original, interpolated by later writers). There is no complete agreement among different scholars as to which parts are original and which are prakSipta. It is unlikely that the whole of uttara-kaaMDa is prakSipta as some believe.

Commentaries in Sanskrit: Most of these have been printed.

1. tilaka or raamaabhiraami by naagooji bhaTTa


2. s'iroomaNi by s'ivasahaaya


3. bhuuSaNa by gooviMdaraaja


4. tattvadiipa by maahees'vara tiirtha


5. raamaanujiiyavyaakhyaa by kandaala raamaanuja


6. viveekatilaka by varadaraaja


7. dharmakuuTavyaakhyaa by tryaMbakaraaja


8. raamaayaNakuuTavyaakhyaa by raamaanaMda tiirtha

The Story in Brief:

1. baalakaaMDa:


2. ayoodhyaakaaMDa:


3. araNyakaaMDa:


4. kiSkiMdhaakaaMDa:


5. suMdarakaaMDa:


6. yuddhakaaMDa:


7. uttrakaaMDa:

Characters:

1. raama:


2. lakSmaNa:


3. bharata:


4. das'aratha:


5. sugriiva:


6. hanumaan:


7. vibhiiSaNa:


8. raavaNa:


9. kumbhakarNa:


10. vaali:


11. siitaa:


12. kausalyaa:


13. sumitraa:


14. kaikeeyii:


15. s'abarii:


16. taaraa:


17. maMDoodarii:

Literary Grace: Religious tradition treats raamaayaNa as a smRti, a secondary scripture next only to the veeda-s. At the same time, vaalmiiki is the aadi-kavi, the patriarch of poets and raamaayaNa is the aadi-kaavya, the primeval classic. The work truely deserves this epithet and has been a model for later poets. vaalmiiki's genius lies in his masterly use of apt similes and metaphors, whether it is in the context of human sentiments like love and attachment, hatred and detestation, valour and fearlessness, or in the context of beauty of nature as in the descriptions of the seasons or even in the context of comical featuring of grotesque figures. raamaayaNa has to be read in its original form for its beauty and grace to be enjoyed.

Civilization and Culture: Civilization is all about making our day to day life easy and more comfortable. This is exactly what agriculture, industrial revolution and now communication and information revolution is giving us. We are now in a highly developed world, as compared to the past. But living is not merely living, there is more to it than that. Civilization is not necessarily all good and no bad. Many of our problems today are because of our recent advancements - pollution, for example. Our civilization is the problem, instead of the solution. At times we even wonder whether it has really simplified life and given us more comforts or actually made our lives more difficult and painful. It was argued during the times of the industrial revolution, that since machines can do the work of hundreds of men, men will have to work less, there will be more leisure, and people can spend more time on higher goals of life including sports, art and culture. People used to work 8 hours a day. Now they work 18 hours a day. Just to earn their livelihood - for a meager hand-to-mouth existence. Is this what we call progress, development, advancement? The countries in the so called developed world are in fact the most backward and under-developed. It is not the height of the sky-scraper, or the speed of the bullet train that defines the level of development and advancement. It is the vastness of the hearts of the people inside that defines human advancement. The poorest of the people, illiterate as they are, living in the most humble huts and mud houses, can be and many times are in fact, far more advanced, civilized and cultured than the rich and powerful uneducated graduates of the developed world.

In contrast, culture is all about the higher goals of life. It is about art and literature, music and dance, beauty of nature and man, joy and bliss. It takes a more holistic view of life and lays stress on moral and ethical values. Culture elevates man from the level of a brute to higher, more sublime, even divine levels. Culture can in fact tone down the evil side effects of civilization.

The Tale of Three Cities: raamaayaNa provides us three different scenes, one in ayoodhyaa, one in laMkaa and the last one is kiSkiMdhaa. ayoodhyaa, both under the rule of das'aratha and later under raama, provides an example of a highly advanced and cultured society where everybody lived a happy, peaceful and contended life. There was no misery, no suffering. Are these not the basis for measuring the level of advancement of a society? satya (truth) and dharma (righteousness) formed the edifice on which governance rested. (Is there a government in the world today which can proclaim without hesitation that it always speaks the truth, come what may? Today we live in a world of hypocrites.) The kings were assisted and advised by ministers and advisers who were luminaries, sages, RSi-s, enlightened souls of great knowledge and wisdom. Righteousness could not be compromised at any cost, not even in war. You could not use a weapon if the enemy does it not have it or has lost it. You could not use stealth, war at night was prohibited. A fleeing or surrendered enemy could not be attacked and in fact had to be respected, protected and treated well. You could only fight with equals, and on an equal footing. (Where is dharma today? The most powerful countries in the world kill the most helpless, harmless, innocent people for no fault of theirs.) ayoodhyaa was a better planned and more beautiful city than any city we have today in the world. The roads were well laid out, broad and kept sparkling clean - they used to wash the roads with water! There were elegantly decorated palatial seven-storey buildings. The fort was strong and strategically designed. Food security, water security, physical security, were all taken good care of. The soldiers were well trained, highly motivated and always in combat readiness to guard the city and its people. They had advanced weapons, with and without built-in intelligence (called astra-s and s'astra-s respectively). There are two places in raamaayaNa where aeroplanes have been used to fly. People stuck to their professions. Everybody tried to achieve perfection in his own profession, respecting the varNa system. Religious activities went on unhindered. Knowledge and wisdom were respected. das'aratha sent his own son to forest for 14 years, in order to keep his word. That is what truth means. siita and lakSmaNa followed on their own accord, siita because is befits a true wife to share the joys and sorrows of life with her husband, and lakSmaNa because he respected his elder brother so much that he did not think of doing anything else in life on his own, other than being on the side of raama all through his life. bharata refused the kingship, wanted his elder brother raama to come back and rule, and when that was turned down, stayed away from the palace in great austerity and ruled under the name of raama, symbolizing this by keeping raama's sandals on the golden throne. vasiSTha, the adviser sage, kept an ever watchful eye in protecting the kingdom and its subjects at all times. Can we find even toy versions of these great real characters anywhere today? What do we mean by civilization, advancement, development, progress?

kiSkiMdhaa was also a well designed, spacious and beautiful city, provided with all the necessities for a comfortable life. The descriptions given point to an advanced civilization. It was probably situated within a mountain range, the passage to which was through a cave. vaalmiiki has described the citizens of kiSkiMdhaa as vaanara-s throughout. The term nara means man and the term vaanara means 'or perhaps a human being?' (vaa-nara). The term vaanara is literally interpreted as monkey or ape. Since the vaanara-s spoke human language and were like human beings in all respects, this usage must be understood symbolically, not literally. It is likely that the vaanara-s were darker, had prominent lower jaws like the apes, and had facial features closer to apes or monkeys. People in certain parts of south India are somewhat darker have somewhat different facial features compared to people from the northern belts of India even today. They were accustomed to live in forests, mountain ranges and banks of rivers. They were very strong and they used their teeth and nails as weapons. They used stones and branches of trees as weapons of war. They were experts in wrestling but were not aware of use of artificial weapons. They wore yajnyoopaviita (sacred thread) performed saMdhyaa ritual but rules of marriage and man-woman relationship were not governed by higher ethical codes. Drinking was common, even among women. It appears that they were somewhat less civilized and advanced as compared to ayoodhyaa.

laMkaa was a very rich and prosperous city, a city of dazzling splendour. The city abound in palaces and huge bungalows and beautiful gardens. But all the riches came from looting, robbery, booty plundered in wars. raavaNa was the king. The citizens were titans, giants in size, fierce in looks and ruthless in behaviour. Drinking and cannibalism were common. Enjoyment of sensual pleasures was the main concern of the people. Even the braahmaNa-s were devoted to magical rites and sorcerous rituals, instead of pursuit of truth and knowledge. Temples were mostly dedicated to certain fierce deities like bhadrakaalii. raavaNa and his son iMdrajit used to worship nikumbhilaa to acquire supernatural powers. They were experts in maayaayuddha (stealth warfare, using illusions to deceive enemies, not considered dharma-yuddha.) (What else is war today if it is not stealth and deception? Today can we think of a dharma-yuddha, a righteous battle?)

Don't these descriptions remind you of our world today, its countries and governments, its cities and its people? We have lessons to learn. Let us see what this tale of three cities tells us. laMkaa was rich and prosperous, ruled by raavaNa, a man of great learning. He could practice severe tapas (austerities). But his inordinate concupiscence and utter selfishness ruined him, destroyed his kingdom and practically decimated the subjects. A case of money and power without virtue, without dharma. If vibhiiSaNa, the lone crusader for dharma, had not joined raama, the very embodiment of dharma itself, he could not have saved even the little that was left over in laMkaa. dharma is that which sustains the world (dhaarayate iti dharmaH). Where there is no dharma, there is no hope of survival. Even if the government, the people in power, the people who take decisions, the people who impose and rule, are bad, there is hope if the individual subjects take to the path of dharma. kiSkiMdhaa would have met with the same fate, had not sugriiva surrendered to raama and took the side of dharma. However feeble his sense of dharma was, taking the right side is good enough. sugriiva-s devotion to raama was sufficient to save his kingdom from disaster. ayoodhyaa, in contrast, was ruled by dharma, and rose to glorious heights. Even after several thousands of years, devotees long to visit this sacred city and call back into their minds the perfection that had been attained here in every possible sense of the term. Wealth and power cannot save either an individual or a nation. Only satya and dharma can save. dharma protects those who protect dharma (dharmoo rakSati rakSitaH).

raamaraajya - The Ideal State: raamaraajya (raama's rule) is synonymous with the concept of an ideal sate, ideal king, ideal kingdom. raamaayaNa provides us with a definitive description of such an ideal state at three places - in the description of das'aratha's rule, in the questions that raama poses to bharata at citrakuuTa to find out how he was ruling at ayoodhyaa and in the graphic description of raama's own rule.

A kingdom, a state is as good as its ruler. The citizens are always observing the king and unconsciously tend to follow his path - yathaa raajaa tathaa prajaaH (as is the king, so are the subjects). The king (or the President, Premier, Prime Minister, or whatever) should be an ideal person deeply devoted to the practice of satya and dharma in his personal and social life. That means he must first of all be well educated and trained in truthfulness and righteousness. Diplomacy is an euphemism for falsehood, for lies. Speaking the truth is not as easy as it may appear. das'aratha had to send his own beloved son raama to forest to keep his word. In another famous story, king haris'caMdra had to sell his son, his wife and even himself to safeguard truth. In mahaabhaarata the grandsire bhiiSma, a wise man he was, had to renounce the kingdom and take the side of the kaurava-s, adharmi's as they were, to safeguard his word. Speaking truth requires great guts, an extremely strong mind, an uncompromising attitude, willingness to sacrifice everything else in life. Who can speak truth today? We live in a world of compromises. We diplomatically tell lies, we swindle and cheat in the name of business, we tell blatant lies in the name of marketing and advertisement, we somehow manage, by hook or by crook. Who can stand erect and proclaim honesty today? Even a causal utterance of a great man is like an engraving in stone, it stands the test of time. When it comes to ordinary (or under-ordinary) people, even those promises made under a vow, are like writing on water, it is erased even as you write!

However knowledgeable and competent a king may be, he cannot be an expert in every subject. A ruler needs to have a set of advisers. A king must have a small set of truely knowledgeable and competent advisers. The advisers must understand that their purpose is always to advise the king on the path of satya and dharma, they must advise keeping the welfare of the kingdom and its subjects. That means they must be as knowledgeable and competent in satya and dharma as the king himself. It also implies that the advisers are absolutely unselfish. We are seeing today the fate of countries where the rulers are advised by incompetent and selfish advisers. Governments have become mammoth in size, too many ministers, too many government staff. All the money that the poor tax payer pays through his nose are used up by the government staff themselves for meeting their own luxuries and extravaganzas. So much of money is spent but there is no money for any real requirement, for the welfare of the citizens.

People must be well trained for the particular professions they undertake. People must be selected for jobs based on capacity and temperaments. People of all kinds, all professions, must be respected and taken good care of. Salaries and compensation must be adequate and appropriate. The aim of the king is to ensure that the income of the people is in excess of their expenditure. It is not enough if a few are rich and comfortable. Each and every individual citizen must be happy and contented. Poverty is not an acceptable state of affairs. Today even in the developed world, people suffer and die for want of bare necessities of life. Millions are dieing out of hunger in the world today. Millions are becoming blind due to malnutrition. Infants are dieing in millions for want of basic health care. What do we mean by advancement, development and progress? We claim great advancement in science and technology but the burning problems continue to be safe drinking water, proper food, minimal health-care, a value based education system. Actually it does not take a lot of money to provide for the basic necessities of life. Every country, every government can afford to provide for a descent life. The problem is not with money and resources. The problem is because satya and dharma have been thrown to the wind. Knowledge has been traded for ignorance. People think the aim of life is to make money and money can solve all our problems. When you are at the death bed, a glass of drinking water may save you, not one Billion dollars.

It is also the duty of the government to administer justice. People who commit acts of blame must be punished. It is equally important that people who perform commendable acts must be rewarded. Today's courts of justice have become a one-sided coin. This will not work. Rewards and punishments must be commensurate with the good deeds or crimes committed. Justice delayed is justice denied. Today there are tens of thousands of cases pending in the courts of law. The affected persons will be dead long before the courts wake up to the case. Criminals go scot-free. Many governments encourage and foster criminals for their own sake. (And these same criminals come back one day an kill their god-fathers!) Today it is the greed of the few, in the name of market economy, that rules the world. The economic systems have been made so indirect and complicated, often the poor individual who is cheated day in and day out, does even know whom to blame. There is no accountability. Individual persons, not abstract, faceless entities called governments, can be held accountable and answerable. Big and powerful establishments including banks, airlines, educational institutions, police, telephone companies, deceive and even blatantly cheat customers who are absolutely helpless. Unless individuals can directly approach the king (or any single, individual designated authority) and hope for immediate redressal of all grievances, true justice and rule of law will remain meaningless terms in the dictionary. And only a truely great man can administer justice without favour or fear, fairly but firmly.

People who are devoted, who have faith, who want to follow the mode of life prescribed in the holy scriptures, who have knowledge, who know how best to put that knowledge for the benefit of mankind, who live for the welfare of the world and not for themselves, must not only be allowed to do what they want to do but must also be protected and supported at all costs. The varNa and aas'rama system must be protected. Throughout the history of Indian thought, the importance and the correct meaning of varNa and aas'rama dharma, as also the fall outs of not following them, have been stressed time and again. Now that the world has misunderstood and largely abandoned these fundamental aspects of balance in society, we are undergoing untold suffering and misery, and the predictions of our ancient seers have come true with astonishing accuracy. Today we ask a physically weak man to take up strenuous jobs and a man of knowledge and wisdom to do purely manual labour. We teach nuclear physics to a person who is very good in physics or mathematics but we do not see what he wants to do with that knowledge. We give too much of importance to the science and technology of making bombs and too little to the questions of where or how it should be or should not be used and why. We push knowledge down the throat of those who do not have the ability to put that knowledge to the right use, for the benefit of the society at large. And then we worry about bombs going into the wrong hands! How foolish! eekalavya became a better archer than arjuna because he had the nobler purpose of protecting harmless animals in his forest than arjuna who was only after name and fame. We have forgotten the importance of aim, goal and purpose and we are fancying with the trivial details of the physical world.

In raama raajya, all people lived happily in perfect peace and harmony. There was no suffering. People lived to a ripe-old age without diseases or ill-health. There was no fear of anything, thieves and robbers or wild animals and poisonous reptiles. All were devoted to dharma and led a contented and peaceful life sans greed and sans violence. They could always see the example of raama to know the right path in all circumstances in life. Even nature was gracious and granted timely rains. The earth was fertile and gave good crops. Everything was ideal and perfect. raamaraajya shows that such an ideal, perfect state of affairs is not only a hypothetical imagination but something which is very much practical and achievable.

We can go back to raamaraajya even today, if only we are ready to tread the path of satya and dharma. How many of you are willing to throw poison on the face of your mother, stamp on her, dig into her body, let city refuse and garbage flow all over her body? This is exactly what we are all doing to mother earth. We are adding poison to mother earth everyday in the form of pesticides, insecticides, cleaning agents, industrial chemicals, automobile exhaust, cosmetics and drugs. The balance of nature stabilized over millions of years has been spoiled in the last couple of hundred of years. We have tsunami, storms, blisters, tornadoes, typhoons, earthquakes, avalanches, land-slides, killing us and inflicting untold misery and suffering on millions of people. We claim we are the people of the scientific age. We have done the experiments and we are observing the results. But we are unable to understand the connection. If we have difficulty in linking up experiments with results, if we are unable to provide a convincing explanation, that does not mean that the experiments and observations themselves are unscientific and not worthy of being taken seriously. We might not have understood the link but that there is a link is more than obvious. Is it not wise to take some corrective action before it is too late? Stop poisoning mother earth, stop or drastically reduce the use of chemicals and plastics. Nature will honour your wisdom for sure. Stop telling lies. Stop cheating people. Stop going after money. Forget business, economy, market, management and think of truth, honesty, sincerity, kindness, righteousness. And God will surely reward you. raamaayaNa is the proof.

raamaayaNa Literature: The influence of vaalmiiki raamaayaNa has been so deep and profound that it has induced other writers to write their own raamaayaNa-s. Some of the well known ones are:

1. aadhyaatma raamaayaNa (Sanskrit): 4200 verses. Part of brahmaaMDa puraaNa. Some consider it to be an independent work of the 14th Century AD. Cast in the form of a dialogue between s'iva and paarvati. Highly devotional. Abounds in beautify hymns. Contains highly philosophical discourses including the well known raamagiitaa.


2. manoohara aanaMda raamaayaNa (Sanskrit): 12,000 verses. Must be of the 14th Century AD or later. Cast in the form of a dialogue, first between s'iva and paarvati and then between raamadaasa and his disciple viSNudaasa. Contains many stories that have become popular, like the story of gookarNa, a pilgrimage centre in Karnataka and the story of ahiraavaNa and mahiraavaNa,the rakSasa brothers of the nether world who tried to help raavaNa.


3. adbhuta raamaayaNa (Sanskrit): 1355 verses.


4. yoogavaasiSTha raamaayaNa (Sanskrit): 32,000 verses


5. tattvasaMgraha raamaayaNa (Sanskrit):


6. saMgraha raamaayaNa (Sanskrit):


7. raamacarita maanasa (Avadhi, a dialect of Hindi): By tuLasidaas.


8. kaMba raamaayaNa (Tamil): By kaMba.


9. torave raamaayaNa (Kannada): By narahari


10. raMganaatha raamaayaNa (Telugu):


11. ceeramaan raamacaritaM (Malayalam): By ceeramaan.


12. kannassa raamaayaNaM (Malayalam): By kannassa.


13. saptakaaMDa raamaayaNa (Oriya): By Sarala Das


14. raamaavataar (Punjabi): By Guru Gobind Singh


15. raamacaritra (Gujarati): By Giridhar.


16. kRttivaasa raamaayaNa (Bengali): By kRttivaasa.


17. raamaayaNa (Assamese): By maadhava kandali

Some puraaNa-s include the story of raamaayaNa. Some minor upaniSat-s like raamapuurvataapaniiya, raamoottarataapaniiya and raamarahasya treat raama as paramapuruSa, the Supreme Person himself. There are also a large number of literary works in Sanskrit and other Indian languages based on the theme of raamaayaNa.

raamaayaNa Outside India: The story of raama, either in its original form as depicted by vaalmiiki or in some metamorphosed form, has travelled far and wide, including Tibet, Eastern Turkestan, Japan, Mongolia etc. A few of these works, by no meas exhaustive, is given below:

1. raamaayaNa kakawin (Javanese):


2. hikayat seri raama (Malaysian):


3. raamakien (Thai):


4. pha lak pha lam (Laos):


5. khvay thuaraphi (Laos):


6. hobutsushu (Japanese):


7. raamaas'vameedha (Nepali):


8. jaanakiiharaNa (Sinhalese):