Adi Kavi Balmiki tells us that Ram ascended to His abode along with almost all those who followed Him. That was an incident which happened eons ago.
The fact is that one who went away as Raja Ram from the banks of the river Saryu was only the mortal fabric that Lord Vishnu had adorned to sort out the tumultuous affairs of our harried world. The core of the Maryada Purshottam abides with us for all the time to come.Part the curtain of your everydayness, and you will find yourself standing face-to-face with Him. He will prompt you to stand up to what is socially abominable and perform your duty even at the cost of your personal interests.
God or man?
Both the Ramayan of Maharishi Balmiki and the Ramcharitmanas of Sant Tulsidas sing of Ram as God who walked on Earth, yet the two epics vary in their approach to the legend. Balmiki presents Ram as the Deity turned man, while Tulsidas of the Bhakti era eulogizes Ram as the Deity simulating man. In other words, Balmiki’s Ram seems nearer to us thanTulsidas’ Shri Ram, whose deeds are sometimes beyond the ken of ordinary mortals.
Even so, why did Bhagwan Vishnu descend at all to this mired Earth? To rid the mortal world of Ravan and his legion of bullies? Yes. But Tulsidas presents a chain of causes that led to the Deity’s descent. There is that farcical tale about Narad Muni. The sage was on an ego trip, having defeated Indra’s machinations to deviate him from the single-minded devotion to Vishnu. Vishnu sensed Narad’s aberration and decided to disabuse his bhaktaof arrogance. For that purpose, the Lord created an elaborate ploycentred around a bewitching young princess. Old Narad forgot all about his chastity and was desperate to marry her. But at the swayamvara, the befuddled sage got onlyscornful looks from the maiden, who, to add insult to injury, went on to marry Vishnu himself. She was not to be blamed. Vishnu had given Narad the face of a monkey! Enraged at his humiliation, Narad placed a curse on his idol, Vishnu: He would have to take the form of a mortal man and suffer the ignominy of the loss of the woman He desired in the same manner as he, Narad, had been made to suffer. The Lord, in His magnanimity, readily accepted his devotee’s curse, and in due course appeared on Earth as Ram.
God yields to His devotee
The Narad story reflects the Sanatana view of the Divine Scheme. Paramatma is a caring father to us all. He keeps in check our fallibilities and even of His own. If the sage Narad became overly proud of his celibacy, Vishnu left him aping an ordinary man lusting after a beautiful woman. But in doing that, He went too far in creating the delusion and then willingly faced the dire consequences of Narad’s anger. The path of rectitude is razor-sharp: if you fall,you fall. God or a mortal, it does not matter. It is the unfailing rectitude-call it maryada-of the Vishnu-incarnate Ram that makes Him the Maryada Purshottam.
So,Ram appeared on Earth as perfection personified. His looks put Kamdev to shame, and his strength outmatched the greatest warriors of his time. At Guru Vashisht’s feet he thoroughly mastered the art of war and the craft of peace, as befitted a future ruler of the flourishing kingdom of Kaushala. He paid the same reverence to queens Sumitra and Kaikeyi as he did his own mother, Kaushalya; they in turn cherished him as their eldest son. For Raja Dashrath, he was a divine gift. The aging king won’t willingly let him go out of sight even for a moment. The siblings Lakshman, Bharat and Shatrughan put him above themselves. The commoners in Ayodhya rallied to him to a man. Their bonding with him was so intense that when Ram was on his way to the exile, they followed him to the city’s limits with the intention of living with him in the jungle. Ram had to stealthily wend his way to escape their notice. But, in the ultimate hour, when he was leaving the mortal world, Ram did not have the heart to send away his loving subjects in dejection. He took them along to his Saket lok.
A man born to fight
Ram was born to fight. He was merely a boy playing in the palace grounds with his siblings when Guru Vashisht literally plucked him along with Lakshman off the family bosom to fight rakshasas who defiled the sanctity of the ashramas of reclusive sages. The brothers acquitted themselves superbly well in the job, ridding the sacred land of the rakshasas menace. Ram and Lakshman showed their mettle once again in Dandkaranya when, incited by Shoorpnakha, Khar and Dooshan invaded Ram’s ashram with a massive force of rakshasas. Ram killed both of the rakshasa chiefs and annihilated their army. In the major Lanka war, Ram nullified all the gambits of Ravan and achieved a decisive victory on killing him.
What is remarkable in Ram’s exploits is that although he was an incarnation of Vishnu, he never used his divine powers to achieve personal objectives throughout his life on Earth. His father, Raja Dashrath, died of grief on having to send him to exile. But Ram preferred to abide by his duty as an obedient son rather than offer a false palliative to his aging parent. Sita was abducted, and it took Ram months to know where she was, not without the active support of Hanuman and Sugriv’s massive Vanar Sena. But that was the least of the issues. Between him and Ravan’s Lanka existed the Indian Ocean. Ram vainly tried for all of three days to appease the sagar to give way. But why would the ocean concede to such a demand? Finally, it fell to Nal and Neel, engineers in Sugriv’s army, to construct a bridge for the Vanar Sena to go across to the other shore. Ram landed in the battle field of Lanka. Arrayed there were the grand armies of rakshasas and the vanars of Raja Sugriv. Ravan, awesome in his battle dress, rode a resplendent chariot. Ram stood before him with his bow and a quiverful of arrows.Barefoot! Thatwas a sight which put devatas to shame. Lord Indra sent down his own chariot and the charioteer, Matali, for Ram to face his powerful adversary. In the duel between Ram and Ravan, Ram seemed clueless about the seeming invincibility of his foe. Ravan’s heads and arms were spontaneously regenerated as soon as Ram’s arrows severed them from his torso. It was Vibhishan who disclosed to Ram the secret of amrit that lay in Ravan’s belly. Ram dried up the source of Ravan’s resurgence, shooting 31 arrows from his powerful bow – one for his belly, twenty for his arms and ten for his heads. The monster was killed at last. The war ended. The battlefield was covered with the bodies of slain rakshasas and vanaras alike. Ram was overcome with a feeling of camaraderie for his fallen soldiers. But even in that moment of heightened emotions, he refrained from invoking his divine powers. Instead, he prayed to Lord Indra to let loose a shower of amrit, but with a caveat that only the slain vanars should benefit from it and not anyone among the dead rakshasas.
The Maryada Purushottam
Ram’s firm adherence to the unrelenting principles of the mortal world-maryada-is evident from his relationship with Sita. Theirs had been a love at first sight. When Ram prepared himself to go on the 14-year exile, he wanted her to stay back in the palace to look after his frail and dispirited parents. But Sita would have none of it. She must be where he was, always and ever, she insisted. In the forest, Ram went to great lengths to protect her. Jayant, Indra’s wayward son,pecked at her foot mischievously in the garb of a crow. Ram spared his life only after taking out one of his eyes. When Ravan’s licentious sister, Shoorpnakha, on having been spurned by him, threatened to kill Sita, Ram asked Lakshman to cut off her nose and ears. He waged a bloody war with mighty Ravan to win her back.
That said, his conduct with his Sita after winning the Lanka War leaves most of us confounded. Some modernists say that he was cruel to Sita. But is it right to apply our yardsticks to someone who lived in a world that was entirely different? Ram loved Sita dearly. But he was also a scion of the Raghus and the raja of his realm. He had to make the sacrifice of his love for maintaining the prestige of the House of Raghus and the honour of the Ayodhya throne that he graced. That has been the tradition of our ancient rajas. There was Raja Shivi, who fed a hungry eagle with his own flesh because he hadn’t let her eat a dove. Rajas of the yore did not only rule, they were ruled by the will of their subjects. Such a one was Raja Ram.
He stood steadfast to his principles. On Earth, he lived like an earthly man should live. As an exemplar of humankind, he set for himself an impossibly high benchmark. In reaching that benchmark, he had to make sacrifices, and in that, those who were very close to him also had to suffer. Sita, his spouse, was the worst sufferer of all.
Yet, don’t all of us look for someone who is stable, constant and unwavering in this buffeting, ever-changing world? That is why we recall Ram on every conceivable occasion – while greeting someone – whether known or a complete stranger – expressing surprise at a sudden turn of events,or while bidding goodbye.
As we come to close this tale of someone who was God but persisted to live like a man, it is time to say”Ram-Ram,” dear readers!
Concluded.
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