The Highest Truth

All Upanishads are trying to say what they constantly fail to express – the inexpressible. And yet, were in such a helpless condition that we have to study them because they are the best and they go nearest to the Truth. Yet, Truth is never expressed in words. It cannot be.

            Language – sounds of words- and experiences of the infinite belong to two different categories. One cannot express the other. Therefore, however much you may attempt to study, you will still remain as far away as you were before you started the study,. Mere study does not guarantee spiritual unfoldment. Many people who never studied any spiritual books have yet been spiritual giants, There are people who have studies all the scriptures, yet are known to be more perverted than the ugliest of us.

            All our temples, churches and mosques; or scriptures, rituals, study and discussions are useful only to those students who can workl strenuously towards the higher Consciousness.

            Brahman, the Reality, is nothing other than ‘mindlessness’. So long as there is a mind, there is no Brahman or Reality. Where the mind has ended, there is Brahman. Absence of mind is the presence of the Reality,. Where the mind exists, Reality is covered, veiled. Just behind the mind is the Truth. So long as the mind exists you cannot see it. The flower is kept behind the mirror,. So long as the mirror is there, you will never seen the flower. So long as the mind exists you see only the OET (objects, emotions and thoughts) and the PFT (perceiver, feeler and thinker).

Remove the Mind-Mirror

                The mind is to be destroyed. The mind has to be transcended. The mind has to be annihilated. If the mind is to be thus exhausted, the various sadhanas that have been prescribed have to be followed. The process by which the mind can be annihilated at the body level is karma yoga. The process by which the mind can be annihilated at the mental level is bhakti yoga, and at the intellectual level it is jnana yoga. All these yogas are merely processes by which the mirror is to be removed.

            The flower is not describable in terms of the mirror nor what I am seeing in the mirror,. The shape, the colour and the experience of the flower are something totally different,. So don’t go about with the idea ‘I have read the Upanishads’, ‘I am the group leader’, I am taking classes’, etc. It will take you nowhere, unless you make use of the knowledge to rise above these delusions.

Limitations of Examples

                Examples have their limitations. The example of the flower and the mirror cannot be extended beyond the point it is meant to illustrate. Words also have their limitations. However, if the  words of the Rishis are false, my words are 20,000 times falser – with reference to the statement: “ When the mirror is not there, the flower is there.”

            Similarly, the statement: “When the mind is not there, there is Brahman,” is also  not true, because Brahman is not behind the mind alone. Brahman is not only behind the mind, but also in front of the mind It is where the mind was, it is all pervading and infinite. That which is all-pervading is not limited That which is limited has a form, that which has a form is perishable, finite. Brahman is imperishable without form, unlimited and infinite.

            When my mind is not, then I alone am. Where? Nowhere. You may say nowhere or everywhere. It is the same thing. Everywhere and nowhere are again falsehoods – because they are there only with reference to  the front or the back, the sides and the up and the down. There is really no up, no down, or below. When you are sleeping, what is your dimension? Where are you? Silence alone is. In deep sleep what is your dimension? Where are you? you cannot say, because there is no front of back, or right or left, or above or below. You are just all pervading darkness. Think.

            Thus, where the mind has ended, the experience is the infinite Brahman, the infinite Reality. That alone is aham. I alone are. Again, ‘I’ cannot be used. ‘I’ has no existence without ‘you’. Therefore, ’I’ also cannot be used,. When that experience comes, any word you utter is nonsense. Think.

            Advaita is not a thing to be preached. It is to be experienced – anubhava gamya. Again, when you say ‘anubhava’, who is to experienced? Thus any word that you use turns out to be false – delusion.

Remove the Four Veils

            Let us pull down the mind. How to do it? Think. The mind exists only because of four things – gunas  (attributes), kriya (activities), visesa (particular and unique features) and sambandha (relationships).

            When we look at an object through our mind, we never see the object as it is,. We always see it coloured through our mind. Pasyannapi ca pasyati mudhah –one who does not have the right knowledge, even when looking at it, sees it not, He sees nothing but his own projection, Look at a flower and write down the thoughts that come into your mind: “It is a beautiful flower, It is yellowish in colour. Its botanical name is such and such. I have seen such a flower in Gopalakrishna Iyer’s place , It was in Coimbatore that I first saw it, It was in Chettiar’s house, But the Chettiar is not a good person,” and so it goes on. You are thinking of the Chettiar while looking at the flower. You never seen the flower. It is only a  spring-board for the mind to shoot ahead. Think.

            The mind is a flow of thoughts. Therefore, I don’t really see it – pasyannapi ca na pasyati mudhah.

            If you can see the flower as flower, as it is, you see Brahman only. Remove the guna, kriya, visesa and sambandha – attributes,  activity, special features and relationships, and then look at the flower, What you see is nothing but Brahman. These four are but interpretations of the mind. The mind functions in these four spheres only. The mind sees the qualities of the object. Or it starts thinking in terms of its activity; ‘The fragrance of this flower is good,’ or ‘It is dancing.’ ‘The flower is yellowish in colour.’ Or the mind begins to think of  its name or relationship- where you saw it first,  the girls on whom you saw the flower, the puja in which that flower was used, etc,. In the process, you do not really seen the flower.

            Try to take a flower and see it as it is. See a blade of grass. Don’t name it, Remove the four – guna, kriya, visesa and sambandha – and look at it Loot at me. Forget my name. Forget my guna, my actions – forget. Look at any object, whether it is a particle or the whole universe. If these four are not there, the mind is ended, In that still, alert moment of the objectless awareness, you are.

            These four are nothing but the interpretations of the mind, the prattling of the mind,  Remove them and look,. There is nothing but a spread of alertness, awareness or consciousness alone.

The No-Mind is That

                The mind in this alert state is the mind at meditation, Mind at meditation is mind no more. Where thus the mind has dissolved, a bhava, an attitude, is. That experience is called amani bhava. Amani bhava is Brahman; mani bhava is samsara. You and I are nothing but the mind. So long as we are identified with the mind,  we are far, far away from the Reality. The moment you forget the mind, you are that. Tat tvam asi.

            To do this you need not seek anyone’s permission, It is your prerogative, If you are not ready to do this, no amount of studying the scriptures, preaching, or sashana will help. You will only complain that even after so many years of studying and sadhana. You have achieved nothing.  Naturally, because you were only following you own mind!

            “Do not follow me,” say the Rishis. The supreme Truth transcends everything, It is more than the known and the unknown, As long as the mind functions, it not realised. Stop its functioning, Then you will be face to face with the Truth. This is the maximum evolution.

            The challenge now is to transcend the mind. To the fully grown ‘man-man’, the challenge is to grow into the ’God-man’. For this you have to work. You have to stop the play of the mind. The play of mind is nothing but the play of these four – name, form, etc. It is not necessary to transcend these for a long period of time. A fraction of a second is enough, After thus knowing the real and wider reaches of our own true nature, continue to play with the mind. In all activities thereafter, there is a new sense of freedom because we know we are not bound by these imitations, These limitations are not our own, We do not belong to them. We are only sojourners here. We are natives of another realm altogether.

            In this way, it you look at any fleecy cloud, any twinkling star, any winging butterfly, any nodding leaf, each object is but a spring-board for you to rocket yourself into that ecstatic experience of the Highest.

Do Nothing

                It is said that when three young men were going up the Himalays on a hiking expedition, at a certain turning, they saw a langoti-dhari (a person clad in a loin cloth) standing on a ridge and looking into the amplitude of the distance. One of the young men surmised: “That man is standing there searching for the cow that has strayed away.” The other one remarked: “What are you saying! He is a young man. He won’t be standing there like that for a cow. It must be a girl”. The third one said: Don’t impute such gross things unnecessarily. He must be a poet. He is looking into the sky, lost in the sheer poetry of it.”

            The three men started quarrelling among themselves. At last they decided to accost that person and ask him directly. There went near him, and yet the man was not disturbed in the least. He continued to look out into the vastness of the cold sky. They looked at him and at what he was looking at. They tried to adjust their eyes to the angle in which his were turned. But they could see nothing so enchanting as to absorb their attention.

            At last they gathered courage and asked him, “What are you doing? He said, Don’t disturb me, I am very busy. I am trying to remain doing nothing.”

            In the same way, doing nothing. Forget even the fact that you are doing nothing. These are the methods by which you  can try to express how this state can be reached. In a way, it is the poverty of language. Language cannot express it. “I am trying to do nothing.” It seems simple enough, but when you try, it is very difficult. Even if you keep quiet, you know that you are keeping quiet, which is doing something.

            The mind has to be transcended. Any method by which the ambit of the mind’s activities can be reduced may be called sadhana. Reading the scriptures is one method. If Gita chanting helps, it is also a sadhana. Any method, be it serving the poor, or a political activity, or the domestic activity of looking after your family- but for which the mind would have rambled into various fields, and because of which the activities of the mind are reduced to some extent, can be called spiritual.

The quiet Mind

                Remember ultimately that what is to be reached is this hushed quiet. The quiet of the mind, even if it is artificially created, is good. But the mind revives itself. When you are exhausted, and go to sleep for ten minutes or half an hour, you feel revived. Why? You mind has had rest. Disappointed people who have lost the election need a sleeping pill so that they may sleep and wake up to find out methods by which they can get back the seat! The agitated mind that is made quiet, revives. The quietened mind cures its own ulcers. When it was in activity, it was bruised and ulcerated. When it is hushed, it is cured and healed. It gets positively recharged.

            If the mind is brought to an halt consciously, that is called mediation. Even though this may be just for a split moment, not only are its ulcers cured, but the mind also gets recharged with terrific force. A mind so charged with energy is a dynamic mind capable of great things. Hence the importance of meditation that I insist on.

Why don’t we progress?

                When members of the study group have attended classes for some time, they will definitely reach a stage when they feel that they know all these things. They feel that they have understood everything, but there is no expansion, no inspiration. After having gone through a few books like the Gita or the Upanishads, they begin to stagnate in their sadhana. This happens because they are not being initiated into the ampler fields of inward experiences. I am not talking of the experience of colour or sound, but inner experience – the experience of expansion, of soaring to new heights, of exploration of the deeper depths of life. This can come only when the mind is folded.

            The mind cannot be folded so long as it is extrovert in nature. Extrovertedness of the mind means that it is more and more poignantly active in these four directions – jati, guna, kriya and sambandha. When it functions in these channels, the mind always gravitates towards objects, emotions and thoughts. It is tied to the lover depths of cravings.

            Lift the mind. Expand the mind. Sublimate the mind. Purify the mind. Spiritualise your existence. These are the words used by the teachers. Avoid the prattlings of the mind and soar to the higher realms.

*This article is by Pujya Swami Chinmayananda

Greatness of Temples

Schopenhauer, the German philosopher, says thus: “ We see in all times and in all conditions that the great majority of mankind finds it much easier to beg their way to heaven by prayers, rather than deserve to go there by their actions. It is because the majority think like this that there are so many places of worship, festivals and priests in the worlds”

These words, which are in a complaining tone, are true in a way and applicable to all religions. It is wrong to suppose that we will get heaven or moksa, or that all our duties towards the Lord have been accomplished by merely going to the temple and praying there. Children, who are always engaged in play in the house, go to the school and their minds turn towards their studies. Similarly, ordinary people, whose minds are always running after sense objects, will find temples and pilgrimages useful to turn their minds towards God.

Even the mind of a pleasure loving man gets elevated, transcending sense objects, and becomes purified with thoughts of the Lord alone, when he enters temples that are clean and calm, situated in naturally enchanting places, filled with the fragrance of various kinds of incense and the sound of devotees singing the praise of the Lord who is enshrined in the beautiful idols.

In the pure abodes of God, there is no room for impure thoughts. It is a rule that one must purify the mind and the body before entering a temple. The temples and the idols in them are only the means to make the minds pure and to turn them towards the Lord. When one goes to the temple, one is not worshipping the stone idols there, but the Lord of all, who is represented by the idol. Nobody prays there, “Oh stone! Grant me my wishes.” But, looking at the idols we pray, “Oh Lord of all! The indweller in every bosom! Protector of the helpless!  Please bless me by granting my wishes!” Without such symbolism, it is very difficult for an ordinary man, who does not have purity of heart and thinking capacity, to develop devotion ands sraddha towards the Lord.

Temples and pilgrim centres are established for those dull seekers who are incompetent to contemplate on the all-pervasiveness of the Lord and see Him everywhere. One who thus lifts himself up with such support, gets a pure mind, and gradually all his actions becomes pleasing to the Lord. The mind of such a man of sraddha never revels in any path other than that of dharma ordained by the Lord. The Lord’s grace blesses such an exalted man. On the other hand, if a person goes to the temple for mere darsan and afterwards does only evil actions, to such a man of meagre sraddha, there can never be any beneficial result.

The temple is not a place where one goes merely to beg for fulfillment of desires; it is a ladder to ascend to the palace of devotion to the Lord. This truth we must grasp well, and having grasped it, we should enter the temple, believing that it is the abode of the Supreme Lord. The Lord is sitting in everyone’s heart and is the witness of everything. Without having pure devotion towards the Lord and without doing good deeds for pleasing Him, if one roams around like a beggar, the Lord cannot be pleased.

Thus, temples are the support for the worship of the Lord, whether one is with or without desires, whether desirous of knowing the Lord (jijnasu) or already knowing the Lord (jnani). All are fit to go to temple and worship the Lord. The one with desires goes to pilgrim centres for the fulfillment of his desires, the one without desires for purification of the mind, and the jijnasu for attaining knowledge. The lord blesses them by fulfilling their desires . But the jnani is already fulfilled and has nothing more to achieve. He has seen the truth of the Atman like the gooseberry on his palm and has experienced the truth that the jiva, isvara and jagat are all the imaginations of a deluded person. For such a jnani, what is there to gain by pilgrimages or singing the glory of the Lord? This doubt has to be cleared.

Jnanis also work according to their samskaras till their bodies drop. Their samskaras cannot but be auspicious because of their auspicious samskaras, They have the desire to do only auspicious actions. It is because of the worship, auspicious actions like pilgrimages, practice of yoga and desireless actions done in the form of tapas in their previous lives, that they have got purity of mind and jnana in this life. Because of the samskaras resulting from the practice of auspicious actions before God realizations, they continue doing such actions even after attaining knowledge.

One who is well established in the state of knowledge also gets up early in the morning, and after bathing goes to the temple, has darsan of the Lord, worship Him, does the japa of the lord with the rudraksha mala in his hands, sits in a comfortable seat and does dhyanam, as well as reflection on Vedanta declarations.  Being prompted by his own tendencies, the jnani also performs such actions and revels in them, but unlike an ignorant man, he does not think that the jiva, jagat and Isvara are real or consider such actions as his duties. When a jnani walks such a prescribed path, it becomes lesson and a blessing to other common men. All the holy actions like pilgrimage are performed by jnanis in this manner, without any attachment. Acharya Bhagavatpada describes, with example, this unwavering detachment of the jnanis in the following verse:

kShIraatsarpiryathOddhrya  kShIptaM tasminnaa pUrvavat|

buddhyaader-j~jaanastathaa satyaanna dehi pUrvavad bhavet||

After churning out the butter from the mils, even if we throw the butter back into the milk, it will never get mixed with it. Similarly, one who is merely a witness of the intellect and so on, can never again have any relationship with them, even if he has to transact in the world with his mind and intellect.

Thus, if the jnani has no relationship with the intellect etc., then he will have no relationship with this world of multiplicity, which is the creation of the intellect. Without blessings of the Lord, our wrong tendencies will not come to an end; without the destruction of the vasanas, there cannot be purity of mind, and without a pure mind, there can be no attainment of jnanam. That being so, the blessings of the Lord are essential for the attainment of knowledge.

In our state of ignorance, we prayed to Isvara, and through His blessings, we got the highest knowledge. After the attainment of knowledge, It will be ingratitude on our part to forget that Isvara. Similarly, the teacher and the scripture that help us to gain knowledge should not be disregarded after attainment of knowledge, or else we would incur the sin of ingratitude. Hence, the acaryas have ordained that even jnanis should worship and remember the Lord.

One who is established in jnana has no relationship with evil qualities, nor does he have any bounden duties to be performed, but these have been prescribed from the point of view of worldly transactions. Thus, if the adoration of the Lord is not forbidden to a jnani, then visiting the holy pilgrim centres and worshipping the Lord there are also not forbidden.

Not only ancient sages of the Puranas like Veda Vyasa, but even historical figures like Adi Sankara Bhagavatpada and other acharyas  are examples of this. Though he himself was established in the higher spiritual knowledge and was the author of many scriptural texts, there are no holy places and rivers in Bharat which Adi Sankaracarya did not visit and worship.

• Published in Tapovan Prasad, June, 2014, a CCMT publication

CENTARAL THEME OF THE RAMAYANA

He meaning of ‘Ramayana’

The simple meaning of the word ’Ramayana’ is ‘the story of Ramayana’. The Sanskrit word is split as rama + ayanam.  Ayanam means the way, the path or the road. So Ramayana means “Rama’s way” opr the way Rama lived his life- ramasya ayanam. In Yoga Vasishtha, Bharardadwaja, the disciple of Valmiki Rishi asked: “How did Rama conduct himself when faced with the problems of life?”  The story of Ramayana exdplains how Sri Rama lived in the world.

            Another meaning of Ramayana is : rama eva ayanam yatra- where Sri Ramachandra himself is the ayana, the goal. The word ’ayana’ means ‘walk’. When you walk the path, it is to reach a destination. Bhagavan Sri Rama is our goal. And the path that Lord Rama walked is also worth of being followed by us.

Rama and Krishna

It is very difficult to live like Rama. Sometimes it is said, “Do what Rama did, but follow what Krishna taught.”  Sometimes people misunderstand it to mean that Sri Krishna did something wrong and that there is a discrepancy between his teaching and the way he lived. Unlike Sri Rama who was eka-vakya and lived according to his teachings, Sri Krishna did not live up to his teachings. This wrong understanding has to be cleared.

Though both Sri Rama and Sri Krishna took a human incarnation, there was a difference – Sri Krishna was a lila purusottama, while Sri Rama was a maryada purusottama. ‘Lila’ means sport. Sri Krishna’s life here was a divine sport; he lived here as God – krsnastu bhagavan svayam. So his actions were according to isvara dharma, and not manava dharma or the code of conduct of human beings. He performed divine deeds. He killed demons with ease even as a child.

He married 16,000 women and lived happily, making them also happy. Human beings find it difficult even with one wife! And Krishna was [present at the same time with each wife, which is not humanly possible.

Both Sri Rama and Sri Krishna followed the dharma marga. Both of them took avatara to establish dharma - dharma samsthapanarthaya. While Sri Krishna followed isvara dharma during his avatara, Sri Ramachandra set an example to  human beings to teach them the dharma they had to follow in life – martya siksanarthah. So he is called maryada purusottama. Maryada means limit, bounds, norms of conduct, or righteousness. These are norms accepted by human beings and hence called maryada – martyaih  adiyateitri maryada.

Raising the standards of Dharma

There are standard norms of behavior appropriate to various situations. Any cultured person follows the appropriate manners, social etiquette, family standards and office rules. For example, you cannot wear shoes inside a temple. Smoking is not allowed in public places, flights etc. One may take liberties with a learned person or an elderly person, but is has to be within limits, maintaining the maryada, the boundaries. A child is taught how to behave in the school and at home. Sri Rama’s life showed the standard of behaviors expected from human beings in different situations.

Every  one of us should follow the path of dharma to the best of our understanding and ability. What Rama did, we  have to follow. Krishna followed the dharma of Isvara; we must follow our dharma alone. We cannot become like Rama;  we a can only follow him.

Sri Ramachandra married only once and thus set the example for us. His father Dasaratha married many, and we know the problems he has to face. Sri Rama did not say anything about it, but he showed it in action by marrying only once. Ramo vigrahavan dharmah – Sri Rama was an embodiment of dharma. He did not merely follow the rules of dharma in a mechanical fashion. His greatness was that he raised the standards of dharma to very high levels, It is not enough if our life follows the routine standards; we shine when we live up to more that is expected of us.

Bharata couldd have accepted the kingdom easily; it would have been according to the standards of dharma. But by not accepting it, by sacrificing it, he raised the standards of dharma to much higher levels,. He did what Dasaratha maharaj really wanted; he did not merely follow the letter, the words, but the spirit behind it. Sri Rama could also have said that the majority of people wanted him to be the king and so stayed on in Ayodhya. Through sacrifice both of them raised the standard of dharma maryada.

Lakshmana was not expected to go; it was not necessary that he should follow Rama,. No one asked him to go, nut he was clear about his course of action and he went. So also Sitaji. The common factor in all the noble characters of the Ramayana is this tyaga or sacrifice. It needs a lot of courage to sacrifice like this. Many kinds of courage have been  listed - daya virah, buddi virah, vidya virah, dana virah, rana virah. Among them, the tyaga vira comes first. Only a tyaga vira can be a dharma vira.

Triveni Sangam

                In the Ramayana, we have a triveni sangam, a confluence of three streams. It is a dharma satra,  bhakti sastra and also an adhyuatma sastra. As a dharma sasta, it teaches us how to perform our karrma. As an adhyatma sastra, it teaches us jnana. Sri Rama was verily Brahman, which is the  goal of our life- rama eva ayanam. That Saccidananda Brahman has to be realized as or own Self. As a bhakti sastra, it teaches us devotion to Sri Rama who is Isvara, the very altar of our worship.

            Ramayana is a dharma katha and it gives great happiness to the listener. If one listens to it with a pure mind, it confers enlightenment – jnana. And bhakti is the beauty and ornament of enlightenment. Bhakti is a  sadhana when it serves as the means to attain jnana, but it is a sadhya also, and jnana uttara bhakti, the devotion after gaining knowledge, is of the nature of supreme joy. It is no wonder that bhakti is called the pancama purusartha ( the fifth aim of human life) or the parama purusartha (the highest goal of life).

            Tulasidadji says that saints are mobile places of pilgrimage and compares them to Prayag, the confluence of three rivers – the Ganga of Bhakti, the powerful flow of devotion for Sri Rama, the  Saraswathi of brahma- vidya, the knowledge of Brahman that flows in the hidden depths, and the Yamuna of karma-dharma that keeps the flow our actions within the banks of righteousness. The  confluence of all three is found in saints and sages.

            The only source for all this is satsang, and the Ramayana is full of satsang. In the Ramacharitamanas, there are the famous dialogues between Yajnavalkya and Bharadvaja who represent the saints and sages, Siva and Parvathy who represent the devatas, Garuda and Kakabhushundi who are birds and then Tulasidasji and other saints. In fact, the Ramayana proclaims the glory of satsang.

            The prime duty (karthavya) of a human being is to serve the Lord – karmapyekam tsya devasyua seva. One should serve the Lord with dasya bhava, the attitude of a servant. Sri Rama gave a chance to everyone to do seva, like a musician who gives time to the accompanists to exhibit their skills. Lakshmana, Sita, Bharata, Vibheeshana, Hanuman, Angada, Jambavan, Shabari- all served him. Even when the Lord called them ‘friends’, they remained sevakas. You cannot equate yourself with Isvara, you can only remain at His feet and serve. Ravana thought he could compete with Rama and met with a tragic end.

            The Ramayana is studied from many angles –social science (samaja sastra), behavioural science (vyavahara sastra), Political Science (rajaniti), the science of warfare (yudda sastra) and so on. These are all secondary themes. Some scholars even study fashion in the times of the Ramayana – the clothes and ornaments worn by people then.  Sakuna sastra, the study of good and bad omens is another area of research in the context of the Ramayana. Sahitya, chanda, rasa – many areas of study are possible. However we have already seen the main purpose of the Ramayana- the study of dharma, bhakti and jnana.

Many Versions of the Ramayana

            There are more than 300 versions of the Ramayana. In every  kalpa there is an incarnation of Sri Rama and hence there is a Ramayana also. Many people do not know that Lord Siva was the first to have written the Ramayana; the popular belief is that Valmiki (known as the adi-kavi) was the first to write a Ramayana. Tulasi Ramayana, Valmiki Ramayana, Agastya Ramayana, Bhushundi Ramayana, Ananda Ramayana and Ramayana Mahamala are among the well known versions.  Almost every region of India has its own version of the Ramayana, often in the local language – Tulasi Ramayana in Hindi, Kamba Ramayana in Tamil, Adhyatma Ramayana in Malayalam, Krittivasa Ramayana in Bengtali, Bhavartha Ramayana in Marathi by Eknath Maharaj- the list is endless.  Even Guru Govind Singh has written a short Ramayana. Other Asian countries like Burma, Indonesia and Cambodia also have their own Ramayana.

            Even Hamumanji is said to have written a Ramayana. Once Maharshi Valmiki met Hanumanji and when he came to know that he had also written a Ramayana, he wanted to read it. As he read Hanumaji’s Ramayana, Valmiki  Muni started weeping. Hanumanji thought that he was overwhelmed by devotion. But on asking, Valmiki Muni said, “Your Ramayana is so good that people will read only your Ramayana, not mine.” Promptly Hanumanji immersed his Ramayana in the river! His only wish was that Ramayana should always be sung everywhere by everybody – it did not matter whose Ramayana it was.

            Valmiki’s Ramayan is of a very high order. It has a special place because it is said that Brahma, the Creator, inspired him. He was also motivated by Narada Muni who narrated the story of Ramayana in brief and described the special qualities of Sri Rama.

            In Valmiki Ramayana the divine nature (Isvaratva) of Sri Rama is generally hidden and he is  depicted mainly  as a human being (manava avatara) who followed dharma though all the challenges of life. On the other hand, the Yoga Vasishtha is full of jnana.  Adhyatma Ramayana by Veda Vyasa is a part of Brahmanda purana, and spiritual advice (adhyatma jnanaupadesa) is more prominent in it. Tulasi Ramayana follows the pattern of Adhyatma Ramayana rather Valmiki Ramayana in that the divinity of Sri Rama is brought out more fully. However, the specialty of Tulasi Ramayana is that it is a devotional outpouring. The bhakti rasa is prominent all thought the poem. The stories of Sutikshana and Kevat (the boatman) have a moving beauty not found elsewhere. It is said that Valmiki was very sad even after writing the Ramayana because he could not reveal the isvaratva of Rama fully. So he was born again as Tulasidas and wrote Sri Ramacharitmanas.

            Among the many Ramayanas, there may be variations in the story because of the differences in time (kalpa-bheda) and place or the temperaments of the authors. Some are intellectual in their approach, while others stress the devotional aspect. Some episodes may be described in detail in one version, while others may merely touch upon them very briefly. However, one common factor in all of them is that Sri Rama is depicted as a incarnation of God (Issvara avatara)
            The Ramayana is a part and parcel of the Hindu culture and embodies its entire value system. Whichever version of the Ramayana we study, the message comes across clearly. It teaches us how to live life fully, performing out duties efficiently according to the rules of dharma. It also inculcates in us devotion and knowledge of the highest order.

* This article is by  Pujya Guruji Swami Tejomayananda