Rama the Ideal
Mankind has progressed much in exploiting the material resources of the earth to promote the standard of life. But neither the individual nor the society has learnt the way to inner peace and contentment. Envy and greed have fouled the relations between nations and between persons, suppressing the awareness of the unity that underlies all creation. The main cause of this calamitous situation is rank egoism, wherin each one tries to grab for himself power and comfort. The ego is making puppets of them all. The words and deeds of men reflect this tendency of selfish aggrandizement. Every move is decided by selfish needs. No step is taken that does not promote one’s selfish interests.
In order to restore peace to the individual and society, the mind, where desires are born and resolutions are framed, has to be purged of its attachment to the self. The mind has desires as its warp and woof. When desires are ego-oriented, time and effort are wasted; duty is neglected, and the body and its skills are misused. And all this happens when life is being shortened every day. With every second, life drips, as water from a leaky pot. But man is not aware of the tragedy that is imminent every moment.
Embodiments of the Universal Atma! Man has in him the capacity to grow into a pure divine personality. But due to ignorance and waywardness, he has become stunted. He has chained himself to low ideals, and so he has fallen into fear and grief. The Upanishads [scriptures] exhort man to awaken and become master of himself. “Utthishttha, jagratha, praapya varan nibodhatha“—they warn. Man is overcome by the sleep of ignorance. He has to be aroused and taught by elders who know the precious heritage he is losing. The sleep is caused by the eshana or attachments—to the mate, children, and riches. Of course, a person must have enough to lead a simple life. But wealth accumulated beyond reasonable levels intoxicates the self and breeds evil desires and habits. Wealth has to be held in trust for activities that are beneficial, for promoting righteous living, and for fulfilling one’s duties to society.
Renunciation is the real yoga
India has been very fortunate. It has had seers and sages throughout the centuries who have held forth the value of high ideals. It has had the example of avatars [embodiments] of Godhead. The emphasis has all along been on the atma [soul] that is the core of every being—a teaching that can confer courage, contentment, peace, and harmony. It is indeed pathetic to see people following the vagaries of the mind and courting disaster instead of using the intellect to discriminate between the transient and the permanent.
The mind should be checked by the intellect; or else evil resolutions will result in sorrow. Resolve on good actions and reap joy. Of course, if one can desist from desires and the tendency to pursue them, one can have unshaken peace. If the mind is let loose and given the mastery, man is driven from one inequity to another. He loses his self-respect. He sets at naught law and justice, rules of conduct, and regulations of social behavior. His life becomes a frantic rush from place to place and object to object.
Detachment alone can give happiness. Tyaga (renunciation) is the real yoga [union with God]. Three evil qualities have to be renounced before man can rise to his real role: anger that smothers wisdom (jnana), lust that pollutes the deed (karma), and greed that destroys one’s love (prema) for God and man. The touchstone that pronounces an act as meritorious is ‘renunciation’. If an act is self-directed, and if it helps to inflate the ego, it is a sin.
Story of Rama is cream of the Vedas
What India needs most today is neither a new creed nor a new ‘ism,’ neither a new society, nor a new ideal, but men and women who adore and follow pure feelings and motives, and those that renounce anger, lust, and greed.
The story of Rama [an Avatar] embodies this vital message. It is the cream of the Vedas [scriptures], a veritable ocean of milk. Valmiki [the author of Rama’s story, the Ramayana] has named each section of the epic Kanda, a name that means a length of sugarcane. However crooked the cane may be, every slice is as sweet as every other. Similarly, whatever the situation depicted or motion delineated—whether coronation or exile, victory or defeat, heroism or dispiritedness, love or hate, joy or grief—the epic is equally sweet and charming.
There are two predominant rasas or streams of feeling or mood in the Rama story, the stream of compassion (karuna) as Rama and the stream of love (prema) as Lakshmana. It is the mergence of the two that evokes ananda (bliss). Ananda is the very nature (swabhava) of Rama. He is Bhagavan [Lord God] Himself, though Valmiki has not explicitly declared it anywhere. He refers to Rama as equal in valor to Vishnu [one of the trinities], but not as Vishnu Himself. It is only through the mouths of Rama’s own sons that the mystery is revealed. Bhagavan means: Bha (effulgence) ga (manifestation) van (he who is capable)—He who has the power to manifest jyoti (effulgence)—the Divine jyoti [atma jyoti]. He is also sambhartha—He from whom this created universe has emerged, and He who is intent on fostering it. All who adore Rama as the force that is manifesting and protecting the universe and projecting the cosmic effulgence and intelligence are entitled to be known as bhaktas [devotees].
But most seekers are but part-time devotees today. They are not satatam yoginah (always in union with the Lord). They are yogis in the morning, bhogis (epicures) at noon, and rogis (sick patients) at night!
Rama has set the standard for everyone
Rama enlightens every seeker in the spiritual field, since he put into daily practice all that he deemed right. So He sets the standard for every member of the household, society, nation, and the human race. He went into exile to maintain the highest ideal of a ruler responsive to the reaction of his subjects. The former holds forth the duty of pitru-vakya-paripalana (respecting the command of the father) and the latter, the regal duty of janavakya-pari-palana (respecting the wishes of the ruled). While the root is the word of the parent and the people, the fruit is moksha [liberation]—that is the ultimate goal and the inevitable destiny. The bud has as its inevitable goal, through the emerging fruit and the maturing process, to become the sweet ripe fruit. These three stages do follow each other. That is the reason why the Vedas lay down karma (the bud), which becomes upasana (the flower) and jnana (the fruit) in kandas—sections. Rama illustrated in His own life this process of the onward evolution of the soul into its awareness.
Rama steadily adhered to satya and dharma [truth and righteousness]. Only those who are saturated in Rama-bhakti can dive into that glory. He is the grand ideal upon whom you can contemplate. By doing so, you can imbibe and develop his virtues, slowly and silently. A tree grows silently for years before it yields fruits. It does not produce them on the spot or in an instant. The coconut palm, the mango tree, and the jack tree are of this type. Their gifts are plenty and full of nourishment. There are plants that yield few fruits pretty quickly and die soon after.
The fame of divine personalities grows with every word they speak and every deed they condescend to enact. Rama’s glory shines brilliantly even after all these centuries. It will shine as resplendently for ages to come. Rama means He who pleases. Nothing pleases man more than his atma, which is an eternal unfailing source of joy. One must prefer the awareness of the atma and the bliss that the awareness confers to all other minor momentary joys. The Upanishad [Hindu scripture] says, “Tyagenike Amrutatvam Aanasuh“—”By renunciation alone can the bliss of immortality be won.”
Every one of you has in possession a ticket for liberation from the cycle of birth and death. But most do not know the train that they have to board. Many get down at intermediate stations, imaging them to be the terminus, and wander helplessly in the wilderness or are carried away by sights and scenes.
~From the Divine Discourse during Ramanavami Celebrations (13.4.81)
at Golden Jubilee Hall, Lal Bagh, Bangalore City
Source: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 15
