Sri:rama:yana is called as Itiha:sa. Itiha:sa is one of the
vedo:pabrumhana:s.
upabrumhana means one which elaborates the meaning of Veda.
So Sri:rama:yana elaborates the meaning of the Veda .
It reveals the secrets of Veda and equivalent to the Veda.
Veda establishes the form and attributes of the Supreme one.
Our Lord is called as Ve:dave:dya. When that Ve:dave:dya
incarnated Himself
as Srirama being the son of Dasaratha, Veda took the form of Sriramayana
and
came into this world through the sage valmiki .
Veda contains two parts. The first part is
called as pu:rvabha:ga which deals
with the Dharma:s to be practiced by the mankind. The second part of the
Veda is
called as uththara bha:ga or upanishathbha:ga and reveals about the Para
Brahman.
One has to practice one?s dharma and has to do upa:sana by gaining
knowledge
about Para Brahman. These two things are literally shown by Sri
Rama.
Being the nara he showed how to practice one?s dharma and got the credit
to be
called as Ra:mo: vigrahava:n dharmaha. Being Para Brahman He was
worshipped
by everyone .Even today we are worshipping him. One has to possess
the inner
knowledge in order to practice one?s dharma.
How? Let us come to Sriramayana.
Before entering into the grandha it is customary to do
pranama to the author so
that we can get his blessings and understand the grandha well. Let us
pray to sage
valmiki before entering into Sriramayana.
In this poem sage Valmiki is compared with a nightingale. It sings
sweetly by sitting
on the branch of a mango tree. Sage valmiki is singing the letters
"Ra" and "ma" which
are sweet in nature by sitting on the branch of poetry.
I think all of you know about the sweet voice of a nightingale. Madhura
means sweetness.
He is taking the support of poetry to reveal the greatness of Rama.
To such Valmiki maharshi I am doing pranama.
If we take Sriramayana as a kavya it is a
beautiful poetry with so many beautiful
words and chandas. And if we go deep into the meaning it can reveal about
the inner
self and Para Brahman. If we take the outer meaning only it will be like
a simple cinema story.
There will be Hero (Rama), leading lady (Sitamma) and villain (Ravana).
As usual villain kidnapped
Sitamma and hero saved her at last. If we see the story like this we need
not study Sriramayana.
But our Ramayana is not a simple cinema story. It is a great kavya. It is
a great dharmasasthra.
It is a great Neethi sasthra (morals). It is the incarnation of Veda for
spiritual seekers.
It reveals so many things which are necessary for all levels of mankind
or in other words
we can say it is the story of the mankind.
Valmiki reveals so many dharmas through His characters
of Sriramayana.
Through Rama, Valmiki wants to convey the message how to enjoy the
purusharthas.
We are having four purusharthas. Dharma, artha, kama and moksha.
Among the four everybody knows artha and kama only.
Few more people will think about dharma and rarely some one will think
about moksha.
So let us leave about the moksha at present and know about the other
three purusharthas.
Among these three ? Dharma? is the important one to be practiced by
everyone.
But most of us like artha and kama (desire to get anything). While
getting these two we
don?t care about the dharma. So we have to face so many obstacles.
Rama practiced and showed us how we have to earn artha(wealth) and
kama according to
dharma only. Then only we can enjoy them. According to puthra
dharma he left kingdom to keep
Dasaratha?s words true and later he ruled His kingdom along with Sita
without any obstacle.
So we need not crave for artha without dharma. Like this we can learn
many things from Ramayana.
Before going into the Ramayana let us know how Ramayana came into the
world?