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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00052 May 2004

 
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Dear friends,

A number of you have sent in your feedback and
comments to me on my posting yestderday, "Rama: Despot
or Democrat". They are all very interesting viewpoints
and I thank you all for sharing them with me.

               *****************
       
I would be very happy too if my posting aroused not
only scriptural views/comments but also encouraged
comparison with current events in India even as they
are happening and unfolding today. 

Please permit me to say that the dramatic events of
the past two days in the political scene in India (at
least as I see it) bear a striking and very remarkable
resemblance to the events of the Ramayana essayed in
my posting y/day. Making due allowances for changes in
cast, characters, context and script, what happened
y/day in New Delhi finds unmistakable echoes and
parallels with the details of the Valmiki-Ramayana
events I described. 

Last night amidst tumultuous scenes of political
high-drama (as we all saw on our TV screens),
Smt.Sonia Gandhi refused to take over the reins of
power in India as Prime Minister. There was not a
single obstacle in her way to ascend the throne -- she
had the so-called Will of the People behind her, she
had the Constitutional legitimacy to back her claim
and she had any number of allies to back her and
support her... There was the shadow of just one taint
upon her -- the taint of suspect citizenship. (It was
a bit like the taint of suspected fidelity that was
upon Sita in the Ramayana).    

And yet last night Smt. Gandhi went to the nation and
said "No, I shall not wear the crown". And the reason
she gave was "My "antaryAmi" -- my inner voice or
self"! She said her "antaryAmi" told her the position
of Prime Minister of India is not for her. People were
aghast. They were dumbfounded... They were begging
her, entreating her to reconsider... but she did not
relent. 

To me personally, it was all so reminiscent --
virtually like some strange replay in a time-warp --
of some of those scenes Valmiki so graphically
describes in the "ayOdhya kAnda".

Let me hasten to add that the personalities of
yesteday's drama in New Delhi are of no interest to me
at all. Nor do the related political developments have
any significance for me. But I think I learnt one
important truth from what I saw yesterday and it
convinced me beyond doubt about this:

The 'Will of the People' is not supreme even in a
democracy. There is a force, a Will that is far, far
greater and superior that manifests and asserts
itself, from time to time, in the affairs of men and
nations. That force is the force of Dharma, the Will
of God, which somehow at the end is the only force
that prevails over all else... Smt.Sonia Gandhi, for
want of a better word, called it "antaryAmi" -- Soul
Force. In the Ramayana, Lord Rama called it 'Dharma'. 
  

Thanks and regards,
dAsan,
Sudarshan



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