Spiritual meaning of Ramayan

Literature is said to be the mirror of the society. It is believed that authors are driven to pen whatever they evince in their surroundings. Thus surroundings by and large define and confine their writing. It is argued that even fiction is driven by the stark realities of the time. Epics like Ramayan and Mahabharat also depict the condition of the society during that period of time when they were written few hundred years ago. However, one thing which distinguishes them from other books is their spiritual message. These books are more than literary work because scriptures convey a divine message. The spiritual message which these epics convey holds true for the reader irrespective of time at which it is read. The divine knowledge of soul, the method of renunciation and transformation is which is decimated through these scriptures, holds true for any seeker of truth without hampering the boundaries of race, religion caste or creed. The divine message is given in a very subtle way as sprinkling precious jewels in the ocean, which only few of those who are really in search of the jewel alone will find it; the revelation of supreme truth is conveyed to the one who deserves to know, rest take it as a mega period drama.

Most of the epics have been written in the form of poetry. Poetry always has a mystical element to it; it can be interpreted in several ways. The poeticism of epics paves the way for conveying the divine message secretly and sacredly to only those who deserve to know because they alone could well imbibe the blissful experience of divine. None but a true seeker begins to understand this transcendental message when one reaches a certain spiritual height. Then one is able to relate the inner truths and the symbolic representation of characters of these epics. 

This article brings out some of those symbolic secrets. It discusses some of the characters of Ramayana and brings out how these characters could be seen alive in a human heart. Ramayan is a beautiful collection of stories, metaphors and parables which together narrate episodes surrounded by grief and attachment which brings out the conflict between good and evil and the victory of virtues over vices.  Ram is not merely the son of king Dashrath but the name itself has a hidden meaning. Ram denotes a state of mind, a stage of a seeker of ultimate truth. ‘Ram’ comes from Hindi word ‘rama’ which means one who is ‘completely engrossed’. So ‘Ram’ is one who is completely engrossed in everything, is an inseparable part of everything and is the soul substance. The ‘Soul’ or ‘atman’ encompasses all and is everywhere. You cannot see it but it evolves when appropriate conditions occur for its revelation.

‘Dashrath’, the father of ‘Ram’, is not merely a legendary king who lived in Ayodhya with his three queens, but every human is a ‘Dashrath’ with potential ability to give birth to a son like Ram. ‘Dashrath’ means one who rides and controls ten rathas or chariots. Our mind has the ability to ride and control these ten chariots in our body, or the ten organs, i.e. five ‘Gyanendriyas’ and five ‘Karmendriyas’. ‘Gyanendriyas’ are the organs by which knowledge is acquired. These are eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. Through these one understands an object and so they are called ‘Gyanendriya’. ‘Karmendriyas’ are the organs required to perform action. These are namely, mouth to speak or eat, hands to hold, legs to move, Payu and Upastham as organs for excretion and reproduction. Mind is the leader of these ten organs therefore is the master charioteer or king Dashrath.  And if one rides ones chariot, in other words, makes use of this opportunity in his life time to utilize one’s body and mind for a higher purpose, then one can attain liberation.

In this process when a seeker’s mind is able to tame the sense organs, then as a result, three gunas, i.e. sat, raj and tam begin flowing. These three are represented as three wives of Dhasrath, namely, Kaushalya who represents satva, Sumirta as rajo guna and Kaikeyi as tamasik guna in the journey of a spiritual seeker’s life. In the story of Ramayan, childless Dashrath began worrying about his descendant or rightful heir. He then decided to perform ‘Putra Kameshthi yagya’ on the suggestion of his family priest Vashisth. This has a different spiritual connotation. With the flow of three gunas, when a seeker feels depressed about his future spiritual progress, then he intensifies his spiritual practice or yagya. King Dashrath was suggested that if you do yagya, all your desires will get fulfilled. Any true seeker of divinity would be suggested that you have to do the ‘yagya’ or effort to attain your spiritual goal. When a seeker does the yagya, four sons of Dashrath are born as the fruit of your yagya- Dharm (righteousness), Arth (wealth), Kaam (desire) and Moksha (liberation) as Ram, Lakshman, Bharat and Shatrughan. Ram is born out of Dashrath and queen Kaushalya who is an epitome of satvik guna and resembles nothing but purity itself.

Furthermore, look at this doha from Ramayan-

“Bhaye pragat kripala, deendayala, Kaushalya hitkari

Harshit mahtari, muniman hari, adbhut roop bichari”

This doha or verse means God evolves for the benefit of queen Kaushalya, the first wife of Dashrath, mother of Ram. Why has Tulsidas only considered Kaushalya, did forget mentioning the other two queens? If not, then why did he only talk about Kaushalya? ‘Kaushalya’ here refers to one who is ‘kushal’ or adept, the true seeker of truth who has acquired the skill and ability to know his soul; for such a devotee, ‘Deendayala’ or the compassionate God Himself evolves to help in order to show the path of truth to His devotee. God evolves for the sake of one who is efficient, who has ‘kaushal’ the efficiency to know his soul.

Ramayan glorifies ‘Ramrajya’ where people live happily, without any suffering, in complete harmony and peace. This is also a symbolic concept. And the golden reign called ‘Ramrajya’ begins to spread out within one’s body when as a true seeker begins to listen to one’s soul. Here ‘Ramrajya’ also has a spiritual connotation. ‘Ramrajya’ is not merely a historical metaphor, but every human has a potential to let the Ramrajya happen in his/her own body. This ‘Ramrajya’ can be attained when one is able to win over his/her own nature or prakriti. When a seeker is able to free oneself from the bondage of nature, then the seeker also gains the ability to remain untouched by three kinds of afflictions, namely, dahik, davik and bhautik. Dahik affliction refers to the pain which our ‘deh’ or body and mind gives us, daivik tap or pain refers to afflictions by Deva or nature's fury like floods, storms, drought etc and bhautik tap is the pain given by bhoothas or the other beings or creatures like other fellow beings, insects and animals etc.

The negative characters like Ravan, Supnakha and Kumbhkaran also could be seen in our body itself. Ravan’s ten heads do not refer to his ten physical heads but to human nature of pretence. A liar always will have several faces, his speech and action may not have a balance. He might say something but might do just the opposite. Thus a vice or a cunning person has several faces as he keeps changing his loyalties. Therefore a cheat person like Ravana is also in our heart as sometimes we do consciously or unconsciously bring out our own dual nature. Ravana’s sister Soopnakha was infatuated by Ram. Her attraction for Ram was immediately brought to a halt by her nose and ears being slashed. This slashing of ears and nose suggests that a seeker of Ram has to control his/her senses. Ramayan also describes some animated characters like a brother of Ravan named Kumbhkaran who is known for his prolonged slumber, but whenever he wakes up, his roar is unimaginable, his hunger is insatiable and he makes the entire earth tremble with fear. This character also somewhere can be seen in human nature. Our anger lies dormant in our mind but when is challenged by some external factors then the demon like nature of our inner Kumbhkaran becomes alive. Vibhishan, amongst all his disconcerting siblings stands alone. Vibhishan is the atma or soul. It lives among all opposing tendencies and struggles to attain its pure form.

The final culmination of Ramayan has always been questioned by common mass. Overtly judgmental human nature compels us to question the action of perfect human being Rama who, despite his adherence to dharma, on the suggestion of others, asked Sita to go through a test of purity in the fire. And despite passing the agni pariksha successfully Sita has to vanish in the core of the earth. This episode also has a spiritual explanation. Human being is seen as being who can control and drive these ten chariots by riding on them. If one consciously, actively and intentionally witnesses these ten senses he would become adept in knowing the soul. It is said that Sita and Ram are symbolic representation of soul and the supreme soul respectively. And when the battle between one’s inner positive and negative forces is over, and when the disillusioned soul or Sita realizes its true nature, the fact that she is simply a part of supreme soul, the very separate existence of Sita or jiva’s soul vanishes. It rather merges with its supreme soul Ram and attains moksha.

  Sensitivity and Emotionality

When a child is born, it is in its most natural state of mind, like a ‘tabula rasa’ or blank slate, as Locke, a famous German philosopher pointed out. It instantly reacts to any change that occurs in its body or surroundings; it shivers at any loud noise and cries at any small pain sensation in the body. However, gradually as a child grows old, it is trained to deliberately ignore and overcome the sensitivity towards the body and the physical world. A newborn’s natural tendency to be attentive towards the surroundings begins to lull. We gradually train kids to take more interest in the artificially created sounds and sights which they are exposed to in order to learn about the surroundings they lives in. They are consciously trained to begin requiring a medium for everything they sense be it telephones, TV, radio, loud speakers, e-mails, or web cameras to connect with people. A child is unnaturally taught and hence perilously  dumbfounded and blindfolded by the influx of enormous information about the world ! Hence a child barraged with information, but is bereft of his/her inner ability to connect with the nature in a very natural way; s(he) turns deaf to several natural sounds coming from the environment like chirping of birds, rustle of wind, smell of a flower, ripples in the water etc. We call it ‘adjustment to the environment’, a progress of humanity!

By the time a child grows into an adult it becomes so ‘insensitive to the nature’ but ‘informative about the world around’. One is taught to become emotional and react at everything from one’s own point of view. And we become opinioned, passionate and emotional but our sensitivity fades away. We loose that sense of awe and surprise which we used to experience as an innocent child. Simple things like colorful butterflies wandering on flowers, ants creeping in a line carrying food, fragrance of a rose (when did you last smell a rose BTW) doest not excite us any more. We ignore simple natural beauty of the world and move on. We become less an observer and more a mechanical receiver and processor of information.

Hardly do we realize what especial abilities and powers have been bestowed on us as human beings. However, a truly spiritual person has the ability to catch unusual frequencies spread in the world without any medium. He can have all the information about the world without any physical medium. A yogi or a soul engineer enhances his sensitivity of senses like sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste to its highest point. The extreme sensitivity of one’s senses is about making the maximum use of each of them and enhancing their ability to experience the subtleties of the world. Our body is like a machine. It has senses which can be used as adaptive and absorbable mechanics to receive and send minutest information to the brain; the senses are able to catch most minute message or information if we make the maximum use of them. This is all possible if one can develop one’s senses. Our mind it self is a very strong medium. It has immense power. As we have scattered the power of our consciousness in thousands of thoughts and objects, it has lost its sheen, its force and patina. It is like any other five senses for a yogi. It can catch frequencies if one focuses in one direction. It can sense these frequencies and interpret it in the right context.

In common parlance it may not be very easy to differentiate between the two notions of sensitivity and emotionality. We tend to use them as synonymous words. We presume that a sensitive person would be emotional as well. However, for a yogi these two words have an entirely different connotation. Emotionality is related to our gross sensations. Emotions either hurt or please our sensations. Emotions are grounded in bodily sensations of pleasure and pain. Although an infant is certainly more sensitive but emotionality is from birth while sensitivity has to be cultivated through meditation. It has to be inculcated by practice or sadhna. It has to be earned. As a worldly wise person can easily read others facial expression and understand how one is feeling, so does a true saint become sensitive to all the souls around him, their thoughts, sankalp and vikalp as he gains the ability to see subtle things which common human mind cannot even think of.

Another difference between emotionality and sensitivity is that emotionality is most of the time associated with a central point the self or ego who experiences the emotion of love, hate, anger, compassion etc. Emotionality somewhere is about associating things with oneself. It assumes a self. It is ‘I’ who feels, sympathizes and reacts to a particular person or situation. It is a human disposition. But a truly sensitive person, who understands the call of his /her inner voice, does not see and listen to it with his own ego or vantage point. He listens to these calls with indifference, as a seeker of truth. The closer he moves towards the nature, the more virtuosity dawns on him and the more loving, compassionate and tolerant one becomes. And this affinity with nature also teaches one to control one’s emotions better. Becoming more sensitive is about becoming less emotional, as it’s a sign of egoist and weak soul who attaches positive and negative feelings with things and people around. A sensitive person may not get easily moved but knows what would be the best ‘ordained’ action for him in any and every situation.

While attachment and emotionality is based on feeling which arise due to our sense organs, sensitivity is acquired by using mind as another sense. That is where the common phrase ‘sixth sense’ comes from. A true seer can use his mind itself as an additional sense organ by focusing and gathering the power of one’s inner hidden soul. We can change the direction of these sensations by using them more sharply by meditation. With more sensitivity one moves from phenomena to noumena, from the physical to the subtle. This journey from physical to subtle or non-physical awareness is very gradual for a yogi. One becomes more alert and more receptive to the surroundings. One is always aware of what is going on around you. We have so much within ourselves to please sensations of hearing. We can listen to our inner music, the sounds coming straight from the heart. Hence, while emotionality is within the limits of mind, the sensitivity dawns when one goes beyond the limits of one’s mind.

One who knows one’s soul knows not only the secret of his body but also the secret of nature. Sun, moon, earth and sky reveal their secrets to him. The power of his senses grows manifold. A person gradually acquires the ability to hear far and mystical, extra terrestrial music within his body, and can perceive minute scenes. This revelation of the grandeur of the nature is so overwhelming that after this diving revelation, one’s general inclination towards the worldly pleasure begins diminishing. The attraction towards the divine is so tremendous that a seeker’s adoration of the divine grows by leaps and bounds. This in turn lessens his attraction and interest in the material world and its affairs. Such a person’s senses are easily able to sense the positive and negative vibes of the environment.

Usually in our day today life our center is elsewhere. We are so lost in the mundane affairs that we loose connection with ourselves. For instance, I decide to go for a super bowl final. I am very excited about it since morning. I buy the ticket online, I get ready, call friends and take a ride with them to go. Throughout the way I discuss the expected winners of the match. During the game also I am super thrilled; completely engrossed in the game, I watch each and every move of the game, and nothing goes unnoticed from my sight. But where is myself in all this? Didn’t I lose connection with my inner self in this worldly affair? I saw emotional upheavals with my favorite team, I attached my entire awareness with my team members for the whole day, but I completely lost connection with myself. I was in my body but my mind was not with me at all. It was with the ball, the game, the players and the trophy. My emotional self was alive but my sensitive self completely lost connection with myself. Here meditation can help. By meditation we can begin returning to ourselves, from mentally absent to mentally present. More sensitivity and awareness means returning to our center. Attachment means you fix your center to something other than you, something mundane and external to you.

One can enhance one’s awareness and alertness through meditation. As you increase the sensitivity of your senses, you will see magical changes in your life. You will be able to smell, hear, perceive and feel unusual things, which might not be noticed by a common person. One major change which occurs in a seeker who has enhanced the level of his sensitivity is that he becomes more and more detached to the mundane things in life. Sensitivity and detachment are directly proportional. The more is the sensitivity in a person the more detached is a person from the world around himself. This is because becoming more sensitive is about knowing ‘things in themselves, as they are’ rather than ‘how they feel to me or how it fairs in my views’. This neutral view point towards things makes a seeker more detached to the world. The reason is that we do not involve our egos in sensing them. You become sensitive towards the miniscule things. Attachment is physical while sensitivity is a subtle trait. You become competent to sense and catch minutest feels and changes in the surroundings or nature. Its an ability which you can work on develop.

However, if we want to enhance our sensitivity, we need to work on it. We can develop our sensitivity through meditation, which helps us to go beyond our usual chain of worldly thoughts and reach the core of our soul. We can get back our inherent trait sensitivity through meditation. We need to enhance the level of our alertness to this extent that we could see what is going on within, become more aware and thus more sensitive. Human have hidden secret power. The more one concentrates the more inherent power one gathers by more alertness. Immense power lies in the consciousness our soul as a precious gemstone. But we have spread it in thousands of external things instead of focusing it only our inner source of knowledge. Bring your entire consciousness together, become more sensitive towards your inner core and you can win the entire universe!

Spiritual Significance of Krishna Janamashtami

The devotees of Lord Krishna celebrate his birthday, better known as Janamashtami, with immense faith and fervor. On this day people do special worship of Lord Krishna, decorate his temple, observe fast, and as a ritual, some even recreate the moments of birth of Krishna at the mid night. There are few beliefs associated with the birth of Krishna.  It is said that five thousand years ago, when the God took birth in Mathura, India, the social fabric of the society was disturbed; chaos and lawlessness prevailed on earth due to the rule of demonic forces like that of Kansa. Hence out of mercy and compassion Lord Krishna decided to descend on earth to annihilate such unjust forces and to establish peace and well being amongst the common masses. It is said that he was born in a prison. It was a pitch dark night of amawasya when the God appeared at 12 p.m, i.e midnight on ashtami or the eighth night of the month of Shravan.

The above mentioned description of lord Krishna appears in Mahabharata, one of the great Indian epics.  Mahabharata along with other ancient Indian scriptures is not merely a collection of interesting stories to be remembered and rejoiced. These scriptures are voice of wisdom of several saints in the ancient times. The depth of these texts is unfathomable. There is a deeper interpretation of this divine fable of Krishna. It would be unfair to associate Krishna’s birth merely with the material dimensions of space and time as it also carries a hidden, sacred and divine message. Is it not an irony that the God himself was born in chains, behind the bars, in the dark midnight when the entire humanity was asleep? He was the all pervading master of the universe, the king of all kings, the Supreme Being and there was no need for him to choose a prison as a birth place for him.

The spiritual interpretation of the story of birth of lord Krishna unfolds many interesting secrets. The rule of tyrannical forces during the Dwaper Yug and the concomitant grievances of the common people followed by the urge to seek help from the God and hence Krishna’s decision to appear on the earth, then the prison, the dark midnight at 12 p.m at the time of his birth, are all symbolic representation of a hidden divine secret. The pain of common masses to seek relief under the shelter of God’s mercy metaphorically denotes the mental agony of a true devotee of God. When a devotee has gone through immense worldly suffering and is unable to bear the burden of his pain, he remembers God with all his sincerity and absolute devotion to help him out and to easy his misery. A true devotee is unable to bear the pain of being away from his master and therefore constantly desires to become one with Him. This leads to an extraordinary intimacy that one develops with God. This in turn gives rise to a new awakening in one’s soul. Hence the divine realization of God in one’s heart is felt by the devotee, which destroys all his pain and suffering and leads him towards realization. That is to say, appearance of Lord Krishna is a symbolic representation of an awakening within oneself, in one’s own heart and soul. Similarly the prison and the darkness of night are symbolic representation of our ignorance and worldly bondage. The chaos of common mass due to the demonic forces is actually within. Our own mental distress leads us to seek relief in our God. True remembrance of the God opens new avenues for a person’s spiritual realization; in one’s heart one can hear the divine message. Furthermore, what does the time of Krishna’s birth as 12:00 o’clock signify? It is the end of time, as nothing comes after 12, what the clock shows is just a repetition of numbers from 1-12 again and again. It means the divine birth of Krishna exceeds all worldly understanding of time. Divine God is born in infinity which is beyond comprehension of a common man. 12 o’clock also referred as 00:00 or zero hour indicates that there is no fixed time for the birth of Krishna within the soul or self-realization. Whenever a devotee truly ready for the realization of the God, and his consciousness has reached a certain level, it will begin guiding the devotee and hence Krishna will be born within! Birth of Krishna was not just one historical episode, but it can recur again and again in the hearts of every devotee.  

Usually we are so engulfed with our worldly thoughts and activities that we remain completely ignorant and untouched with our own real self, the soul, the dwelling place of the God. We nourish our bodies but completely ignore our inner soul which also needs to be nourished and taken care for the ultimate realization. In true sense birth of Krishna is a divine awakening of self and this awakening is distinct from attainment of a body. This awakening is a stage in the spiritual life of a yogi. When the unknown becomes known and that which had a veil is unveiled, Krishna is born. When God’s realization dawns on us, a new avatar of Krishna is born. We all have a possibility of becoming Krishna and we all have the latent potency to realize and reproduce our own Geeta. This unique possibility of realization of one’s soul lies in every human body, but it is not apparent to us unless we enhance our consciousness to a level where we begin to know about this unusual divinity within us. With our devotion when we begin realizing our soul, we have an awakening of our own consciousness. Krishna’s manifestation cannot be seen with physical eyes. Krishna is not born in a corporal form. He is birthless, hidden, and eternal, and yet he is born within a human heart. As stated in the Bhagavad-Geeta, the Lord says that His appearance, birth, and all the leelas or activities are all transcendental, and one who understands this in the true sense is a yogi.

To sum up, the entire spiritual quest is not a quest for something new. It motivates you to experience what is yours, is within you- the divine spirit through your sadhna or spiritual exercise. It has to emerge from the inner consciousness. The aspirant who seeks Atma gyana has to embark on self-enquiry to experience this Self-awareness. Life is given to you to realise lasting bliss by the right use of the body, the mind and the intellect. Knowledge of one’s own self will be a true celebration of Krishna Janamashtami. Destroy ignorance by means of instruction in the knowledge of the Atma. Turn your attention inwards, away from the external world and find Krishna within.