Video 14

Ramayana 014:”Sri Rama in Panchavati”

[Music] i salute the supreme lord hari known as rama and we will be reading the ramayana but who is this rama so with this loka they are explaining he is the supreme lord he is the hari known as rama the cause transcending all relative causes whose mysterious power controls all beings in the world including brahma deva asura whose substance gives reality to all things as the robe does to the snake appearing on it there should be something on which the we can see something else reflecting and giving the example of the vedanta as the rope is there and on that rope we see the snake if the rope was not there that we could not have seen the snake so we see this jagat we see this universe we see these multi various things because the brahman is there so brahman is the substance and that substance has taken the human form as sri rama and says the spiritual aspirant he is the boat to cross the ocean up samsara and i welcome all the devotees of trinidad and i s so nice to see you all and i think all of you are keeping well last three months we could not have the classes because december somehow we could not make the class because of different programs etc january february usually the we are closed our vacation the vedanta society of chicago and this time i had a wonderful trip some of our devotee he took me right from chicago to hollywood by car and from there came back so we went through one national highway and came back through another national highway and stopping in different places and met so many devotees at different cities so that was a wonderful experience now after this three months we are again reading ramayana the ayana if we break the word ramayana this is the rama plus ayana what is the ayana oyana has different meaning maybe a beautiful flower is also ayana but the ayana means the path it is the path of ramachandra sri ramachandra what is ramayana rama ayana and that means the path of sri rama and what is the path of sri ramachandra of course it is the righteousness dharma dharma is the path of srirama now we can ask what dharma sri rama taught because we are going on reading stories up to stories in the ramayana so many things and now he will be entering into the panchayati the today topic is sri ramachandra in panchavati so he is entering into the punjabi you'll be staying in the panchavati and all ramana started from panchavati so that is a place that we we are reaching along with sri rama and so many things happened in his life that also we know that one of his mothers the koikei she wanted to wanted that her son bharata should be the king the rama was naturally had to go leaving the artha no soni now we are following rama shita and lakshmana and we are entering into the jungle then what dharma rama is doing here the dharma is keeping the promise a man should be true to his words that is the dharma that's the greatest dharma if each and every one in whatever position that we are if we keep our promises then everything becomes so wonderful but i don't know the people can't do that that is the only problem that needs a great mental strength that i am going to keep my word as we see in the life of rama so rama plus ayana the rama's path and that is righteousness and that is dharma and in the life of sri rama chandra we find he is keeping the promises as the leader of the society as the president of the country or the prime minister of the country the ruler as and in different walks of life we always take some promises and we are supposed to keep those promises that is called dharma in the name of dharma we do so many things we are spending millions and millions to construct the the religious institutions the temples the mosque the synagogue the churches that is okay but what is dharma sri rama chandra is teaching us and it is so simple anyone can do that and that is if i have given the word i must keep that promise if i have promised something i must keep that so rama ayana the following sri rama who to honor his father's promise happily left the comfort of the king's life and entered into the jungle and he spent 14 long years inside the jungle look at it so that is called the tremendous mental power otherwise it is impossible not for a day or two 14 long years and we will find how powerful he was he alone could fight with 14 000 very strong powerful rakshasas alone so we can understand how powerful sri rama was but at the same time he left that his kingdom [Music] just like that so this is the powerful mind i have promised that i should not do this and i will never do it that is exactly what the sri ramachandra is teaching us and we know that he left inside the he was entered in the jungle and he was keeping himself ready for the 14 years and he reached the hermitage shrutikshna we have read up to that in in the previous the november our talk we have read that he entered into the hermitage of sutiksna he had a wonderful conversation with the suthikshna before the shrine another hermitage so we get the picture that though we are saying that is a jungle but inside the jungle inhabitants are there human beings were there and highly uh respected people they used to live inside the jungle and who are these people we always say sages we always say rishis we always say muni these all the sanskrit terms and they were the researchers of the spiritual life how a human being can live and what they should do so they were going on researching on that and where they were researching nowadays we research in the universities in the laboratories in the libraries and of course the some field works are also there sometimes the people they will go to the field to research but in those days they should research inside the jungle what they used to do the research the main thing was to control their senses they'll be controlling their senses they'll be controlling their own mind and they will get the enter into the realm of the world of the miracles and what is that miracle they declared there is only one god in the ramayana we don't find that because in the different way they are talking that is there in our veda and the veda whatever the truth that they found and they taught it rama was also learned and that was he was showing in his own life what is this this world is nothing but a temporary thing and for this world we should not spend our life and only two we are searching for the permanent happiness but in a wrong place in the wrong thing we are trying to get the permanent happiness from the impermanent things of this world we are trying to get the happiness from this body from this mind from the objects of this world but unfortunately they cannot give us the permanent happiness if we can understand that then we will understand ramayana otherwise we go on and there are movies are there on ramayana that is very entertaining and we always like those things but what is the main teaching of the ramayana dharma and what is that dharma keeping the promises how we can keep the promises if we have the strong resolution so it needs a very strong mind and there is a prayer set there the rishis is to pray to the the god give us birya biryam birya means that mental strength so he entered into the shrikshna and though the sage requested rama shita and lakshmana to stay in his asrama rama as usual you go to farther inside the dandakaranna the name of the jungle was dandakaranya still it is there in the northern part of india this area is there under karana now because of the population because of the changes in the society and not much of jungle a lot other it has become and the habitant places the cities but that area is still there panchapati is also there now we will enter into panchaviti along with the rama one way way to the hermitage of agusta the famous sage the shita had a wonderful and very important conversation with sri rama i think those who are following this uh the ramayana class and we have already discussed it and but i will repeat that because that is very important and then we will enter into the today's talk they hear the shita that when we are talking about the shita is she is only like a shadow following srirama but she was highly qualified and she was well trained lady and that will prove when she is always careful about her husband but she is not transgressing she is not fighting with the sri rama rather having the argument with sri rama now we'll find how wonderfully srishita is asking as like a good wife who is always careful about her husband's well-being the shita is reminding sri rama oh lord virtue can only be acquired by renouncing all low desires so i repeat this sentence virtue can only be acquired by renouncing by giving up all low desires what are those low desires shita is giving a list of three and she is telling there are three scenes are there one is falsehood for anything if we are telling the lies then we can never become a religious person we can never become a a person of god realization are the brahma-gyani it is not possible the basic thing is satya the truth now those who have read the biography of bhagavan si rama krishna bhagavan sirama krishna is giving so much of stress on the satya whoever is practicing this truth in his thought in his behavior in his world he's lying on the lap of god that krishna said that on the laugh of the god is lying those who are holding the truth so the truth that the first thing we have to learn the truth is the main thing whatever we are doing we must tell the truth practice truth in our thoughts in our behavior and in our action everywhere second is adultery and third is anger without provocation then the mother shita she is mentioning oh lord you are free from the first two you never told any lies and you have no lastful anchoring for others wives or daughters but reminding sri rama's promises to the sages at astrama of shutiksna mashita said rakshasas have not done any harm to you but you have taken vow to punish them it is not proper to kill any creature unless it does harm to you so we discussed about it and we read about this in our last class that we gave in the november so what we find in sita though she is always quiet but she was a learned lady that is the picture we must understand she was a learned lady and when it was necessary she could come forward and tell it to the world and she's talking with sri rama the and she is reminding and very humbly she is reminding when she addressing the rama she told that i am not giving you the advice i am only reminding that you must know that these are the three scenes so this is the way she is talking o noble lady then the rama told addressing devi shita and reminded her that rama is a shatriya and the king so dharma again as a shatriya he is supposed to protect the society now in our society particularly in indian ancient society it the division of labor was given to the brahmana shatria bhusha and sudra the division of labor so your duties are different the brahmanas they're supposed to meditate they're supposed to research they're supposed to practice the austerity and develop the righteousness that they should teach also dharma they are practicing the righteousness and at the same time teaching that not harming others not telling the untruth not doing the bad things not anchoring for the worldly objects so all these high moral values they are practicing and also teaching and ultimately the result happiness because we have seen that we are all running after the happiness the joy the peace if we are having a lot of money but no peace no joy we don't want that life the same way our goal though we are telling that is god but in reality it is nothing but the bliss the happiness the joy and how it is possible by controlling our senses because all these senses are dragging us down to the saints objects and forcing us as if encouraging us to get the joy from there which is absurd we can never get it again and again we are trying and we are failing so we are following the path of the great soul like sri rama now the sri rama is telling see i am born as a shattriya and as a shatriya this is my duty to protect my the people anyone in distress whether i know him or not if he or she are some help i am supposed to do that now shita you have seen how the rishis in the asthmas everywhere i am going they are complaining against a group of people who are called rakshasas and this group of people unnecessarily disturbing these people who are researching developing the moral values i am to protect them not that they are they cannot they can also they have the power but they won't do that because that is not their job my job my responsibility is to look after that so that rama once again reminding us that what is the path what is the dharma the dharma is to keeping the promises the responsibilities as a shattry i am supposed to at this moment i am not a king as a shita reminded him this moment you are not a king so why you are using your weapons keep it over here in the asama and afterwards when 14 years will be over you go back and take charge as a king then again you use these arms and if you keep the arms with you all the time that even the arms will always ask you to use that sometimes some people who are having the guns or the the firearms not that they want but as if the firearms itself are encouraging them to do something if they made mistake and so many things happen it is almost every day the reports from different places so shita is guiding but the rama he is telling even though the shita is telling rama is very strong and rama is telling this is my promise this is my raja dharma this raja dharma this is the responsibility of the administrator and i must have to protect them now sri rama and his two companions reached the astronomer of the famous agusta muni the great rishi agusta also welcomed sri rama with honor and affection so affection because agusta was very by by age the rama was hardly 18 or 20 years old by that time and i think less than that agasta was a very elderly person so obviously the he was welcoming him giving him on honor because he is the king and king deserves some honor and he was the son of the great king the sharatha they all knew agusta and all his astra minds they were waiting for the rama to come and they were standing and to receive the rama when the lakshmana went fast and told some of the assamites that we have come myself and sri rama and the sons of the dasharatha and rama's wife shita the daughter of the king janaka we three are here we like to meet the great sage and the great sage himself came agusta about the augusta there's a wonderful stories are there but this agastha who came over there to receive so the rama became humble and told oh you need not to come like that i will come to you but the augustus said this is also you must learn my boy if the guest is not received with due humility and hospitality even an ascetic is doomed guest is god so when we talk about the values human values that was developed in india we talk about this when swami vivekananda appreciating india again and again and when he is mentioning deva bhumi not because he was born over there but because all these great ideologies ideas that was developed in that society in that area so that is why it is the deeb of women not because of the geographical area locality no it is because of this ideology if we lose these ideologies we cannot say that india is a holy land what holy we have the cities we have the everything that the other people are everywhere it is there but what is the difference then why people they look at india for spirituality what is the spirituality some of the bearded souls they're coming and giving some talk no the spirituality is this look at this and how ramayana is teaching in different pages in different the incidents we learn augusta that elderly person is standing and waiting for the guest sri rama why he is mentioning the guest is not received with the due hospitality and humility then even the ascetics he's also doomed or if the guest is not happy atiti now it is both side the person who is going over there unannounced is called means titi means a particular time and the date etc most of us in the modern time we always prefer that you should announce first that this is the time and the date and this many people are coming and oh yeah so are we are ready but atiti means unannounced any moment they can come but whenever they come whether the householder or the ascetics to whom they come they should be humble and they should show the proper hospitality so they should control all their the emotions oh why they are coming like at this moment i am not ready there is nothing like that so that is called again religion the religion means are you always ready to receive god and if the god is coming in the form of an aditi a guest unannounced we learn from the west that it should be all the time a properly programmed thing okay that is good and it helps but for the spiritual person anytime anyone comes we should be always accepting them we can i can remember uh one of our swamiji swami ranganathan anandaji he told us when we were young brahmacharyans in advaitastra it is a five six stories building and in the noon time mostly ramakrishna mission they get up early morning so they'd like to take some says we can say the short break in the noon time after the food one hour break so food one hour and the rest one hour the two two two and a half hours the awesome is to be closed and suppose somebody coming and giving the bell then the swamiji told you should not ask him to wait for that time when the office will open or the astra will open you must go down and open the gate ask him to come in and tell him that can you please wait for some more time at least you should receive that maybe you are losing the your time your resting time and all that but still that you should do you are young people you can't do it so by that way we learn that whoever comes to the asthma they're coming to our god whoever coming to my home they're coming to our house means maybe the god in that form is coming and i cannot say no we must be careful but still so that is what we learned from the agusta rishi agusta then gave the golden the bow and uh and cuiva and he said that the indra has given those things to him to rishi agasta and the bow was made by a famous person in the in the realm of god and it was the vishnu's bow the bow and arrow that the bow he was given the vishnu's bow indra gave to rishi agasta and rishi agar says giving to sri rama and it was really really excellent bow why he is giving to rama afterwards we will understand when the rama will enter into the panchavati and the things will happen most of us we know the stories this bow will help him and the quiver that is also very mystical the arrows will always be there the quiver is always full with the arrows and very powerful arrows and it will always be there and he also gave a sword with golden hilt all these divine the weapons the rishi gave to sri rama rama i am glad that you have come to see me with janaki and lakshmana may you be happy after receiving and then giving the gift making the rama happy then he is telling that i bless you and i bless you what the blessing be happy so when we bless we bless with so many other things so because the people will be coming and asking for i want to be successful in this competitive exam i want these i want that but the main thing is to be happy bhagavan sirama krishna again many of you know the 1st january 1886 he gave the eunuch uh the blessings let all of you know your own self to in bengali he said let you know your own self and that is the ultimate the moment we know that all happiness will come so what is the goal of human life bhagavatama krishna said it is the god realization god realization is the goal of every human being and what is that god is a source of happiness and what we anchor for all through our life happiness when we are little kids we want the company of the mother company of the father company of the family why we feel joyful happiness when we grow our the different type of objects that we like to get why happiness happiness happiness so ultimately so the rishi is giving the blessing may you be happy agasta uh appreciated maha shita for her devotion to sri rama and indirectly appreciated patibrata dharma those who are regularly following this ramayana the you you must be remember or you can go to the youtube it is all there we at length discussed about a transition the prathibrata dharma from the ramayana from the sri ramachandra's time because in the satya yuga the whole period of satya yuga they were brahma bhadinis the women were given the also the responsibility that you should also join like other men other rishis to search for the truth so the responsibility of the women were also there to search for the truth what is the truth where from we have come what is this what should be the goal of life how we should lead the human life and all sorts of things not only that i'll to develop the the our this present worldly life also this to research how to grow the different type of fruits and how to take care of the horses and the cows so many things all knowledges like the present they were the different researchers they are researching and giving their result to and then a group of people they are producing all those things whole society is happy with that similarly in the beginning when the human society was forming it as because the people were the whoever were intelligent among the men and women there is no power so they said even the women should also join in this those who are really capable they can meditate they can research they were allowed to do that and there are so many women saints are there we know that then afterwards when at the time of the ramachandra it became the populated and it was necessary to form a human society and that human society should have do's and don'ts responsibilities and the duties all these things were there now again the society depended on the women to develop good household so they were asked to come back and join in this responsibility it is time is over now that truth we have found we know how to get that truth to reach over there but now we need your help to develop the human society and for that human society this is necessary so they became again the responsibility came on the women and it was patibrata dharma sometimes some people in the modern days world they are criticizing why they should be all the time inside the house they should also go out they should all that is okay different discussion but the prathibruta dharma was also a great responsibility for the women to develop the families the homemaker nowadays they say very correctly they say homemaker if the homes are not correct the human society will break down there will be no human society people will be there but it will be just like the any other uh the societies the animal society birth society reptile society something like that there will be food there will be some living then there will be the fighting and then there'll be death that's all then taking birth and dying but the human society is completely different because you have to develop the human qualities over there and inside us our nature constantly provoking us to go out and grab things now it is the mother and she will go on telling softly very gently very lovingly and slowly slowly transforming the mind of the young people to a very qualified highly trained human being and he will be trained to control his emotions his senses this is a great responsibility for the mother and we will find afterwards how the rama's wife sita also practiced that her two sons they were really great personalities so that is a different story we will come up to that but here we find even the rishi agusta is appreciating shita telling she is now at present what was required the patibrata dharma she is practicing that and that is the reason she left the palace comfortable life and followed her husband wherever he goes so this and your wife sita will be considered as one of the foremost of chest women like arun dhuti you know that the greatest the lady that was respect was given arun duti the arundhati there's a star it is dedicated in the name of that famous lady she was the first in the transition many of you must be knowing that a question was raised by sister niberita looking at the life of martial devi and sister nivedita she read and learned a lot of the indian the ancient values so she understood that this transition period and she appreciated that but when she was make sauda made the mahash radhavani devi then she was wondering and she raised this question is ma sharada is the end at the last person of the ancient responsibility that is patibrata dharma or again they're taking us to the brahmavadini dharma so it is a transition the mother is the bridge of between these two the patibrata dharma and also the brahmavadini so that is a different discussion masada mani devi encouraging the women to learn veda to understand the language and also practice austerity and the unmarried women they should dedicate their life to realize brahman realize god why not once again because now the society has rules regulations they have the administrations they have the laws now the women don't need that they must once again go for the spiritual understanding spiritual development so the patibrata dharma and the brahmavadini dharma both we find in the life of masara damani devi but for the sheetah she was in the transition so that brahma-badini period was over and shita was the foremost of the pati-britta dharma and she the the great rishi is mentioning this he then asks rama to stay in the asrama but rama as usual refused and requested him to give information of a place where food and clean water will be available so rama we have noticed the most of the time he is not staying in the astra why some places he was there he the lakshmana built the separate cottage ram lakshmana and the shita they lived over there for a short period of time but whenever rama was thinking because 14 years he has to leave so he wanted to a good place and safe place where the clean water will be available food will be available so he wanted to be there another thing is asrama pira many of us we don't know that sometimes we go to the astra go to the at the temple and the odd time and create problem for them and then you go and try to do these and that instead of helping we make more problem for dastama that's called asrama pira pira means problem and that is a scene again i remember i remember then when we are the very young initiates brahmacharyan i joined in the cherapunji in the ramakrishna order chirapunji is the north northeast part of india is a very beautiful place the cherrapunji in the state of meghalaya so we have schools over there to teach the tribal children i joined over there i stayed for an a year or so so then this intro swami shami gokula nandaji he used to teach me so when you are going out as a brahmacari we are not supposed to eat in the restaurants and the hotels so we used to go to the nearby asuma but he used to say you should have some fruits or some nuts with you and a little water if you have party perfect timing then you go to the asama at least one hour before the lunch time so they will know that an extra plate has to be served so the food when they are preparing the food they will take some extra provisions will be given so you they can serve you the food but after when they have finished their lunch everything is closed suddenly if you go again they will reopen the keychain they'll try to find out the food and then they will serve you of course they will do that but that you are not giving them the proper respect and by that we're creating problem you are just going for your own comfort no you should not do that that's called asthma rama in his life is also following this when the astra has a routine they go in that way but if you are there you don't know what are the routines and then for you they have to break the routine so that is not good this is called asama pira so you must follow this see what is religion god is aware am i creating problem for others so that is called religion the religion means we always think about external things the temple the puja the food and the celebrations of course they are their necessary but the main thing is to transform if we are not transforming then it is of no reason to follow the religion we have to transform ourselves it is not only applicable to hindu religion applicable to every religion that is why swami vivekananda said let let each and every individual be a sect when you are talking about the sectarianism we are afraid the sect means following only a person and he is philosophy no swamiji is telling why not let each and every one be a sect and develop his own path his own the practices it doesn't matter anything but there should not be any sectarianism what is the sectarianism understanding that as i am thinking that my path my view my decisions are correct similarly others are also correct in their own way i should not fight with them i should not criticize them i should not try to belittle them if my devotees are going over their own you should not go you should not mix not like that let them go and those who like your policies your philosophy your path your teaching let them follow you others may go but we are all going to the same goal that is called the unity in diversity not that you have to put each and every idea in one place and then mix it that together not like that it should be all different ideas living in different diet places but they should go together friends you will be very happy that i used to talk to you all the time about the home of harmony this coming may 21st that is going to be inaugurated you know that we purchased a old church presbyterian church methodist church in in the city now we have changed that to our for our use renovation and all the reconstructions almost complete we have invited some swamis of the all over north america they will be all coming 21st is the saturday 21st may if any of you are here in chicago you are most welcome to attend that it will be morning uh 10 30 to 1 30. this is a and dignitaries other other religious leaders from other religious faiths religions they will also come and join so this is the planning so why we are doing this only to spread this message of bhagavan si ramakrishna which is the embodiment of the parliament of religion he practiced different paths different religion and then he said all paths are leading to the same goal being the follower of ramakrishna mission bhagavan si ramakrishna we are trying to give it to the world to understand we can survive together we need not to speak only one language we need not to follow only one culture or religion let there be varieties and varieties of the beauty otherwise if it is not the variety then the monotony will come if all people are the same type they'll be monotony so varieties are necessary let there be variety but let there be no conflict how it is possible understanding so how we understand by following the path of the great soul like sri ramachandra so we are following the path of sri rama so this is how the sri rama is going and when the he asked please let me know where can i get and stay and then that time his the rishi augustus said there is a beautiful place called panchavati the now the rama will go to panchavati that there is a beautiful place called panchavati now he said full of fruits and birds and deers the indication is you will get your proper food over there and at the same time no scarcity of water so the rama shita and lakshmana again they started their journey to panchavati on the way they made a very special person he was having two wings and he could fly and that he said jetta you the jetta you though we are depicting like a bird but actually not there were different type of tribals they were there and they used to practice like this they were the worshipers maybe this to have the symbol of the maybe falcons the big birds so the that did they were falling like that like the afterwards the rama will meet another group of people another group of tribals you can say that is the hanumana that they used to have the dresses like the hanumana they were all human beings we had to understand these they were not animals they were not birds then the they were the hanuman was also a great soul so rama will along with the rama when you are traveling will be meeting different type of wonderful people though they used to live in the jungle on the high lands on the mountains and they used to have them dressed like a different type of animals and birds but they were all human being jotayu also was a human being according to me what i feel this jetta you was a very powerful person and though he became very old and he was sitting on that on the way rama first was doubting who is he then he said don't be afraid i am the friend of your father i am jotario friends let us complete over here and in our next class in the next month we will first begin with the conversation between jyotaru and sri rama and there is a beautiful way that jatayu he is giving how this society started in the bhagavata we find this is very clearly mentioned and in ramayana through jatayu the same knowledge which we find in the bhagavata the life of sri krishna we find the same knowledge here in the life of sri rama so we will have that thing and then we will enter into the panchayati so thank you very much if you have any question then we can try to answer or we will conclude here sarda yes swamiji does anybody have any questions okay um all right swamiji we do have suru he wants to say a prayer for us before we end sure so let us have that prayer we will say shanti three times [Music] um hey how old are you now what are you now four three years or two years i am i am four oh four years yeah you're a grown up lady now what what but my birthday coming up and i i watch one i want to get five years old now because because my birthday oh good good good congratulations congratulation and if you come to chicago i will give you a lot of candies on your birthday okay okay then friends let us say shanti three times [Music] shanti you