Video 2

2. Ramayana: The Eternal Story Of An Eternal Personality

said that when we will start this ramayana that we will chant a that jayaram sriram jai jai ram so all together for some time and if possible just clap the hands clapping the hand and say jai ram sri ram jai jai ram that much so please join with me jay friends we have already started this the unique uh the personality is an eternal personality sri ramachandra and naturally about him the book ramayana is an eternal story the eternal story of eternal personality that we are studying we won't go to all the stories of the ramayana rather we will go for the characters of the ramayana so that will be better because most of us we know the story that now about the sri ramachandra it says that young so who is this rama beautifully it says i salute the supreme lord hari hari means the vishnu known as rama so this is the hindus the sanatana dharma they always believe this universe is created by the supreme lord and that supreme lord sometimes takes the form of a human form and comes down to guide the human being to go back to the goal so that is the way it goes so this supreme lord has now has come down as a sri rama the cause of transcending all relative causes he is the cause of transcending all relative causes what are the relative causes this world this universe so they're all relative and we are transcending that cause whose mysterious power controls all beings in the worlds including brahma the devas and the asuras whose substance gives reality to all things just as the rope does it to the snake appearing on it the many of you know this vedantic example how this world is our creation how we create by covering the original thing and superimposing something which we like to see so there was a rope on the road and we superimposed snake on that but it was the rope only now the question is if the rope is not there we won't see the snake the buddhist and the hindus they differ on this point the buddhists say there is nothing it is completely blank a school of buddhism the sunnam sunnam the sunnah means nothing is there but the vedanti in the hindus they will say something cannot come out of nothing so we will discuss it again and again so that this particular idea goes into our head so we can understand what is actually god and how to realize god and what will happen after realization so he is the substance what is the substance the rope on which we have superimposed the snake it was in reality it is row if the rope was not there the snake would have not come so obviously the brahman is there on which we are superimposing this world this manifestation the millions of varieties of things so that is sri ramachandra and in different words actually they are mentioning the one word he is the brahmana he is the basis of everything and he is the creation also and whose feet alone before his spiritual aspirant as a boat for crossing the ocean of samsara what is samsara constantly sarathi changing yeah that that is samsara constantly changing right from the the sun down to the grass everything is changing our bodies are changing minds are changing thoughts are changing everything is changing so naturally anything that changes it's called the samsara that's why the sanskrit name has been given that that which changes the samsara now friends offering these understanding these that we will study the ramayana ramayana began with a question and question was asked by the great rishi balmiki to the narada naruto is a well-known person and he used to live with the lord vishnu himself he is leaving and he knew many many things and he used to go to different places to meet people and he went to this our and the valmiki asked him a question that's a very beautiful question sir can you please tell me then he's asking me of the ramayana it is is totally in this four lines he is asking a question what is the question who is this loki in the contemporary world is there anyone o narada do you know anyone in this contemporary world who is noble heroic virtuous grateful truthful form in his promises self-confident conqueror of anger handsome forgiver of others fault again when angry even the gods become afraid of him so that was the question so when that question narada then told him oh yes i know one i know one preens and that prince and then naruto he is giving in four lines he is telling bishnuna how is this person he says in might in power in knowledge so he is like the vishnu himself bisnu na sadrisha what means in likewise so he is like the vishnu and sobaba priya darshanaha and priya darshana like the moon is so handsome so beautiful like the moon but when he become angry he is like the hellfire karl agni and shamaya pritivi samaha like the when he is forgiving he is just like the art earth is the great forgiver so many people walking on it so many things going on but constantly going on giving the blessings and nothing else so so this is the the famous ramachandra and the story that we know that the shadata he had a prayer the yakya and in the yagya he got with the blessings of the the brahma he got the four sons rama lakshmana bharata was having three wives so rama from the the first wife and the second wife bharata and the third wife are the two sons the lakshmana and shatra the rama bharata lakshmana this goes the story this is eternal it it is going like this now rama when he completed his education and he came back four brothers they went to the teacher that was the system of those days i was telling in one talk they asked me to give a talk on education the institution of the global institution so they wanted to know so i told see this is the system it was in ancient time in india the india developed education because long before any other society understood india understood the education is the main power for the human being if the education is there so they will develop education is the main power so they called veda veda means knowledge and that is the education so all even the prince they also used to go to the guru kula and they used to live a very humble life with many others all other students they have come and they will be sitting with them living with them i like that learning with them so these two know that oh i am a king son i am a priest so i am separate not like that so this to become very humble the humbleness that is the main thing and this to understand the hardship to get something you have to work so hard and if they get everything whatever they want because the the parents they think that they will go on giving the gift to their children and they'll be very happy not like that the training is the main thing so that these two from six years to 16 years the 10 years they used to live in the guru gria along with the guru so this that was the system and rama came back and after coming back he naturally after graduation when he came back he told his father i like to go and visit different places father permitted go because 10 years he was a discipline in a school so now you can go and enjoy rama went out with his brothers and friends and then after visiting the their country was very big country last talk i said that it was a really big big country his father was a very famous king so he came back rama mainly visited the holy places rama meet the holy people talked with them then when he came back he started thinking what is it the whole life the whole world everything is so temporary now his father he was preparing the rama should become the king then he will return but rama told why because this world is so temporary everything is temporary why should i become a king what i am going to achieve by being a king so that time rama became very depressed and he started thinking about the temporariness of this life i don't like to marry i don't like to become a king i don't like to talk with any people around i don't like to take food also as the kings used to take so his life became very simple very austere and that was the time when a rishi came he was visa mitra vishwamitra was a satria his father the kanna kub just king his name was gadhi the vishwamitra was his son gadi's son but vishwamitra was a shatriya and shatria means they used to do you know the military class so one day so happened he went to a jungle and then he found that a beautiful cow standing over there that cow belonged to the bashist another rishi and the death that time the vishamitra he wanted to take that cow from there but he could not because it was a very famous cow and it could produce many things vishwamitra thought i am having i am a i am having the physical power i am having the arms what a brahmana can do but the bashist sat over there and created the hundreds of soldiers to fight against him the bashishta protected and defeated the vishyamitra vishwamitra then understood the physical power cannot give the peace i need the spiritual power so from then onwards he left everything and started practicing meditation and spiritual austerity very severe austerity once or twice he fell from that austerity even then again he will say no again i will try again i will try and finally he became a rishi and the brahma gave him the blessings bashishta also accepted him as a brahmana so what is brahmana one who has realized the brahman he is a brahmana anyone can become a brahmana after realizing the brahman the god bhashishta from shatria he was elevated to the noaa brahman and the gayatri mantra that we always chant very famous mantra very pure mantra it it was his mantra he started that gayatri mantra and in the rig veda this gayatri mantra is there the gayatri mantra he created he visualized that and he created the gayatri mantra he came to the rama's father now himself was thinking what to do with the rama rama is now not listening to his father and always the time comes when the parents they wonder why the children are not listening to them so that is the age 16 year 17 years that from the teen age as a change has come so we all know all parents they and up to that they are so humble always very obedient but after 1617 they start developing their own thoughts on ideology and one way of expression behavior the parents they wonder why the children are not listening to us rama's father was also confused dasaratha was also confused what to do now the rahu bamsha the clan of the rogue priests towards the bashish termuni and he was a great sage the bashister and the rama's father and other ministers when they were talking about it vishwamitra came and told see i am performing one yakya i am but i am trying to do some spiritual thing but some good bad people are there so they are coming and disturbing my uh the puja can you please saint ramachandra to fight with them and kara do shana they were really very bad people and very powerful people then in the meantime dashiratha out of in the the joy that the vishwamitra has come he was a very powerful rishi he said oh rishi you have come without an invitation i am so happy whatever you want i will give it to you he said without listening to why he has come i know you have come for some purpose and whatever may be the purpose take it for granted it has been given to you that was a promise now the vishwamitra said i want rama to come along with me and then to fight and that means he has to go a long way with vishwamitra and only 16 years old boy now what to do then the rama's the people who used to look after the rama the attendants they came and told uh that the report the rama is not keeping the normal life he is not talking with anyone most of the time he is living in his room all alone naturally father we can also concern vishwamitra told please invite rama over here in the court let us listen what happened to him the rama came and that was the beauty he came and touched the fate of the guru and his father paying the respect that is the indian tradition for the junior should come and bow down before the seniors rama showed that that culture he is practicing and then he asked why you people are thinking about me because i'm going to die i have decided unless and i until i know what is the cause of this creation i'm not going to eat or leave like the other people i'm disgusted with all this this is called biraga when you don't feel attraction for the worldly things so rama it was extreme then a long conversation between the rama and bashishta and that is called yoga bashishta so that is another another chapter and here after all those things were over bashishta convenes sri ramachandra and bashishta convinced the father also that you please allow ramachandra to go along with the vishyamitra because vishwamitra is a very powerful rishi he is a brahmana at the same time shatria so he will be a very good teacher now you need rama need that teaching from the vishwamitra moreover being a shatriya he has to face this type of difficulties vishwamitra is a powerful rishi he will protect your son don't worry saying the rama with the vishyamitra and vishwamitra took him the whole rama was going on ma that he is traveling in different places and when one place when they came and stopped over there the vishwamitra told rama o rama you should get up early morning and the prince so naturally he used to sleep for a long time without planes all mostly of our people they'll be uh getting up at about ten o'clock eleven o'clock in india they all sleep so long so the vishwamitra was started teaching ramachandra you should get up early in the morning and you should meditate you should pray you should purify your mind so you should do the physical strain you should grow the physical strength and at the same time you should purify your mind and how to purify the mind by meditation by repeating the name of god and when the sun is rising that is the best time one should do it so try to do it so that was the way it was going on then he was showing the places and introducing rama the future king of ayodhya how people are leaving the people they leave over there but there are some people called asura the bad people they're coming and torturing them the being a king you should protect these ordinary people good people give them education give develop the economy so the people should be happy so he was introducing and he introducing the indian culture also what is the indian culture how people they live so rama was going on learning and at the same time he was giving him the military training also all the military training rama learned because that was necessary for ramachandra to fight against the rabana afterwards all those things he learned from vishwamitra then the day came he was there rama and lakshmana and they they protected the particular performance spiritual performance the vishwamitra was doing these two brothers with their power they could control they could protect everything was over then vishwamitra was very happy satisfied and it will let us go to a place called mithila so the mithila one thing was going on self bridegroom selection it is called sayambhara in our country today only i was observing somebody has collected and he has given in this way the press convention there's somebody that uh either collected in this way that in india mostly in the northern part of india the ratio between the the boy child and the girl child is so different out of 1000 ml it is only 925 the women is a great difference and then the education also the women education in the northern bloc are very bad very bad very poor so like that the south india and eastern india they're far better in the the gender ratio in the women education so even today it is like this so naturally the ramachandra when he went to mithila and they he learned all this and mithila was going on that's called the self bridegroom selection that was the tradition of the our indian tradition the girls should select the husband now the husbands are selecting the their the wives they they go to see the girl not the opposite and how it was used to happen the father will declare that my daughter will marry a soo and so type of young man the king of the prince they should come so they used to come and then the one person will be there when the the bride will come inside with the girl and and the person will go on introducing this king is belongs to these and he is like this is like that and then the next and then the next and the girl whenever she is putting the girl in and that they are married and there the hour in the mithila the king janaka who was actually the foster father of sita the this is not the biological father is the phone he was the foster father of the sita but he was very fond of sita and janaka was a great king very powerful king and janaka told pon prata now the panpratha means the girl's side they should pay something some money and to the boy before the marriage that's a very bad thing now it was completely opposite the fathers used to feel so proud of the girl child and they used to keep that if you can prove this type of thing then only the my daughter will marry you and here we find he kept a very strong bow and told if anyone can sting it shatriya so naturally the my physical might have to show if anyone can put that string into that bow then my daughter will marry you and so many other shatria prince came but they could not do then the vishamitra asks the ramachandra to do it at ease he did it and that bow was shiva's bow very powerful bow but the ram did with such a force that he broke also the banger that that is the story many of us we know hara dhanura means the shiva dhanu means the bow banger it broke so that was called the pana pan means the promise the girl's father is to promise that i will put the hand of my daughter to you give the hand of my daughter to you if you can't do like this so the pan pratra ram proof did so they got ready for the marriage of the rama and sita then this vishwamitra again he told the this our raja janaka janaki you have another daughter the urvilla why don't you give the marriage to rama's brother lakshmana lakshmana was following rama they were 16 years old the rama went over there and stayed maybe we can say 18 now after the one or two years and both of them went over there and when the shita was married to the rama another daughter of the king janaka and his wife su nayana i am telling the names because that is interesting mostly we don't find it the sunayana and the janaka and their daughter she married to the and who is the urmila the urmila was married to lakshmana the janaka was having two brothers janaka king janaka was having two brothers one is kushat dhaja and the scusadhaja's daughter was mandavi and his another brother kusha bhojana his daughter was so four sisters and the four brothers they married that is the king's the unification of the two kings vishwamitra did it he arranged in such a way so the two powerful kingdom become the relatives so they married and all the sharatha and his three wives all they came when they were returning back on the way another rama came and stopped them and that was parasurama and its story goes like this the parasurama was a brahmana but one king put a dead snake on the on the shoulder of his father who was meditating at that time that showed the shatrias are becoming very egoistic and ignoring the educated people so that is the reason he took up the arm and then started punishing the satrias he was very powerful he trained up the brahmin boys and with that force he was going on fighting those who were not practicing the age-old tradition of keeping the balance of spirituality and at the same time the the wealth the balance of the prosperity material prosperity along with the spirituality that is called dharma in bhaisashika our another philosophy afterwards he says what is dharma that which gives us the material prosperity and spiritual development that is called dharma if all are poor beggars and if they have very good dharma the what people are going to say about them the poverty is taken people and they talk about religion no they should be very economically very powerful friends you know again and again i say the human society is just like a tree and for the tree the main thing is the root if the root is not there the tree cannot stand and that root of the human society is economic why people are bowing down to america they like america they like to come to america just because some white-skinned people no because of the economical growth because of the wealth that they are having so that is the reason india one time became the target for all over the world the all is to go to india why because economical development and at the same time the spiritual development was there now some kings having the power in a power corrupts and they became very egoistic they started fighting with the brahmanas they told who are you to guide us give us the advices so that was the those kings the shatrias the parasurama was punishing and that is the reason the hindus they accept him as one of the avatars the purpose of the abutara is to establish the dharma so parasurama was establishing dharma by punishing those egoistic kings we became very good stick and were torturing the ordinary people so that is the story when they made the sri rama rama was a shatriya but though he was a vishnu himself but he was born as a shatterer king parasurama came and stopped to him over there and he said you have to fight with me rama went paid his respect and bowed down before him because prashu rama was the brahmin rama was shatriya so that is the system the shatria bowing down giving the respect to the brahmin and then as a shatriya if you challenge to fight for the war immediately they will accept whether they die or they they win it not the matter they will accept that that is the shattriya dharma then rama accepted that but looking at sri ramachandra this parasurama understood that this is not an ordinary person he is not an ordinary king he is the lord vishnu himself because he was a yogi he could understand that so immediately he said i am sorry now my purpose is over now the supreme god has already come dharmaraksha the protection of the dharma guiding the human soul human mind towards the supreme goal that is now god you will do o ramachandra you will do now i am now retiring you know that some time some people will say the ramachandra took out all the strength from him it is not like that he understood that my mission is over so he then gave the ramachandra that all responsibility and he returned this is called sri ramachandra and why the parasurama accepted sri ramachandra because he was an avatar but the ordinary people could not understand it is very difficult to understand the god is taking the human form even today some people will go on criticize ramachandra why well there are two three things are there the ramachandra killed bali we may come to that story afterwards he killed the bali and the bali was fighting with his brother shugriba and they say why the he killed bali unnecessarily the two things are there rama was in pact ally with the bali so when with the sugriba so naturally when the sugar was being defeated by his powerful brother bali ram came forward to support moreover after the bali was shot when the bali told i am not having any enemies with you why did you kill me by trying to kill me the ramo told see you have accepted your brother's wife as your wife that is not a good practice you should stop it so we can understand the purpose of the avatar ashrae ramachandra the indian society one group of people they realized the truth brahma satya jagad mitta this world is illusory the brahman the the consciousness all pervading that is the only truth a group of people understood the kings were also judged training another system are also good but at the same time there were people hundreds of them uneducated uncultured so for them only physical uh the joy that was the goal so it is ramachandra now he has come and as an avatar he was giving a human society a shape if we try to understand these the another the gautama muni's wife she was there called allah the lord indra who was having some magical power to transform he came in the form of a gautama muni and the the lady allah could not understand then afterwards he met the the allah and went away then allah realized that it is a great mistake she has done she could not recognize that is not his husband and she disclosed that to her husband gautama muni kotong was a great powerful muni the muni told well i cannot accept you now because you have committed a sin you have to wait till the ramachandra comes over here rama is coming he will come and if rama accept you and say that you have not committed any sin it is unknown to you i will accept you as my wife once again you see how the society was accepting rama's counsel rama's ways we have to ram chandra simply the god not like that he was giving a beautiful shape to the society the human life should be like this when his brother the lakshmana wanted to kill the kubja then when the kupja was so then he should know the never ever punished the women the ladies and the women the daughters should be protected always never ever punish them and the relation between the brothers relation between the king and the subject relation between the the we the husband and the wife it is also ramachandra so he was developing this unique society i feel like that he was developing the human society and that's why sri ramakrishna afterwards some people they doubt that whether rama was there or not i don't why sri ramakrishna accepted sri ramachandra ramakrishna bhagavan worshiped the whole family of sirama krishna this to worship ramachandra sri rama chandra raghubi was their family deity the obviously when sudama krishna is accepting sri rama as an avatar why we should not and he said it so many times at the time of his death when he was almost on the verge of death and those who have gone through the biography of sudama krishna you know his beloved disciple swami vivekananda was standing in one place and he was thinking if sudama krishna can now say that he is god then i will accept it the moment the thought crossed the swami vivekananda's mind he didn't alter he was just thinking krishna understood and immediately he said he who was rama he who was krishna now in this body as ramakrishna so why can't we accept the sri ramakrish ramachandra the friends we will continue this they're very interesting the character very ideal character and the first verse that i was reading from one to four the verses in the aadhi contain the beginning so that we should remember so many wonderful qualities sri ramachandra was having now bhagavan srama krishna said when someone asked how to realize god he said very many many times he said nama guna kirtana in bengali said you must do the ra nama the name of god and the guna the qualities of god what are the qualities today at the beginning i said that so he was the kritatya satyabhaka direbrata so all these gunas were having and if we really love sri ramachandra as many people they claim that we are the devotees of ramachandra but only taking the dagger and jumping and saying i am the devotee of ramchandra that is not the devotee the devotee means who is developing the good qualities of sri ramachandra so that is the way we should understand now i will conclude as swami vivekananda considered sri ramakrishna as ramachandra himself the young man who was doubting now after the spiritual practices he realized then he expressed in a beautiful song in a poem the who is this yes whose flow of love reaches the unhindered to the lowest of the low that is ramachandra those who boastfully say that garb sebolo we are hindus okay very good and if you are the follower of sri ramachandra you should remember rama went and embraced the guwaka chandala he was a locust person and ramachandra the god himself the supreme deity he went and embraced that guwaka that's why swamiji is telling whose flow of love went down unhindered up to the low of the low though not belong to this mundane world he never gave up the effort to make the people blessed and this in this three world that is called the asura loka jiva loka and devaloka he is the unparalleled and he is the very life of the janaki janaki means shita so that ramachandra we bow down thank you friends and then thank you for organizing this beautiful ramayana and slowly slowly we will enter into the different characteristics of the rama lakshmana and all others today in brief we have discussed about visha mitra and now there are so many characters there why characters because all those wonderful qualities that they imbibed that they showed that they practiced when we are reading the ramayana it is not only the stories those qualities we have to you imbibe ourselves human life is precious it's not like just eating sleeping and dying one day it's only thinking you have to think look at the trees look at the big mountains they're all surviving but they're not leaving living means you have to develop every day you have to develop towards god towards the supreme and how you will feel your mind will become broad and your mind will become full of love thank you let us say three times shanti then we will listen to the little girl who was asking us to be quiet like this all the time she will say something all of you can please say shanti shanti shanti you