MEDITATION TIMES AUGUST 2010

MEDITATION TIMES A Downloadable Monthly E-Magazine

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A PRODUCTION OF www.taoshobuddhameditations.com Published by: www.taoshobuddhameditations.com Country of Origin: Trinidad & Tobago, West Indies.

Chief Editor/Graphics Layout & Design: Swami Anand Neelambar Editorial Team: Swami Anand Neelambar, Taoshobuddha International Contributors: Hadhrat Maulawi Jalaluddin Ahmad Ar-Rowi, Lars Jensen Assistant Contributors: Ma Prem Sutra, Swami Dhyan Yatri, Sufi Lakshmi Sahai

In This Issue  Editorial

For Queries, Comments, and Suggestions and to submit Contributions, you can email the following persons:

Taoshobuddha: mailtaoshobuddha@gmail.com Swami AnandNeelambaravatar411@gmail.com

 Talks by Taoshobuddha  Consciousness is the seed

You can also visit

 Satyam Shivam Sundaram

www.youtube.com\taoshobuddha9

 Be ready to receive  You are always responsible  Kaikeyi  Introspection is the way to bliss

www.scribd.com\taoshobuddha www.scribd.com\avatar411 taoshobuddha library at www.DocStoc.com/Taoshobuddha E books: www.EBookMall.Com/Taoshobuddha

 Ravana & Kaikeyi  The Way of Sri Ram  Be authentic  Sri Ram Gita – Introduction  Adhyatma Ramayana

Also you can check the blog at http://bodhidharmameditation.blogspot.com/ http://www.taoshobuddhameditations.myeweb.net/ http://meditationtimes.myeweb.net/

 Rama and Kaikeyi Samvad

RAMA

Talks by Taoshobuddha on

Rama Embodiment of Satyam, Shivam and Sundaram on

www.youtube.com

1. Rama Embodiment of Satyam, Shivam and Sundaram Pt 1 of 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YSI0VFgVOk 2. Rama Embodiment of Satyam, Shivam and Sundaram Pt 2 of 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQBrd3s9QKo 3. Rama Embodiment of Satyam, Shivam and Sundaram Pt 3 of 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tndXkdVVwM8 4. Rama Embodiment of Satyam, Shivam and Sundaram Pt 4 of 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep2XtbJNeIk

MEDITATION TIMES Published by Taoshobuddha Meditations Trinidad, West indies

EDITORIAL This issue has been dedicated to Sri Ram – an avatar, a God of Hindu origins but universal application.

Sri Ram, the very name is saturated with divinity.

Ram is not just an ideal but he is a being who played the role of a human and played it so totally that he transformed his humanity into divinity.

Swami Vivekananda says “to be truly human is to be divine”.

The story of this magnanimous character Ram was first recorded in Sanskrit by sage Valmiki. Valmiki went through a radical revolution in consciousness and that made him the worthy bard of the epic Ramayana.

Many other versions and editions of the story have come into existence since then. Swami Vivekananda says that as long as mankind exists the story of Ram and Sita will continue to inspire humanity. Sri Aurobindo says the Ramayana “has been an agent of almost incalculable power in the moulding of the cultural mind of India: it has presented to it to be loved and imitated in figures like Rama and Sita, made so divinely and with such a revelation of reality as to become objects of enduring cult and worship, or like Hanuman, Lakshmana, Bharata, the living human image of its ethical ideals.”

Our attempt in this issue of Meditation Times is to present a spiritual and mystical dimension to the story and to unravel the deeper inner imports of the text – Ramayana. We are especially intrigued by the Ram- Kaikeyi Samvad. In this discussion Ram calls Kaikeyi as his ‘janani’. Janani is one who gives you birth. His actual mother is Kausilya but why does he call Kaikeyi as his mother and not just

mother as the title can be used for various persons of that disposition, but he says janani – one who gives me birth. Kaikeyi actually was the one because of who Ram could have executed the reason for his mission. The real spiritual works of Ram started with his journey to the forest – that was initiated by Kaikeyi.

One of the more popular editions of the Ramayana is by Goswami Tulsidasa.

Tulsidas’ Ramcharitmanas is “a long chant of religious devotion.”

Tulsidas’ famed Hindi Ramayana “combines with a singular mastery lyric intensity, romantic richness and the sublimity of the epic imagination.” – Sri Aurobindo.

Tulsidasa made the story of Ram available to “common people”. We at Meditation Times are trying to make every possible dimension of spirituality available to all who would come from the various disciplines and schools to thought. In all of these editorials we over highlight this point.

The era of bigotry, fanaticism and bias has been long over and has not place in the spiritual realm.

If we continue to believe that our way is the only way then we can be assured we are not on the spiritual path. We always encourage all our readers to persevere in any path that they choose.

And that Meditation Times is like an aashiyaan – an oasis where a weary traveller can come and have an intoxicating elixir and linger for a while until he has rested to continue the mystical sojourn on the pathless path to life eternal.

Journey to the abode of Sri Rama – the Totality One in whom consciousness has blossomed is the embodiment of Shivam - the mystic in action. His gestures, the music in his words, the poetry of his life, the light and the depths of his eyes all reflect the flowering of consciousness. Whatever he does, whether he is chopping wood or carrying water from the well, you can see that there is a subtle difference.

I

am speaking of two things here Consciousness and the Abode of Rama. Try to understand these. Human consciousness is seed-like that is immortal, it cannot die. But it can remain dormant. And in fact it can remain dormant even for lives. And in most of the cases it remains dormant for lives. Rama is the Hindu name of that flowering of consciousness. Sri Rama refers to the abode of inner harmony, oneness, bliss, truth and beauty. And once the consciousness blossoms its fragrance and beauty lingers on. The body may perish but the beauty lingers on.

Consciousness has attained fruition in various names and forms. Rama is one such flowering of consciousness.

However the inner texture of each one of these remains same.

Presently I am speaking of the blossoming of the seed of consciousness as Rama the symbol of Idealism for Hindus.

If the right soil is not provided! If the right water is not provided! If the right exposure to the sunlight is not provided, it will remain dormant. In such a case consciousness remains a mere potentiality, a waiting. But it cannot die. You may die many times, but the seed, once planted in you, will go on following you wherever you are.

Do not bring you borrowed understanding or knowledge here. All that is borrowed and has not evolved from within you cannot take you far.

Unless you give it your attention, nourishment, your care, your love, it cannot become a living sprout. Small, fresh green leaves cannot come out of it. Only your love and your consciousness can create the miracle... and the day will not be far away when there will be flowers. Love that you know is synonym for passion – a function of biology.

And the love that I speak is the sunshine of the being. And

consciousness at the gross level refers to understanding and at subtle plane it becomes the light or sunshine of the being.

There are people here who have been carrying seeds from other masters. Therefore there is no need to sow new seeds in them. In such case all that a master is to help their dormant seeds to open up for the process to begin.

You are not here for the first time. You have been here always perhaps with Zarathustra, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Gautam Buddha, Rama, or Krishna.

It is very rare that a person who comes to a living Buddha or a master needs a new seed. You are all ancient people looking for the right occasion for the journey to continue.

However your religious preceptors think that they are doing something great by having these people come to him. It is almost impossible not to have come in contact with one of the magicians of the soul. Those people are magnets. So in some life, somewhere, you may have met al-Hillaj Mansoor, Jalaluddin Rumi, Kabir, Nanak, Rama or Krishna and the echoes of that association still linger in your being.

And this is the reason that you feel a close affinity when you come in the company of a living master.

Very rarely do I find a person who is not already pregnant.

But the seed has remained as seed. You have not been a gardener to it. Somebody, with great compassion, must have sown the seed. And when a master sows the seed you are not even aware of it. But you have not been kind enough to yourself. The seed never dies.

What causes the seed to remain dormant? It is your mind that causes the problems. If you do not understand that your mind is full of garbage and is indeed the problem then there is no solution. This very understanding is enough to get rid of it. But it seems the problem is that this garbage is paying you. It is in some way fulfilling your ego.

I am reminded of a great thinker of renaissance, Voltaire.

He was famous in his country, and it was a convention in the country that if you could get a small piece of cloth from a famous man like Voltaire, you could make a beautiful locket out of it. It was a great security, safety against dangers, disease, sickness, and death.

When Voltaire used to go out of his house, he would come home almost naked, because crowds would follow him, tearing his clothes and not only his clothes, he would get scratched on the body as well. He had to ask for police protection if he wanted to go to the railway station or to go to some other place. Without police protection it was impossible, to move. To reach the railway station naked, with scratches and blood all over, would not look right but he deeply enjoyed it. He was the only man in the whole country who was so much respected. This was a respect given by people.

But in the world, everything goes on changing. The name and the fame is just a soap bubble. It may become very big.

However the bigger it becomes, the more dangerous it gets.

And one thing is certain it is going to burst soon.

And the day came. Voltaire was forgotten. Somebody else had become the celebrity. Now there was no need for police protection any more. People even forgot that he was alive. In his notebooks he has written, ‘I enjoyed those days. But at that time I used to think that it would be better not to be known at all, just to be nobody, to live silently, because life had become a nightmare. But when I became nobody, then I started feeling great despair that I had lost my respect, my name, my fame.’

And he does not say in his notes that this was what he wanted, to be nobody. He had become nobody now, but it was not a joy, it was a defeat.

He wrote further, ‘I am dying a defeated man.’ And the day he died, only four persons carried his body to the graveyard. Of the four persons, one was his dog and three were his neighbors who had to carry the body because otherwise it would start rotting and the neighborhood would become a hell to live in. Somehow he had to be thrown into a grave. So in fact the only person who lovingly followed was the dog.

And this was the man who had a big following. Thousands followed him wherever he went. Consciously chosen, it won’t last long. Never fight with it, because fighting will not help.

Or if you are courageous enough, see a simple point: even if you have become very famous and inside you remain just a wound which is hurting twenty-four hours a day, your whole life is wasted in misery just to fulfill a nonexistential ego. This is what Happening all around.

Tomorrow you will die, and the day after tomorrow nobody will remember you. How many successful have been in this world yesterday? And who cares about them today? And they all must have suffered in the same way, because what they were doing was garbage.

You may be a big garbage truck. Big or small nothing matters. If you can have a little courage and throw away all this garbage and clean yourself, perhaps something beautiful may come out of you which may be helpful to humanity, which may be remembered for centuries; not only remembered, but may have a certain transforming effect on people. This is the journey of consciousness. This is the flowering of consciousness. Once consciousness flowers then its fragrance and beauty lingers on. All your scriptures have been composed by those in whom consciousness has attained fruition. It is the flowering of consciousness or inner beauty that assumes the form of scriptures as beacon light.

With this you reach to the abode of the ultimate – Sri Rama.

coming on its own. But if you are simply thinking, without doing anything, then they look separate.

All your works and life are just journalistic – just like a newspaper. These are short lived and other name and fame are all useless too. Nobody bothers tomorrow about today’s newspaper. This is your understanding. This has been your life.

I would like you first to be clean, innocent, and silent. And then if out of that silence something is born, that will be a contribution to the universe. Otherwise, out of the garbage you can go on engaging in actions, but these will be meaningless. People do not know that somebody has put his life, and wasted in useless pursuits - running behind non-essential. Somebody has missed his buddhahood. It is up to you to choose. It cannot be forced upon anybody.

Mind cannot think without duality. Duality is the way of thinking. In silence, all dualities disappear. Oneness is the experience of silence.

I can just give you a hint. It is time. And you are mature enough. Do not go on wasting your life like newspaper news or novels, and you know all that is garbage. It shows, because people love to read anything and engage in useless pursuits. But why should you waste your life?

And if you ask a scientist and a logician, you will see the difference. If you ask the logician, ‘What is day?’ he will say, ‘That which is not night.’ And what is not night? It is a circular game. If you ask, ‘What is night?’ the logician is going to say, ‘What is not day?’

And you have the possibility to give birth to something really significant and for this a breakthrough is needed.

You need a discontinuity. You forget what you have been doing; forget the name and the fame and anything that it brings to you. Just be nobody, enjoy being nobody.

You need day to define night, also you need night to define day. If there is no day, can you think of night? If there is no night, can you think of day? It is impossible.

And I tell you that in being nobody there is a freedom. And then one day you will find that the seed that is within you has started growing. And then if something out of your own experience comes to be written by you, it will be significant for you, and it will be significant for others as well.

Anything that can really make life a little more beautiful, a little more musical, a little more poetic, is going to help you too. It is possible only because of your growth.

Something meaningful evolves out of your very innermost being. But before that, you have to throw all the rubbish off; otherwise, the rubbish is so much and the seed is so small, it is lost in the rubbish. I hope that you will be able to do what I am saying; otherwise, I would not have said it.

For example, day and night are very clear dualities, but they are not two. There are animals that see in the night.

Their eyes are more sensitive, capable of seeing in darkness. For them, there is no darkness. Those animals cannot open their eyes in the day, because their eyes are so delicate that the sun hurts. So while it is day for you, for those animals it is night; the eyes are closed, all is darkness.

When it is night for you, it is day for them. The whole day they sleep, the whole night they are awake.

Ask the scientist, who is closer to reality than the logician.

For the scientist darkness is less light, light is less darkness.

Now it is one phenomenon, just like a thermometer.

Somebody has a temperature of 110 degrees, just ready to move out of the house. Somebody has a temperature of 98 degrees, the normal temperature for human beings, but somebody falls below 96 degrees, again ready for a move.

Your existence is not very big, just between 96 and 110 degrees. Sixteen degrees ... below is death, above is death; just a small slit in between, a small window of life.

If we could have a thermometer for light and darkness, the situation would be the same, just as it is between heat and cold. The same thermometer will do for both. The cold is less hot and the hot is less cold, but it is one phenomenon; there is no duality. It is the same with darkness and light.

Mind always creates duality; otherwise, to be open or to be witnessing are not two things. If you are open, you will be witnessing. Without being a witness, you cannot be open; or if you are a witness, you will be open -- because being a witness and yet remaining closed is impossible. So those are only two words.

And the same is true about all oppositions that mind create.

Openness, witnessing if you think intellectually, they look very different. They seem to be unrelated, how can they be one? But in experience they are one.

You can either start with witnessing then opening will come on its own accord. Or you can start by opening your heart, all windows, all doors then witnessing will be found,

Be open or be witness. That alone is enough for the process of the seed to start growing. And once the seed of consciousness blossoms inner harmony, oneness, bliss is the outcome. To dwell in this blissful existence is the abode of Sri Rama. This is ENLIGHTENMENT.

Satyam means the truth. Shivam, means virtue.

Shivam is the mystic in action. Sundaram means beauty.

Mystic is total in his every act, and that totality brings the third word, Sundaram.

Satyam is the experience. Shivam is the action that comes out of the experience.

And Sundaram is the flowering of consciousness of the man who has experienced truth.

These three are the ultimate reality for those who are on the mystical path.

S

atyam is the experience. Shivam is the action that comes out of the experience. And beauty is the flowering of consciousness of the man who has experienced truth. These three are the ultimate reality for those who are on the mystical path. This is the embodiment of the enlightened one. This is why I say – Rama is the embodiment of Satyam, Shivam, and Sundaram.

The mystic’s conception of the ultimate reality is the only authentic, and the rare real experience. It is not a thought or a concept, instead an existential experience.

But the mystic does not deal with the mind. His whole effort is to get rid of the prison of the mind.

The mystic is not a philosopher. His world is beyond all philosophies. Philosophies are simply byproducts of mental processes. They do not reflect the reality instead, they only reflect you.

That is why there are so many philosophies in the world, each contradicting one another.

The reality is one. Then how can there be so many philosophies? There are not so many mystical experiences. There is only one experience; neither time changes it, nor space. Since millennia, the mystic in every country, in every race, in every age has experienced the same reality as truth. The experience is one but manifestation differs. The philosopher thinks about reality. The mystic simply drops all thinking. In his silence, and serenity, he becomes a mirror, and the reality reflects itself.

The mystic is the greatest flowering of human consciousness. His ultimate vision can be described in three beautiful words which have been used for thousands of years and there has never been any improvement on them. These are three words from the ancient most sources: Satyam, Shivam, Sundram.

Satyam means the truth – not what you think about it, but what it is; not your idea about it, but its reality. To know this truth you have to be utterly absent. Your very presence will distort the vision. Your presence means the presence of your mind, your prejudices, and your conditionings.

You are nothing else but a reservoir of all that has been forced upon you by the religions, the society, and the so-called leaders of humanity both religious and political.

Your absence means absence of all prejudices, all borrowed knowledge, and absence of the Christian, the Hindu, and the Mohammedan. It is just a pure sky, and a pure being. I am using the word absence to deny all that is not you.

But do not misunderstand me. This absence of you is your real presence. Only the prejudices are absent, the ego is absent, and your knowledge is absent – but your being shows in its utter purity.

You disappear as a personality and there remains only a pure presence. So it is absence on one side of all that is false in you, and it is presence on the other side of all that is real in you. In this state you

do not think, instead you simply see. This seeing of existence is the first experience of the mystic contained in the word Satyam. Satyam means the truth – not any conception about it, but Truth itself.

The second word, Shivam, means virtue – all which is good, valuable, most precious in you, and the ultimate good. The man who comes to experience the truth starts living the truth immediately. There is no other alternative. His living the truth is Shivam.

Shivam means truth in action, truth in your life, truth in your love, truth in your friendship, truth in your eyes, and truth in your heart. Shivam is the action arising out of the experience of truth.

Truth itself is the center of the cyclone. But if you experience the truth, the cyclone around you becomes Shivam. It becomes pure godliness.

A man of truth is the only proof that the world is divine. No argument can prove that the world is divine. I am reminded of one of the greatest mystics, Ramakrishna. When asked by a logician: ‘What is truth? Do you have any argument, any evidence for it?’

Ramakrishna laughed hilariously.

He said, ‘I am the argument, and if you cannot see in my eyes the proof and the evidence, you will not find it anywhere else. I am the only proof that existence is not dead, that existence is not only matter; that existence is not only available to science, that existence is much more than matter, that you are much more than the body, that you are much more than the mind....’

But this ‘much more’ cannot be proved by any logician, any scientist; only the mystic is the proof. He can also not prove it by words, but only by his way of life. The way of life of the mystic is the only possibility to come in contact with the divine which is all around you. You are living in the very ocean of the divine, but the mystic becomes your first window through which you can see the non-material, the spiritual, the beyond.

Shivam is the mystic in action – his gestures, the music in his words, the poetry of his life, the light

and the depths of his eyes. Whatever he does, whether he is chopping wood or carrying water from the well, you can see that there is a subtle difference.

He is total in his every act, and that totality brings the third word, Sundram.

Sundram means beauty. So this is the mystic trinity: Satyam, the truth; Shivam, the good, the divine; and Sundram, the beauty.

You have seen the beauty of the flowers. You have seen the beauty of the stars. You have seen the beauty of a bird on the wing. And you have seen beauties upon beauties of sunsets and sunrises.

However this beauty is totally of a different kind and quality.

But the greatest beauty is to see the totality, the intensity of the mystic. That is the greatest flowering in existence of consciousness itself. It is available only to those who are humble enough to receive it, who are not living a closed life of fear, and paranoia, but who are living a life of love, with all the windows open, and are ready to go with life wherever it leads.

These receptive souls are the only real seekers in the world. These receptive souls are blessed with their experience of Sundram: the beautiful rose that is opening in the heart of the mystic. These three words are so unique, and incomparable, there is nothing parallel to them.

Truth is the experience, Shivam is the action that comes out of the experience, and beauty is the flowering of consciousness of the man who has experienced truth. These three are the ultimate reality for those who are on the mystical path.

This is a mystery school. This can happen only in the company of a master.

All my effort is not to give you knowledge, but to take all knowledge away from you, to make you so innocent, just like a newly born child who is fully conscious, sensitive, alert, but knows nothing. His not knowing makes every child experience something which is available only to the greatest sages of the world.

To understand the psychology and the development of religious consciousness, I would like you to start with the child. It is the child’s experience that haunts intelligent people throughout their whole life. They want it again – the same innocence, the same wonder, the same beauty. It is now a faraway echo; it seems as if you have seen it in a dream.

to become part of this enormous mystery itself. He does not want to become a knower. Instead he wants to disappear in the mystery of existence.

But the whole religion is born out of this haunting childhood experience of wonder, truth, beauty, and life in its beautiful dance all around. In the songs of the birds, in the colors of the rainbows, in the fragrance of the flowers the child goes on remembering deep in his being that he has lost a paradise.

A Chinese emperor called all the painters of his empire, to choose the greatest painter in the empire. The emperor himself was in deep love with painting and he asked the painters, ‘I want to declare one of you the master painter of my empire. You are going to be my guest and you have to paint. I will come to see your paintings and whichever painting proves to be the best, the painter will become part of my royal court and the master painter of the whole empire – with many rewards.’

It is not a coincidence that all the religions of the world have the idea in parables that once man lived in paradise and somehow, for some reason he has been expelled from that paradise. There are different stories, different parables, but signifying one simple truth. These stories are just a poetic way to say that every man is born in paradise and then loses it. The retarded, the unintelligent completely forget about it.

But the intelligent, the sensitive, the creative go on being haunted by the paradise that they have known once and now only a faint memory, unbelievable, has remained with them. They start searching for it again and again.

The search for paradise is the search for your childhood again. Of course your body will no more be a child’s, but your consciousness can be as pure as the consciousness of the child. This is the whole secret of the mystical path: to make you a child again, innocent, unpolluted by any knowledge, not knowing anything, still aware of everything that surrounds you, with a deep wonder and a sense of a mystery that cannot be demystified.

This is something of fundamental importance to understand. The scientist is trying to demystify the existence. His whole effort is to make everything known. The very word science means knowledge.

The work of the mystic is exactly the opposite of the work of a scientist. The mystic does not want to demystify existence. On the contrary, he wants

I am reminded of a beautiful story. Of course it cannot be true, but it is so significant that whether it can be true or not, does not matter at least for me.

Thousands of painters participated in this competition. One old painter said to the king, ‘It will take at least three years for me to complete the painting, and I have few conditions. While I am making the painting, nobody should enter into my house. I do not want anybody to see the incomplete painting. When the painting is complete, I will invite you.’

The king said, ‘Three years? – this is too much.’

The painter said, ‘Then I can get out of the competition. Three years is nothing. You do not know what I am going to paint.’

Reluctantly the emperor agreed. Some of the painters finished their work in one week, others in two weeks, and at the most of them finished in four weeks. But the king was not satisfied. He was waiting for the old man because without seeing his painting he cannot declare his judgment.

After three years the old man came and asked the emperor, ‘Now the painting is complete, you are welcome.’ He was painting in the king’s palace itself. He had been given a beautiful palace which was guarded twenty-four hours a day so that nobody should enter for three years. Let the painter do his work unhindered, and un-interfered with.

The emperor was waiting for three years. It is a long time and he was old and he was afraid that perhaps death may come before then. But fortunately he was still alive. With great wonder in his heart he entered the palace where the painter had done his work.

He had painted on a whole wall of the palace, a beautiful forest with a small river flowing, and a small footpath going into the deep forest and disappearing into the mountains that he had painted.

The king could not believe his eyes. It was almost miraculous - magical. He was in awe. After a long silence he asked the painter only one question: ‘I am very much interested in this little foot path that goes around the forest, is seen sometimes around the mountains and then disappears. Where does it go?’

The painter said, ‘There is no other way to know unless you walk on it.’

The king completely forgot that it was only a painting. He was so overwhelmed by the beauty that he took the hand of the painter in his hand and they both walked on the path and disappeared into the mountains. They have not returned yet.

This is the way of the mystic. This is the way of a master. And for you this is the way of Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Prophet and Jesus. He disappears into existence never to return.

The scientist remains always an outsider, speculating, dissecting, analyzing, but he is not part of what he is doing. He is just a neutral objective observer.

The mystic is not an observer.The mystic joins the dance. He dances with the trees. He dances in the rain. And he dances with the peacocks too. He sings songs with Satyam, Shivam, Sundram the birds. And slowly, slowly merges and melts into

existence. He does not demystify it; instead he makes it more mysterious. He glorifies the existence, gives it its splendor, and its majesty. He makes it the most profound orgasmic experience.

The mystic is a lover, not a knower. His path is of love, not of knowledge. Love is his God, not logic.

Through his love he has come to realize three things the truth, the godliness of existence and the tremendous beauty... the unbelievable poetry, the song of the silence, the music without songs. Only the mystic knows without any knowledge.

The scientist has knowledge but knows nothing.

Albert Einstein said to his friends before dying, ‘If there is another life, I would not like to be a scientist or a physicist again. This has been a sheer wastage. I have known so much, but I know nothing about myself. What is the use of all this knowledge? My inner world remains dark and I have been watching faraway stars and the galaxies and the nebulas and I have not looked at myself.’

Only a man of tremendous intelligence can see the point: Albert Einstein did not die with contentment, but with a deep frustration and disappointment. The world may think that he was one of the greatest, most successful men, perhaps the greatest scientist that has ever walked on the earth. But ask him... He has missed all that is beautiful, he has missed all that is divine, he has missed all that makes life a rejoicing.

The mystic’s concern is to create a song in your heart and a dance to your feet and a joy that never fades in your very being. Therefore remember these three words. They are the most beautiful words ever uttered by anyone, and they reveal the very essence of the ultimate reality – Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram.

In fact this is what Rama means to me, His very presence creates a song and a dance that never fades. Even after so long the melody of that song lingers in my being!

Sri Rama is the embodiment of Satyam, Shivam, and Sundaram

T

Everything in this world that really happens is guided by a certain principle. You can call it by any name. However, no name can encompass the magnanimity of it. And you are never in harmony with this.

These receptive souls are the only real seekers in the world. They are ever ready to receive. These receptive souls are blessed with their experience of Sundram: the beautiful rose that is opening in the heart of the mystic. These three words are so unique, and incomparable, there is nothing parallel to them.

Sometimes when the thing you like does happen, you will still not feel very happy. This happens quite naturally. It is so because whatever we demand, we have already lived in fantasy of it. So it is already secondhand. If you say that you would like a certain person to be your lover, then in many dreams and in many fantasies you have already loved that person. And if it happens, then the real person is going to fall short of your fantasy. The person is going to be just a carbon copy, because reality is never as fantastic as fantasy. Then you will be frustrated.

he greatest beauty is to see the totality, the intensity of the mystic. That is the greatest flowering in existence of consciousness itself. It is available only to those who are humble enough to receive it, who are not living a closed life of fear, and paranoia, but who are living a life of love, with all the windows open, and are ready to go with life wherever it leads.

Truth is the experience, Shivam is the action that comes out of the experience, and beauty is the flowering of consciousness of the man who has experienced truth. These three are the ultimate reality for those who are on the mystical path. This is available only to those who are ready to receive. The existence is blossoming each moment. Only you have to open your eyes and say ‘Yes I am ready to receive and imbibe into my being.’

So is also the case with your dream house. All the while you have been dreaming this house. In fact you have lived in that house through your fantasy. And when you really get the house it will fall short of your expectations. And you will remain miserable even after you get your dream house.

Life is a synergistic harmony. Each moment, each action, and everything unfolds into the other thus creating a chain link. Each moment something dissolves into the dark cave from one end.

And the next moment from the other end evolves as something new and resurrected. This is life and its process.

But if you start liking and be in harmony with all that is happening moment to moment! If you do not impose your own will against that of the whole, if you simply are in harmony with all that happens, you simply say yes – then you can never be miserable.

You are never in harmony with all that is or is happening. Misery is the outcome. To flow with life is The Secrets of Spiritual Life.

Because then no matter what happens, you are always in a positive attitude, ready to receive it and enjoy all that existence wants to bestow on you.

The day you decide not to ask for things that you like but rather to like things that happen, that day you become mature.

Maturity means accepting life, as it is, rather than complain why life is not going your way. God has no responsibility to fulfil your wishes. Complaining means you criticize God and are not in harmony.

You can lifelong keep wanting and seeking what you like through various means – prayers and others. This is what is happening. All your prayers, rituals, are to fulfill your numerous desires. However these keep you always miserable.

Remember the life and the world does not run according to your likes and dislikes. There is no guarantee that what you want, life also wants that for you. And the gap between two is the measure of your misery and the state of inner growth.

There is no guarantee. There is every possibility that life is destined toward something that you do not know anything about at all. Life takes you towards the unknown and unknowable. Life wants you to trust all that is unknown and unknowable. Life wants you to move from the dimension of the known to unknown. However, the mind seeks and hankers for all that is known.

Instead welcome the hour of pain as a blessing, because both pain and pleasure comes from God. When it comes from God, why resent it? God knows what is best for your development. God is always with you and takes care of your true needs, but never bothers with the so – called needs and wishes of your mind.

If pain is to your benefit, God sends you pain, if pleasure is to your benefit, He sends you pleasure. Both come to you through His Will. Then, why resent it?

This is exhibited by Rama through his life. Instead of seeking things he accepted things that came and happened. When he was to be declared prince and when he was exiled for fourteen years instead everything was accepted. Such is the understanding of the one who lives in harmony.

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o conditioning, situation, or being can entrap the enlightened one again.

He has awakened to the state of the Self. He lives in a realm beyond the sense perception of body; emotions of the mind; and the thinking of the intellect. Thus he lives blessing the world with his pure holiness, even if he is not ‘doing’ anything.

His mere presence is an inspiration to the rest of humanity.

If he is thus liberated from all equipment, why are the equipment not falling away dead, when their owner, the ego, has been liberated? The answer is that the force of its prarabdha karma keeps the body alive.

The body is the product of our own karma or vasanas, and it is also a product of the karmas of others. One can redeem oneself of all one’s own karmas, but the body still lives and functions, because of samasti karma or the karmas of others. This macrocosmic vasana or tendencies is the equipment of the Lord or Isvara.

Thus, the Enlightened One functions under the Lord’s will only. Without any sense of ‘Ido’ ahankara and any attachment asakti, he appears to be functioning in the world, himself ever living the experience of the infinite Self, Sri Rama.

Once his share of destiny is exhausted, he merges into Brahman. This state is called videha-mukti. Even earlier, when others were considering him as a member of the community, he was already a liberated person jivan-mukti.

Life has the potential to become a song of bliss. A song of bliss that is the outcome of harmony and oneness but there is every possibility of missing it too. There is no certainty that you can sing this song. Also there is no inevitability about it. It depends on you. You can make it, or destroy it. In ninety – nine point nine percent cases people destroy their song of bliss. Then their life remains nothing but a cry. A scream of pain, agony and despair! But they have chosen it that way. Therefore no one else can ever be responsible.

This is the first truth that you have to learn in life. You are always responsible and nobody else. This brings great freedom. Because then infinite alternatives open. If you think that somebody else is responsible then you are a slave. And nothing is open. Then you have to be what you are. If your life is a tragedy then it has to remain tragedy. Remember others are responsible for their own life as well just like you. Life goes on like this. And you think unless they change, nothing can be done about it. You do not have any freedom in that case.

And this is the reason that millions of people live in misery. They go on thinking that others are creating their misery. Nobody is creating your misery. Nobody can create your misery. Also nobody can create your bliss either. It is a totally individual phenomenon. It is just your work upon yourself. And the strange thing is that to create misery is more difficult than creating bliss is. But people always choose the difficult thing, because the difficult always satisfies their ego.

The ego is not interested in easy things; the ego is interested only in difficult things. The more impossible a thing looks, the more attractive it feels for the ego. Ego feels a challenge, and only through challenge ego can really conquer. Only through challenges ego can prove to the world that ‘I am somebody special.’

Misery gives you challenge. Bliss is very simple. Bliss does not challenge you. Trees are blissful, and birds are blissful. It needs no special talent to be blissful.

On the contrary to be miserable needs talents.

One has to be really very clever to be miserable. Bliss is innocent. You can be blissful even without any education. But you cannot be miserable without any education!

It is almost impossible. You need degrees, universities degrees indeed to be miserable.

So the first thing that has to sink deep in the heart is: ‘I am always responsible for whatsoever I am. Bliss or misery, this is my choice. If I have chosen to be miserable, then there is no need to be sad about it. This is my choice. And I am happy with my choice.’

Feel happy that you have succeeded in being miserable! If this is not your choice, then drop it immediately. Not only that, drop all those patterns that create misery. And then start creating new patterns. This will open new doors from where bliss starts flowing in.

Let me take an example. The person who wants to be miserable has to think in terms of fighting with life. That is his gestalt. He is always fighting with this one or that. Most of

the time, he is fighting for no virtual reason.

The person who wants to be blissful has to be a non – fighter in the first place. Also he has to surrender to life. This is a kind of let – go.

The person who wants to be miserable has to create great ideals. He has to make impossible demands upon himself. Only then you can be miserable. Otherwise you will not be miserable. You have to be this, you have to be that, and when you cannot be, frustration settles in.

The man who wants to be blissful has no ideals at all. He is a not – idealist. Instead he is a realist. The miserable person is always an idealist and perfectionist. The blissful person is a realist. He lives moment to moment without any ideal. You cannot frustrate him because he has no expectations.

The miserable person always condemns himself because he is not raising high enough to fulfill the demands that he has imposed on him. He is a constant condemner. He always lives in self – condemnation.

The blissful person is very accepting of himself. He demands nothing. He is totally relaxed and at ease with himself. He loves himself as he is and accepts as well.

So you have to watch, all that creates misery, drop; and that which brings bliss like a flood, create that space in you. And my whole effort here is to make each one of you a song of bliss. Making your life as song and a dance no long faces, but celebration!

So let your life become a celebration. And it is up to you! It is your choice.

Kaikeyi the embodiment of divine and boon the way aikeyi is the embodiment of the divine and the boons are the way to the fulfillment of Divine will for the greater good of humanity. Kaikeyi is one of the causes for the destruction of Ravana. For many reasons she is very important character in the entire epic.

Mystically she is the embodiment of knowledge. An emotion is great energy. However it must be harnessed by intellect. Without harmony with emotions play a devil’s role.

K

Kaikeyi and Manthara. Rama goes to Kaikeyi to seek the solution. Rama enquires:

My own understanding is there has been a communication between Rama and Kaikeyi first and then between Rama and Saraswati after it was announced that tomorrow morning Rama will appointed Prince designate officially. There are many things at stake. And the most important thing at stake is Rama’s incarnation for the destruction of Ravana. For this storyline has to change.

Among all the characters Rama is the only enlightened one living life beyond time and space. Kaikeyi can be trusted because of her awareness. She is an important instrument. And the rest of the characters are mere instrument in the hands of time. However the concern of each one of these is for specific reason.

Kaikeyi responds, ‘O beloved son! Embodiment of truth!

You are putting me in a fix. If I change the course of events Kaikeyi will be hated by the humanity to come.’

‘O Mother are you seeing the sequence of events. This is not what have I assumed the human form. I am not here to be King instead I am here to fulfill my promise to slay Ravana and Kumbhakaran and thus establish peace and harmony. You have to do something to change the course of events.’

Rama continues, ‘O beloved mother you are the embodiment of awareness. Awareness is closest to truth.

Only your awareness can change the course of events.

Once the man of awareness is ready to be the instrument in the manifestation of truth the rest the existence takes care of.’

Kaikeyi is concerned that she had taken a vow that she will be the cause of the destruction of Ravana and his clan. For this she had trained Rama herself from the very beginning.

Kaikeyi assures Rama that she will be an instrument in this process. Once the person agrees then the negativities or the weakness of the person is used as an important tool. Rama instructs Saraswati to take care of the events.

Saraswati first reminds Manthara of the two boons that king had given to Kaikeyi. Therefore she uses the weakness in Kaikeyi to fulfill the scheme of Saraswati.

Also a curse was inflicted upon King Dasaratha by the blind parents of Sharavan Kumar that just as they had given life because of their son so too the grief of separation from his son Rama he will die. All these events have to take their course in the scheme of the existence.

He events that follow are well known. From there we go into the main storyline.

And the third who has sleepless night is the maid of Kaikeyi Manthara whose sole purpose in life is the kingdom for Bharata and the status of queen mother for Kaikeyi. Shi guided by jealousy, avarice, ignorance and negation of awareness. Quite often existence uses the weakness of such a being in the fulfillment of existential scheme. Manthara is an important link in this process.

According to the Ayodhya Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana, it is from Manthara we learn about the boons. Before Kaikeyi enters the Chamber of Anger, she reminds Kaikeyi of the boons, asking her, ‘Don’t you remember?’

For, Kaikeyi seems to have forgotten them. Manthara then tells the queen the story that she herself has told Manthara several times.

After the news of Rama’s coronation was released there was an atmosphere of celebration and gaiety. Amidst such an atmosphere there in no sleep in the eyes of Rama,

Manthara reminds Kaikeyi of boons

Rama is concerned about the fulfillment of his promise, purpose of his birth on earth, salvation of Ravana, and fulfillment of many curses inflicted upon him. Like an enlightened one all his accumulated actions have dissolved. His role is the dissolution of the cosmic actions.

‘Long ago,’ says Manthara, ‘the king went to help Indra in the battle between the Devas and the Asuras, taking you along with him. There is a famous city called Vaijayanta in the south, situated in the Dandaka forest, and there lived a great Asura called Shambara, whose emblem was the whale and who was a master of a hundred illusions. Such was his might that the gods had never been able to vanquish him in battles. Once Shambara started a war with Indra and during the war when the warriors used to sleep exhausted in the night, Rakshasas used to pull them out of their beds and kill them.’

‘King Dasaratha too,’ Manthara continues, ‘fought with the Asuras in that great war and was badly wounded by their weapons. And you, my queen, then drove the king away from the battlefield while he was unconscious. And when the Asuras attacked him there too, you drove him away from them again until he reached safety.

Pleased, the king gave you two boons. You told him you would ask for those boons when you needed them and the king agreed.’

Manthara tells Kaikeyi she had no knowledge of this until the queen had told her of it. And then she tells Kaikeyi to use these two boons and ask the king to consecrate Bharata as the crown prince and send Rama to the forest for fourteen years.

According to this version of the Valmiki Ramayana, the boons were given to Kaikeyi by the king in the battlefield during a war between the Devas and the Asuras, in gratitude and in appreciation of her heroic feat of saving him.

According to Valmiki Ramayana, Kaikeyi also treats the wounds of Dasaratha, apart from saving him from the midst of enemies in the battlefield. The Telugu Dvipada Ramayana adds another dimension to Kaikeyi’s impressive expertise – she betters Shambara in the arts he is best at – illusions. She had learned these from a master and was a great adept at this herself.

According to another Pauranic version, Kaikeyi puts her finger in the pinhole of Dasaratha’s chariot wheel when the wheel pin falls off during the battle and thus keeps the wheel in place. In some others it is her hand she puts in when the axle breaks off. A pleased Dasaratha offers her boons, which she says she would claim when she needs them.

In the Bhavartha Ramayana too this later version appears but the war is between Indra and Dasaratha.

According to ‘Krittivasa Ramayanum’, Kaikeyi gets her first boon during the war with Shambara and the second one when she sucks out pus from Dasaratha’s wound.

There is also a story that tells of how Kaikeyi heals

Dasharatha when he is stung by a scorpion and that is when she gets her second boon.

In the Vasudevahindi, she gets her first boon when she pleases Dasaratha with her skill in the erotic arts and the second one when she goes out with an army and wages a war with a border king and vanquishes him when he had taken Dasaratha a prisoner.

In the Brahma Purana, she gets three boons for supporting the axle during the Devasura war. In the Mahabharata Vanaparva version as well as in some other stories, she gets only one boon. And in the Pauma Charia, this boon is given to her for driving Dasaratha’s chariot while he fought the kings who attacked him immediately after his wedding with Kaikeyi.

There exists a beautiful relation between a man and his wife that we see here – a relation that echoes without a mistake the wonderful, intimate relation between Dasaratha and Kaikeyi that Valmiki portrays.

Valmiki’s Ramayana mentions clearly that it is to Kaikeyi that Dasaratha went in his moments of need. It was with her he wanted to be when he was tense, excited, in emotional turmoil or charged up in any other way. On the eve of the abhisheka, after Dasaratha was able to persuade his samantas, important officers and other ‘senior’ citizens for the crowning of Rama as the yuvaraja, it is to her palace he went seeking release.

When Manthara comes and informs her about the decision to crown Rama, she is delighted beyond words.

She does not seem to hold it against Rama that he does not come and inform her about it – though Rama was always the first in her love, Bharata only the second, though she always treated Rama as her eldest son and Bharata only as the second one. She is so delighted at the news of Rama’s coronation; she practically dances at the news. She gives a costly ornament to Manthara for bringing the news, which she describes as ‘nothing can be happier than this’, and tells Manthara to ask for anything else she desires and it shall be given, for she is not contented with what she has given. In the Ramayana, until Manthara persuades her after an arduous, tireless battle with her, Kaikeyi never has any desire for the kingdom for Bharata.

But here at the first opportunity she gets, she asks for the crown for Bharata and exile for Rama. Interestingly, Dasaratha does not give her two boons – but she asks for two, or at least a boon with two parts to it.

We pronounced Kaikeyi evil because we loved Rama so much and her action had hurt him. No child in India was ever named Kaikeyi after that, though in the Valmiki Ramayana she is, beyond any doubt, one of the most admirable women, probably the most gifted woman of her age.

Introspection the way to bliss People go on committing atrocities but never reflect back on their actions or introspect. Reflecting, introspecting and witnessing one‟s actions is the way to salvation. This clears the consciousness of the person.

Most of the writers have overlooked the Character of Kaikeyi in the episode of Ramayana. Kaikeyi is the second and favorite queen of the King Dasaratha. The king had three queens. The eldest being the embodiment of love and devotion came to be known as Kausalya. Kaikeyi being the embodiment of knowledge or awareness is the second. Knowledge must always be controlled by love. And lastly Sumintra is the youngest or the third queen.

She is the embodiment of action. Or the three queens are the embodiment of Satyam, Shivam and Sundaram. Kausalya represents Satyam – because love alone is truth. Kaikeyi is the Shivam – truth in action and Sumintra is Sundaram – flowering of truth.

Satyam is the experience. Shivam is the action that comes out of the experience. And Sundaram is the flowering of consciousness of the man who has experienced truth. These three are the ultimate reality for those who are on the mystical path.

Dasaratha mystically represents totality of consciousness. Of which Kausalya, Kaikeyi and Sumintra manifest three aspects Love, Awareness and Action. And wherever this Trinity exists bliss manifests in its totality.

Kaikeyi sat alone on the bank of the river introspecting. She scrawls in the sand „Rama‟. It is said that one utterance of the name „Rama‟ is equivalent to a million penances. Ahalya was turned back from stone to woman just by the touch of his foot.

Kaikeyi reflects all the events in retrospect. „Rama my dear eldest son, Kaikeyi addresses! No stepson. The one I cruelly banished into the forest along with his gentle, innocent wife and loving brother Lakshmana. Rama the son, without whom his father Dasaratha could not live! My husband Dasaratha whose death I unknowingly brought through Rama‟s banishment. Rama the favorite brother of my own son Bharata!

My Bharata, who barely tolerates my presence for the sake of my darling Rama! Rama who has forgiven me and Rama, who has forgiven Manthara, the crooked hunchback who poisoned my mind! My own dear nursemaid, Manthara, who kindled my avarice to be the queen mother. Manthara told me that Rama‟s exile and Bharata‟s coronation would extend the privileges I enjoyed as the king‟s favorite queen.‟ „I never knew that someone who espoused my cause, whom I trusted from childhood, would give me advice that would bring about my downfall. I never knew that Bharata, my own son, would despise me for banishing his brother and causing his father‟s death. I have brought widowhood upon my own head and that of my co-wives for no fault of theirs. My fault! Could Manthara have poisoned my mind if there was no fault in me? No greed, no folly, no jealousy, no vanity? She merely churned my mind a little and all the poison in it came to the surface like butter from buttermilk.

The villainy must have always been dormant in my heart.‟

„Rama the son of Kausalya whose grief is so hard to see!

Kausalya, my co-wife who lost her husband and son because of me. Who grieves, but does not blame, or retaliate. Bharata turns only to Kausalya for support, so much does he feel ashamed of me.‟ „I am lonely. I too have lost my husband and sons. Rama I exiled, Lakshmana went with him to be of service to him. The remaining two now live with their pain of separation. They haven‟t ordered me dead, imprisoned or exiled. It is against their Dharma to illtreat a woman, their mother. The Dharma that I forsook at the time I exiled my eldest son. When I caused them to lose their father the Dharma that my sons will never forsake and will always fight to preserve‟. „Rama everyone misses you – but I suffer most – because it was MY FAULT‟. This is how Kaikeyi felt.

Kaikeyi started to weep as if it would break her heart. And she went on writing Rama‟s name in the sand. Her ornaments she had long donated. She lived as simply as a hermit. She served whom she could and practiced living unselfishly like her sons and cowives. But the same words rang again and again in her head. „Oh Rama, My Fault., My Stupidity‟.

Rama‟s fourteen years of exile ended. He flew back to Ayodhya in the Puspaka Vimana with Sita, Lakshmana and his victorious Vanara Army. There was a great welcome for him in Ayodhya.

The city buzzed with stories of Sita‟s abduction by Ravana, Rama‟s search for Sita, his friendship with the Vanara king Sugriva, Hanuman‟s discovery of Sita in Lanka, the bridge the Vanaras built across the sea to Lanka and Ravana‟s death at Rama‟s hands in battle. Ravana, that terrible ten headed Rakshasa, the violator of women and greatest burden to mother earth.

Kaikeyi gazed upon her son with pride. „My Rama. My son. My fault. But if it hadn‟t been for me., mother earth would be still be burdened by that monster Ravana. Isn‟t that so, dear sage?‟ She asked Vasishtha, the royal guru. And probably Vasishtha would have replied, “AHANKARA VIMUDHATMA KARTHAHAMITI MANYATE. He who is deluded by egoism, thinks that he is the kartha – ‘doer’.

Neither were you the cause of Rama‟s exile, nor anyone‟s suffering. Nor are you the cause of Ravana‟s death and Rama‟s victory. Our divine Sri Hari is the only cause, the only doer. We are only the instruments, the players.”

Things and event happen on their own because of the thoughts that you nourish and accumulate moment to moment. These become your accumulated actions and journey of life continues.

This I shall explain now!!!

The Moving finger writes, and having writ moves on, Nor all thy wit nor piety shall cancel half a line.

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hen this issue of Meditation Times was planned by the Chief Editor it was decided to make this issue related to Sri Rama the question was from where to start.

One and the simplest way was to present the usual way that you know. But that was not going to help you in the process of transformation. And if everything is given in details it will be difficult and that too is not possible. The role of Meditation Times is to present deeper insights into life, living and all that is concerned with these. Therefore you are given insight into various aspects of the Epic of Rama.

Without understanding the role of Ravana and Kaikeyi you will not know the relevance of Rama and the epic Ramayana. These are the main negative characters around whom the storyline revolves.

Ravana <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/oWXKRaHpJRo&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs =1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/oWXKRaHpJRo&amp;hl=en_USa& mp;f s=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWXKRaHpJRo

Ravana is the primary antagonist character of the Hindu epic, the Ramayana. He is the demon king of Lanka. In the epic he is mainly depicted negatively, infamously causing atrocities on sages, kidnapping Ramaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wife Sita, to claim vengeance on Rama and

his brother Lakshmana for having cut off the nose of his sister Surpanakha.

Science says atoms cannot be destroyed. Matter is destroyed and with the combinations of electrons, protons and neutrons new matter takes form. So too it is your thought pattern that act as the essence of all.

First a thought is created. Together many thoughts create actions. And this process continues. Thoughts go on accumulating so are the actions. Accumulated actions give rise to the body-mind-intellect realm. And the process continues until one day thinking is dropped and with awareness all accumulated actions are dropped then there will be no more life. The bodymind-intellect realm has dissolved in totality. This is enlightenment. Therefore to know someone we need to go into the past. This is a psychological process. A psychoanalyst can go into life up to the age of 5.

Psychoanalysis is not developed to go beyond this age.

It is the psychology of Buddhas that can take you beyond this age. And only when you go beyond the age of five you can really enter the real past. The purpose of these stories and epics is to bring a deeper understanding in you so that the process of transformation may begin in you and you can attain to salvation.

The past accumulated actions of Ravana in another form are responsible for his present form as Ravana.

And when there is awareness new actions do not accumulate and the existing ones are exhausted one attains to Jeevan-Mukti or freedom from body-mindintellect realm. This is the law of Karma. No one can escape. Let me take you into the past lives of Ravana to understand the role of Ravana.

Cursed to be born Ravana Ravana and Kumbhakaran are two brothers who are equally responsible for atrocities on the sages. In the past there were two attendants Jai and Vijaya as guards at the entrance to heaven â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the abode of Vishnu. Their role was to allow the right person enter the abode.

The mythological story goes that the revered sages, the Four Kumaras, Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatana and Sanatakumara, came to visit Vishnu in Vaikuntha.

Although they were very old, yet they appear to be children. So thinking them to be children Jaya and Vijaya stopped the revered sages from entering Vishnu’s abode on counts that the lord had other preoccupations. The sages having taken great measures to travel to Vishnu’s abode were furious at the insolence shown by the gatekeepers and cursed Jaya and Vijaya to be born as mortals and roam the earth (Bhuloka). The gatekeepers reported back to Vishnu of the incident that had taken place. Vishnu was disappointed at the lack of judgment shown by Jaya and Vijaya, in that he has time for all his devotees and would have taken time to meet with them regardless of other preoccupations.

most commonly associated with Venkateswara temples in the United States of America.

Vishnu received the sages himself and the sages were speechless. They requested the Lord to decide the punishment himself. Vishnu told them that he could not take back the curse, but could give them options on how the curse would be lived out. He gave them the option either to be born several many times as great devotees of the Lord Vishnu, or a three times as powerful individuals that were the sworn enemies of the Lord Vishnu, and to die at the hands of Lord Vishnu.

The second curse was inflicted by Vedvati.

The dwarapalakas chose to be born a three times as enemies of Vishnu, and took the form of the demons each time they assumed human form: 1. Hiranyaksh and Hiranyakashyapu in Krita Yuga in the first life 2. Ravana and Kumbhakaran in Treta Yuga in their second life 3. Dantvakra and Shisupala in Dwapara Yuga in their third life.

In this era, known in Sanskrit as the Kali Yuga, Jaya and Vijaya are free from their curse, and they can be seen as gatekeepers in Vishnu temples (and temples affiliated with Vaishnavism). Famous temples where statues of Jaya-Vijaya stand are the temple of Venkateswara in Tirumala (and at several many Venkateswara temples worldwide), the temple of Jagannath in Puri, and the temple of Ranganatha in Srirangam. However, Jaya-Vijaya dwarapalakas are

Curses on Ravana There were two curses inflicted upon Ravana that assisted in the slaying of Ravana. The first curse was inflicted by the ancestor of Rama. There have been constant fights between the forces of Ravana and that of the Aryan kings. Ikshvaku was sun clan that engaged in constant battles with Ravana. One of the King Aranya has fought a battle with Ravana in which he was killed. After defeating the king Ravana insulted the defeated at this the King from the Ikshvaku clan cursed Ravana that he will be killed in the hands of one of the kings of this clan.

Certain versions of the Ramayana suggest that Sita was a reincarnation of Vedavati (an avatar of Mother Laxmi), an orphan lady. The legend goes thus: Sage Kushadhwaja was a learned and pious scholar residing in a remote hermitage. His daughter Vedavati grows up in her father’s hermitage to become an ardent devotee of Vishnu, and resolves early in life to wed no one other than Vishnu. Her father refrains from stifling her aspirations, and even rejects proposals from many powerful kings and celestial beings who seek his daughter’s hand in marriage.

Among those rejected is Sambhu, a powerful Daitya king. Smarting under his humiliation, Shambhu seizes an opportunity and murders Vedavati’s parents on a dark moonless night.

Vedavati continues to reside at the hermitage of her parents, meditating upon Vishnu. She is described as being inexpressibly beautiful, dressed in the hide of a black antelope, her hair matted, and the bloom of her youth enhanced by her austerities. Ravana, the ruler of Lanka, once finds Vedavati seated in meditation and is captivated by her beauty. He propositions her and is rejected. Ravana mocks her austerities and her devotion to Vishnu; finding himself firmly rejected at every turn, he tries to molest Vedavati, pulling her hair. This greatly incensed her, and she forthwith cut off her hair, and said she would enter into the fire before his eyes, adding,

‘Since I have been insulted in the forest by thee who art wicked-hearted, I shall be born again for thy destruction.’

So she entered the blazing fire, and celestial flowers fell all around. It was she who was born again as Sita, and was the moving cause of Ravana’s death, in the hands of Rama.

Her chastity thus sullied beyond redemption, Vedavati immolates herself on a pyre, vowing to return in another age and be the cause of Ravana’s destruction.

She is duly reborn as Sita, wife of Rama, and became the direct cause of Ravana’s destruction at his hands.

In the process, Vedavati also receives the boon she so single-mindedly sought: Vishnu, in his avatara as Rama, becomes her husband. In some versions of the Ramayana, sage Agastya relates this entire story to Rama.

Valmiki wrote ‘The Ramayana’, an ancient Sanskrit epic thought to have been compiled between approximately 400 BCE and 200 CE ‘The Ramayana’ does not mention Sita as Ravana’s daughter. However, the other versions of Ramayana started recreating stories telling Sita as daughter of Ravana and have their own explanation of why Sita was Ravana’s daughter.

In each life Ravana was aware of this curse and for him it was conscious action. Ravana is described as a devout follower of Shiva, a great scholar, a capable ruler and a maestro of the Veena. He has his apologists and staunch devotees within the Hindu traditions, some of whom believe that his description as a ten-headed person is a reference to him possessing a very thorough knowledge over the 4 Vedas and 6 Upanishads, which made him as powerful as 10 scholars. According to alternative interpretation he is guided by and does not have control over the five senses and five bodily instruments of action. His counterpart, Rama, on the contrary, is always in full control of these ten. However, there is mention in Atharvaveda of Demonic Brahmans called Dasagva (ten-headed) and Navagva (nine-headed). These early beings may be the actual forerunners of the later character in the Ramayana.

Ravana also authored Ravana Sanhita, a powerful book on the Hindu astrology, also known as Lal Kitab.

Ravana possessed a thorough knowledge of Ayurveda

and political science. He is said to have possessed the nectar of immortality, which was stored under his navel, as a celestial boon by Brahma. According to some theories, he was a historical emperor who reigned over Sri Lanka from 2554 BC to 2517 BC.

Birth Ravana was born to a great sage Vishrava (or Vesamuni), and his wife, the daitya princess Kaikesi.

He was born in the Devagana gotra, as his grandfather, the sage Pulastya, was one of the ten Prajapatis or mind-born sons of Brahma and one of the Saptarishi (Seven Great Sages Rishi) in the first Manvantara. Kaikesi’s father, Sumali or Sumalaya, king of the Daityas, wished her to marry the most powerful being in the mortal world, so as to produce an exceptional heir. He rejected the kings of the world, as they were less powerful than him. Kaikesi searched among the sages and finally chose Vishrava, the father of Kubera. Ravana was thus partly Brahmin and partly Daitya.

Even though he was partly Brahmin and partly Rakshas, Rama praised Ravan as Mahabrahmin. Rama had to do Ashwamedha yagna as penance for killing a Brahmin (Brahma hatya dosha).

Ravana had three brothers Vibhishana, Kumbhakarna and Ahiravana and a sister Meenakshi (‘girl with fish like eyes’), although later she was dubbed the infamous Shoorpanakha ‘winnow-like nails’. Through his mother, he was related to the daityas Maricha and Subahu.

His father Vishrava noted that while Ravana was aggressive and arrogant, he was also an exemplary scholar. Under Vishrava’s tutelage, Ravana mastered the Vedas, the holy books, and also the arts and ways of Kshatriyas (warriors). Ravana was also an excellent veena player and the sign of his flag had a picture of veena on it. Sumali, worked hard in secret to ensure that Ravana retained the ethics of the Daityas.

Kartavirya Arjuna humbles Ravana. The Ramayana tells that Ravana had close connections with region of the Yadus, which included Gujarat, parts of Maharashtra and Rajasthan up to Mathura south of Delhi. Ravana is believed to be related to Lavanasura, (Ravana being the uncle) also regarded as a Rakshasa, of Madhupura (Mathura) in the region of the

Surasenas, who was conquered & Shatrughna, youngest brother of Rama.

killed

by

After worshipping a Shiva Linga on the banks of the Narmada, in the more central Yadu region, Ravana was captured and held under the control of King Kartavirya Arjuna, one of the greatest Yadu kings. It is very clear from the references in the Ramayana that Ravana was no commoner among the Humans or Asuras, a great chanter of the Sama Veda.

Tapas to Brahma Following his initial training, Ravana performed an intense penance to Brahma (the Creator God), lasting several years. During his penance, Ravana chopped off his head 10 times as a sacrifice to appease Brahma.

Each time he sliced his head off a new head arose, thus enabling him to continue his penance. At last, Brahma pleased with his austerity, appeared after his 10th decapitation and offered him a boon. Ravana asked for immortality, which Brahma refused to give, but gave him the celestial nectar of immortality. The nectar of immortality, stored under his navel, dictated that he could not be vanquished for as long as it lasted.

Ravana also asked for absolute invulnerability from and supremacy over gods, heavenly spirits, other Rakshas, serpents, and wild beasts. Contemptuous of mortal men, he did not ask for protection from these.

Brahma granted him these boons in addition to his 10 severed heads and great strength by way of knowledge of divine weapons and magic. Thus Ravana came to be known as ‘Dasamukha’ (Dasa - ten, mukha mouth/face).

Kaikeyi Kaikeyi in the Hindu epic Rāmāyaṇa, was the second of King Daśaratha’s three queens and a queen of Ayodhyā. She was the mother of Bharata. The term Kaikeyī in Sanskrit means ‘belonging to the Kaikeyas’, referring the ruling family of the Kekaya clan, to whom Kaikeyī belonged.

The daughter of the mighty Ashwapati, a long-term ally of Kosala, Kaikeyi married Dasaratha after the latter had promised her father that the son born of her womb would succeed him as King of Kosala.

Dasaratha was able to make this promise as his first wife, Kausalya, was childless and not likely to produce a son of her own. Kaikeyi also remained barren for many years of marriage, as a result of which Dasaratha married Sumitra, the princess of Magadha, another kingdom with strong political ties to Kosala.

Kaikeyi’s personality is worth examining and provides a strong clue to her motivations which later led to her insisting on the exile of her stepson from Ayodhya. As a young girl and the only sister to seven brothers, Kaikeyi grew up without a maternal influence in her childhood home. Her father had banished her mother from Kekaya after realizing that his wife’s nature was not conducive to a happy family life. Amongst other things, due to a boon, Ashwapati was able to understand the language of the birds. However, this was accompanied by a caveat that if he ever revealed the content ‘ spoken by the bird speak’ to anyone, even his own mother, that he would forthwith lose his life.

One day, the King and his Queen were strolling through the palace gardens when Ashwapati happened to overhear the conversation of a pair of mated swans.

The conversation so amused him that he laughed heartily, instigating his wife's curiosity. Despite being aware of the fact that he could not divulge the content of the conversation to her, without losing his life, Kaikeyi’s mother insisted on knowing the cause of the King’s mirth. When Ashwapati realized that his wife cared little for his life or well-being, he had her banished to her parents’ home.

Kaikeyi never saw her mother again. She was raised by her wet nurse, Manthara, who accompanied Kaikeyi to Ayodhya as a trusted maid upon her marriage to Dasaratha. Her father’s treatment of her mother and the latter’s subsequent exile led to Kaikeyi harboring a deep distrust of men in general and husbands in particular, and to considering their love as ‘fickle’ and ‘passing’ in nature. In addition, she was very insecure in her position as secondary consort to Dasaratha. She realized that Dasaratha deeply respected his Queen and Empress, Kausalya, and had only married her in order to produce the much-needed heir. To this end, Kaikeyi realized that her position in her husband’s affections and esteem relied heavily on her ability to produce that heir. When she remained barren, she became increasingly insecure and realized that she could never win in her struggle for supremacy

over Kausalya, although Manthara proved to be a great help in this regard. The older woman schemed constantly to further her own position at the Court.

And since her position depended on Kaikeyi’s status at Court, Manthara lost no opportunity to feed the young Kaikeyi’s insecurity and jealousy of Kausalya, despite Dasaratha’s obvious enchantment and love for all of his wives. It is important to point out that other sources state that Kaikeyi was not insecure, that she loved her other Queen sisters, and was the backbone of the group. She had saved King Dasaratha in battle and demonstrated her warrior courage.

Manthara’s scheming paid off when Kaikeyi was able to convinced her husband to take her along with him during a military campaign against Samhasura, an enemy of both Indra and Dasaratha. During a fierce battle between the two, the wheel of Daśaratha's chariot broke and Samhasura’s arrow pierced the King’s armor and lodged in his chest. Kaikeyi, who was acting as Dasaratha’s charioteer, quickly repaired the broken wheel and then drove the chariot away from the battle field. She nursed the wounded King back to health. Touched by her courage and timely service, Dasaratha offered her two boons. However, Kaikeyi chose to ask those boons later. In addition, she became his favorite wife and finally gained ascendancy over Kausalya.

Rama would be no threat to her son, Kaikeyi further demanded the exile of Rama from Ayodhya for 14 long years, reasoning that this length of time would be enough for Bharata to consolidate his position as King of Kosala.

Years passed and all three Queens produced sons.

Rama, the son of Kausalya, was Dasaratha's favorite son. Rama was a loving, obedient child who followed his father's footsteps and revered Kaikeyi over his own mother, leading to the former’s deep love and affection for him. When he turned 16 and was to be crowned King, Kaikeyi was delighted and as happy as she would have been had it been her own son, Bharata’s, coronation. However, Manthara, worried that Kaikeyi would lose her status as Chief Queen at Court if Rama ascended the throne (making Kausalya the Queen Mother) decided to instigate trouble She fueled Kaikeyi’s dormant jealousy and envy of Kausalya, reminded her that her son’s coronation would give Kausalya her former status as the most important of Dasaratha’s Queens and would cut Bharata out of the royal lineage forever. Finally, Kaikeyi’s ardent desire to retain superior status over Kausalya motivated her to demand the two boons granted to her years earlier by Dasaratha and to further remind him of his promise to Ashwapati that the son born of her (Kaikeyi’s) womb should succeed Dasaratha as King of Kosala. In order to ensure that

But today the words of Manthara had done their trick.

Queen Kaikeyi reminded Dasaratha about the two boons he had promised her years back. The king remembered and was in fact pleased to grant the boons on that auspicious day. And as the fate had it, Kaikeyi asked:

But Kaikeyī’s desire never bore fruit. After sending his son into exile, a grief-stricken Dasaratha died of a broken heart six days after Rama left Ayodhya. She came to blame herself for this death. Furthermore, Bharata swore never to ascend the throne as it was his older brother’s birth right. He further blamed her for his father’s death and is said never to have addressed her as ‘Mother’ again. Kaikeyi was said to have died a lonely and broken-hearted woman, estranged from her son, his wife (the cousin of Rama’s wife, Sita) and their two sons, her only grandchildren.

Kaikeyi’s Resolve And indeed Kaikeyi was convinced about the injustice being done to her son Bharata! She was angry and did not come out to greet her husband Dasaratha.

Therefore, the king himself went her chamber and inquired about her wellbeing. In fact the king loved queen Kaikeyi the most!

1. Of the first boon, O my beloved husband, I ask that instead of Rama Bharata be given the throne of Ayodhya, and, 2. Of the second boon, I ask for the banishment of Rama to the forest for fourteen years.

The king was not prepared for such unusual demands.

He tried to persuade the queen to ask for something else, but no. Kaikeyi was firm in her resolve. The king went for compromise in granting the throne to Bharata but pleaded with his queen not to insist to send Rama to Forest. But still, no. Kaikeyi was firm on both the counts.

King Dasaratha was heartbroken on listening to the resolve of Kaikeyi to send Rama to the forest for fourteen years. He could not imagine even in dream that his most beloved son Rama would be put to such an acid test. He knew that the separation from Rama would be the last thing his old and frail body could tolerate. With heavy heart, he pleaded with his wife, ‘O Kaikeyi, what has possessed your kind heart! Why has your love for Rama disappeared! Please say that you are speaking in jest, and that you are not serious about your two demands.’

‘Ask for anything else. Ask for many palaces and jewelry, ask for army of thousands of elephants and horses, ask for my life, but spare my Rama from the hardships of forest and banishment to the life of recluse. I grant Bharata the throne of Ayodhya.’

But, no, Kaikeyi was firm as a rock in her demands.

Said she, ‘Come what may you must keep your word of honor. If you fail, you will see my corpse at the sunrise next morning.’ She also reminded the King about the lofty tradition of keeping promises even at the cost of life in the Raghu dynasty.

The news reached the chamber of Rama and Sita, as also all around the palace, that something grossly inopportune has happened to the king, and that he is ill in the chamber of Kaikeyi. The Prime Minister Sumanta - was summoned by the king to fetch Rama to the chamber of Kaikeyi.

When Rama reached there he saw his father lying semiconscious on the floor full of grief and pathos.

His eyes were filled with tears of desperation and sorrow. Rama pleaded with Kaikeyi to tell him what had happened to his father. When the whole story of the promises etc. was told, Rama understood the situation very well. He knew that both King Dasaratha and himself are caught in a situation that demanded supreme sacrifice. Bharata was not present in Ayodhya during all these happenings.

Rama was full of praise for Kaikeyi. Rama spoke: ‘O mother, you have bestowed a great honor upon me by asking for these two promises. Firstly, I agree with you that Bharata would be a better king than I. Secondly, what of fourteen years of forest life! Time will fly with wink of the eyes. But I must be grateful

to you for giving me the opportunity to be close with the nature. Moreover, I shall personally look after the conditions of subjects in far off places of our kingdom. I would be more than happy to redress their grievances. And most importantly, I shall get the rare opportunity to submerge myself in spiritual practices to seek the God. The daily hectic life of the king otherwise also comes in the way of God realization and meditation. And last but not the least, to uphold the word given by the parents is the duty of every son, even if it puts him to utmost suffering. It is a rare opportunity offered to anyone to die for the honor of his father.’

Sita and Lakshmana accompany Rama Thus Rama genuinely felt nothing at such an arduous predicament. Everyone present was stunned to listen to the brave and high thinking of Rama. Respect for Rama doubled in everyone’s heart. But the daughter of Janaka - Janaki (Sita), the newly married wife of Rama, was not be left behind. After seeking permission from her mother-in-law, she spoke with dignity and composure to her husband, ‘O Lord, I will also accompany you to the forest.’

Instantly many objections were raised by Queen Kausalya, Prime Minister, and Rama himself that for the newly wedded queen it would not be proper to leave the comforts of the palace and seek difficult life of the forest. Moreover, her in-laws needed her care more than the able-bodied husband. Kaikeyi has not asked her to accompany her husband.

But Sita was not to be so easily put off. With firm determination she said to Rama, ‘Please do not deny me the chance of serving you when you need it most. I am your shadow; I have taken wedding vows to be with you in joy and sorrow, in palace or in jungle, in life and death. I cannot remain alive without you. If you still insist that I should stay here with your parents, I declare that I will jump in the river Sarayu after your departure!’

At last when every effort of persuasion failed, Rama conceded to the request of Sita, his wife, to accompany him. And then comes the extreme sacrifice of a brother for elder brother.

The way of Sri Rama

M

an lives in the graveyards of the past.

Nearly 85% of lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s energy is spent in the things related to the past that have no connection with the present context. A discontinuity with the past is the first step to attain to the way of Sri Rama.

This is the process of self-management. In the process of Self Management a total discontinuity from the past is the prerequisite. When you are discontinuous from the past only then a new model can be created for your growth. This is the only process to create a new man out of you. How can this happen in practical terms? Let me explain the methodology.

It looks difficult. It looks almost impossible. You have lived your life in a certain pattern. This is why it looks not only difficult instead almost impossible at times as well. However it only looks so. In reality it is very simple.

Watch within yourself all the connections. Be a witness to all those that you are keeping with the old pattern. And analyze why you are keeping it.

Is it just a habit from the very childhood? You have been taught certain concepts, ideas, certain religious ways, cults, and creeds? Or that these nourish you? Or, on the contrary, are they depleting your energy levels? Be a witness to all this. This is the first step. Out of this other steps will arise?

You just have to see within yourself about each thing. Look carefully whether it is political, social, or religious pattern that you have carried from the past. Or that the past has given to you through your education system, and through other means in the society. You just have to see the

reason that you are still holding on to it. This is an important step in the process of Self Management.

And my experience is that nobody is being nourished by it. Past never nourishes. All that you have eaten yesterday cannot nourish you now. So there is no reason to hold on to it. The moment you decide to drop never it hesitate a blink. Drop the bag immediately. Or at least decide to drop.

Almost everybody is sucked by the dead, the old, and the past. The past and its patterns never allow you to be new, young, and contemporary. It keeps pulling you back again and again. It is not something friendly to you. You have just never looked at it and seen that you are carrying enemies within you, parasites within you. And you are simply carrying them because of old habits, because they have always been there -- as long as you can remember they have been there. As long as you can remember you have been a Christian, or a Hindu, or a Mohammedan.

It is just a question of habit.

So you have to see exactly what traditions and past inheritances are doing to you. You have to be very clear-cut, and then the thing is very simple. If you see that you are carrying parasites just because of old habits, that you are nourishing your own enemies who are destroying your life, your youth, and your newness -- who are making you almost dead before death comes -- it won't take any great effort not to cling to them. You will simply drop them; there is not much of a question.

It is your decision to keep them or not to keep them. You will simply drop them.

The moment you see that you are carrying poison, something destructive, which is going to spoil

everything in your life -- not because I say so; you have to see it with your own eyes -- then it is so easy to get rid of the past. And the moment you are discontinuous with the past, you have immense freedom to grow.

Suddenly you are fresh and young, free of the parasites, free of the burden, free of an unnecessary load, luggage which was nothing but junk. But you were carrying it because your fathers, your forefathers, everybody was carrying it.

It is simply a question of seeing what the past is doing to you.

Is it a friend or an enemy?

And just the insight will do the work.

I have heard about one patient who was having his session with the psychoanalyst. The psychoanalyst had been trying hard for months to convince him that his whole sickness was imaginary. His sickness was that he was feeling continuously that strange creatures were crawling all over his body; and all the time he was just throwing them off.

And there was nothing.

For months the psychoanalyst was telling him that there was nothing: "You just look. I don't see anything -- and you go on throwing off those strange creatures which are just your imagination."

But the man had no time even to listen. While the psychoanalyst was talking he was just throwing... from all over the body.

In this session he was sitting very close to the psychoanalyst. And as he started throwing off his strange creatures, the psychoanalyst said, "Wait!

Don't throw them on me!" Because for six months, trying to convince him, the psychoanalyst himself had become convinced that there must be something there -- because this man is intelligent, he is a professor, and if he goes on throwing off those things, there must be something there. So he

said, "Wait! You can throw them anywhere else, but you can't throw them on ME." The psychoanalyst himself became convinced: "And I don't want to deal any more with you, because I have started suspecting, once in a while, that some strange creature is crawling on me. I know that it is just imagination, but...."

You have to see that even imagination starts being active. Seeing certainly is action. You don't have to do anything after seeing. You see it, and that very moment you are disconnected from the thing if it is not nourishing you but torturing you. It is very simple.

And it is one of the most fundamental things... to get rid of the whole past, to be absolutely discontinuous with it. Then you have a simplicity, a lightness, because there is no load. And you have a health of mind, of soul -- which was sucked away, so that you had never had any experience of it.

You feel new vitality and new blood running through your veins. And because you are now discontinuous with the past, you don't have memories, psychological memories. If you want to remember, you can remember, but they are no longer a force on you. They don't have any power over you so you have to remember them.

Now there are no memories, no connections with the past. You have only the present, and you have a vast future. Of course you cannot do anything in the future, you can only do anything you want to do in the present. But it goes on: as the future becomes the present, your growth, your action, your intelligence, your creativity -- anything that you are working at -- keeps growing.

And the pleasure of growth is immense.

To be stuck somewhere is one of the most horrible feelings.

I am here for all that existence wants me to be. Therefore I go on allowing happening all that existence has sent me for. And whatsoever the existence does not want to happen I will not allow happening. My being is absorbed in god. This is totality. And this is what, the word ‘god’ means to me. This is flowing in god or cosmic harmony.

And the moment this happened, I became suddenly all - infinite - oceanic... And now sour in infinite sky effortlessly....

T

his is the way the life of the one who knows moves. And only such person is the beacon light or the source of inspiration in the process of transformation.

You will certainly stumble on the topic. It is a strange yet interesting one. You may wonder how a person could be the way to life. Hey! That is where you are making a mistake.

Sri Rama is not a person alone – a historical one.

Instead he is existential one. And indeed anyone who is existential becomes the way of life. One who is existential has experienced his being-ness. Such a person is never born and never dies. This is known as eternity and the person is known as eternal. The way he looked at life, events, and situations and interacted becomes is the way to life. Understanding this and living your life accordingly brings about transformation. This is what I mean when I said Rama is the way to life.

His entire perspective of life is totally different that your. And this is the reason he is considered as ideal one.

There are two ways to live. One is the way of struggle. The other is the way of surrender.

Struggle is the outcome of ignorance and ego. Such a person wants his will alone as this is what matters. The way of surrender implies the dissolution of individual will in the will of the whole. The man of surrender has no will of his. He lives as an instrument to fulfill the will of God. He is in total harmony with divine will. Struggle brings tension, and disharmony. Surrender brings harmony and bliss. The way of Rama is the way of surrender to the whole.

Sri Rama. The very mention of this name brings to our mind the image of the Sri Rama who was the embodiment of all perfection. We must have seen many persons ideal in their respective fields of work or in a particular role of human relationships.

Sri Rama was the ideal one in each and every respect. He was an ideal son, husband, and disciple, brother, friend and teacher. However his role as a spiritual teacher is not as well-known as Sri Krishna’s is through his message of Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna.

In the Uttarakanda of Adhyatma Ramayana, Sri Rama is seen in the role of a master who dispels the ignorance of his most devoted and dear brother Lakshmana by imparting the knowledge of the Self.

This is known as Sri Rama Gita.

The subject that Sri Rama takes to explain is subtle, and the exposition by Sri Rama is brief but fully comprehensive. This text seems to have inspired even Shankaracharya, as we find many similar verses in his Atma Bodha. Tulsidas has also given Sri Rama Gita in the Aranyakanda of his famous work Sri Ramacaritamanas.

Rama is described as an ideal son, friend, brother, husband, enemy…. He is the embodiment of idealism. When I heard this, a question came to mind, ‘if Rama is the symbol of idealism then what the criterion of idealism is. Sri Rama must have set certain criterion for ideal life. This is the first thing that I will like to explain before going into other things.

What is the quality of an ideal person? The first and the foremost quality of such a being is his emotional maturity. To understand Sri Rama fully you have to remove the conditioning that Rama is

God and incarnation. With such an understanding you will create a gap between you and him which can never be bridged and there will be no transformation in you. With the gap you will never try to inculcate even a single quality that makes Rama the ideal one.

You seem to be interested singing a few songs of praise, model in your elegant apparels of latest design, and thus nourish your ego. Have you observed that, spending huge sums during such religious ceremonies indeed brought any change in the inner frame of mind or awareness? Has involvement in such actions changed your understanding? Are you a transformed person with this yajna? If not you have to understand there is something basically wrong.

Idealism comes with emotional maturity. And with this there is the understanding of each relationship.

Also there is a way to relate. We tend to give too much importance to relationships rather to the way of relating. Relating is the outcome of meditation. When someone attains to meditation he learns the art of relating.

Relationship is indeed the mirror of oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inward growth. Relating is the meditative way of living.

You see people around you, claiming to be meditators but when you look into their lives there is no bliss overflowing either through their living or through their words. This is a sad plight. Hardly ever you really see someone who is emotionally mature.

When you begin to relate or enter into any relationship there always remains the fear of commitment. It is because of this that all problems arise in life. You find yourself incapable of making decisions. Remember it is only through decisions that you attain to consciousness. Also when you take the responsibility of your decisions and stand by these that you become more and more conscious. In this process you attain to crystallization. This brings sharpness and maturity as well. In the absence you remain dull.

When you look around you will observe people moving from one master to another, also people move from one temple to another. This does not mean that these persons are real seekers. It is so because such persons are incapable of making

decisions. And commitment.

this

is

the

way

to

avoid

Something like this happens when it comes to human relationships. You go on moving from one person to another. And you think that you are really a great lover. This simply indicates that you are not a lover indeed. In fact you are really avoiding any deep commitment. What really happens with commitment is that there comes deep involvement, and also the problems relating to this. In this process you have to face problems and also the pain associated with it. So you try to play safe. And this you do by not going deep into with anyone. There remains a fear that if you go deep you may not be able to come out of the relationship.

Whatever be the nature of relationship, be it worldly or beyond you never go deeper into the relationship. You want to remain on the surface. On the surface you only see the duality, the superfluous. You can stand on the sea shore and say that you have seen the ocean. On the surface you only see the waves. The wave neither is the ocean nor is the sum total of all waves ocean.

Waves arise on the surface of the ocean. Waves are multiple and the ocean is one. In order to know truth you have to dive deep into the womb of the ocean. There lie the treasures. So too on the surface of the relationship you only see the superfluous. To discover Truth you have to dive deep into the relationship.

Your fear of commitment, problems, hurt etc., will keep you away from going deeper into any relationship and thus discovering the inner treasure of serenity, bliss, ecstasy, and oneness. All that keeps you away from going deeper is EGO. Such an experience is that what you call as God Realization or Self Realization. In fact it is wrong to call it a relationship or experience. But mystics are always in difficulty. What they actually want to communicate is beyond words. And words are incapable to encompass all that is. Because all that is, is really magnanimous. Beyond words! Hindus call this as ANHAT NAAD - THE UNCREATED. If you go deep into any relations then there is the fear that you may not come back. And if you go deep into somebody, then that person will also go deeper into you. Such phenomena are

proportionate. Because if I go really deep into you this is the way that allows you to go deep into me.

It is a sharing. The fear remains that this can entangle you. And will certainly entangle you. This brings pain. So you want to play safe. This you do by meeting on the surface only. All your so called relationships are superfluous and remain on the surface. Husband and wives may remain for a long time together- 50-60 years together. And they say there is too much love. But in reality it is not love.

What actually happens when too people stay together for some time there happens TOGETHERNESS. And this is mistaken for LOVE. Love is the shadow of meditation. When meditation happens there comes the experience of inner oneness. And as the fragrance of meditation Love springs forth. Such phenomena are rarely seen.

What you really see around are meetings of two bodies not the souls. Such are hit and run love affairs. You tend to run before you are caught.

However this is not the case with Sri Rama as you have heard through various discourses. And this is the reason Rama is considered as the Embodiment of idealism in every aspect, situation that life has created for him.

However what you see around is people acting so juvenile, and childish that they are losing all sense of maturity. By maturity I do not mean physical maturity. I mean inner or spiritual maturity.

Maturity comes only when you are ready to face the pain of your being.

Maturity comes when you are ready to face the challenge. And remember there is no greater challenge than love. Remember to live happily with another person is the greatest challenge in the world. You can live peacefully alone. It is very easy.

However, it is very difficult to live peacefully, joyfully and meditatively with another person.

More so when someone else is your wife or husband it becomes almost impossible. What happens then is that now two ego collide, two worlds collide. It is also the explosion of two differently understood worlds. Then how can the two opposite poles meet? How can the two be attracted to one another? They are totally different, almost opposite, polar opposites. Then the meeting happens only on the surface and there is no question of the merger of two worlds, two egos.

Two worlds, two souls can merge only when the egos dissolve.

Therefore it is very difficult to be peaceful and loving in a relationship, because that is the challenge. And if you escape from that, you escape from maturity. If you go into it with all the pain, agony, and all that a relationship brings and still continue delving deeper and deeper into it, and then by and by the pain becomes a blessing, the conflict becomes a synergistic harmony. And then by and by, through the conflict, and friction, crystallization happens. Through the struggle you become more alert, more aware.

The other becomes like a mirror to you. You can see your ugliness in the other. The other provokes your unconscious, brings it to the surface. And when you are aware then you continue to grow in maturity. And what then happens... no words can encompass the magnanimity of it. It is like a dumb has now tasted the sweet fruit. He cannot describe the taste. Only through silent gestures he can speak of the inner happening.

You can only come to know all hidden parts of your being through the mirror of relationship. These are to be mirrored, reflected, in a relationship. This I call easier, because there is no other way â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but it is hard. It is hard, arduous, because you will have to change through it. And when you break the mirror how can there be the reflection of the hidden parts of your being, your ugliness, your ego, etc. And when these are not reflected there is no way to improve or let the inner beauty to manifest.

So too when you come to a Master there comes an even greater challenge before you. Because then you have to decide quickly. The problem is greater because you have to choose the unknown, and unknowable. Also your decision has to be total and absolute. This is not a child's game. And once you have made a decision there is no return. This brings so much conflict. So the easiest way is not to go on changing continuously. This is the way to avoid yourself. And you will remain soft, babyish.

And maturity will not happen to you. Only the unknown and the unknowable should have a call for you because that you have not yet lived; you have not moved in that territory. Move! Something new will definitely happen then only your silent gestures.....!

Therefore, O fool always go for the unknown, whatsoever be the risk, whatsoever be the outcome, and you will grow continuously. But in all circumstances you go on choosing the known and then you move in a continuous circle with the past again and again coming to the surface. You go on repeating it. And in this process you have become a CD that is moving in a repeat mode. So think through it. And decide. The sooner you can do so, the better. Postponement is really stupid.

Tomorrow you will also have to decide, so why not now? And now is the precise moment. And you think that tomorrow you will be wiser than today?

Do you think that tomorrow you will be livelier than today? Do you think that tomorrow you will be younger than today or fresher than today? Will tomorrow ever come????

Firstly tomorrow never comes. And tomorrow you will be older, you will be less courageous. Also there will be depletion of energy. But you go on thinking that tomorrow you will be more experienced, more cunning. As time move you are coming closer to death. The wheel of time is moving. And soon frigid claws of death will descend and seal your humble fete. Then you shan't have time to mend. And you will start wavering with more fear. Never postpone for the tomorrow. And who knows? Tomorrow may come or may not come. If you have to decide you have to decide right now. Because, transformation can only happen now and here!

In Indian classical music this is an established fact.

If you place a sitar, musical instrument, in the corner of an empty room, and on the other side of the room, and just facing this sitar let an established musician play his sitar. You will be surprised that the strings of the other sitar in the corner will begin to vibrate the same tune. This is synchronicity. When the maestro plays his instrument the vibes begin to move in the emptiness of the room. It is like throwing a stone in a silent lake. As the stone is thrown in the silent lake waves arise and cover the entire surface of the lake thus far reaching to the shore. So too the vibes created by the musical instrument begin to vibrate the strings of the instrument. For this, the master has to be really a very refined musician. The strings

of other sitar can vibrate only if there is a very delicate touch.

It actually happened in the times of an Indian Moughal emperor Akbar. He heard of this so he enquired from his master musician Tansen. Tansen said though I am a great musician. Yet still this is beyond me. However my master Haridas can do this. He is a master so he will not come to your court even you offer him the entire wealth. He lives in a nearby hut just on the other side of your palace. He is really his own master, not only that of music. This is the reason that I have never mentioned of him. I sing, i play the music because I am full of desires and expectations. Haridas will not come to your court. Only beggars like me will come to your court. In the eyes of the world he is a beggar. But the emperor was interested in listening to the master.

It was then arranged for the emperor to visit the master. Tansen asked him to carry a sitar. Together they reached the master at three in the morning. It was exactly at that time the master used to play his instrument. So Tansen asked the emperor to hide outside the hut. It was exactly at that time master Haridas started playing his musical instrument.

The emperor Akbar was surprised to observe that the instrument he was carrying began to vibrate the same tune. It was as if his silent instrument was replying the tune played the master. Also it appeared as if the invisible hands of the master were playing the two instruments simultaneously.

Akbar began to cry. Tears trickled down his eyes out of joy. Steadily they went back to the palace.

Both of them remained silent whole day.

Something like this happens between a master and a disciple who is on the borderline. Know this as synchronicity. This existed between Sri Rama and Lakshmana; Sri Rama and Bharata; Sri Rama and Shatrughana; and Sri Rama and Hanuman. Sri Ramaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s idealism is the outcome of his own selfrealization, emotional maturity and inner harmony.

And his way of relating with people of diverse mental framework and consciousness is the outcome of the experience of Truth, and living the experience of this inner oneness and harmony.

Sri Rama the way of life.

The way to reach the abode of Sri Rama In the process of transformation certain things are essential. Sincerity, inner oneness and honesty are essential but these need not unnecessarily hurt others.

These should evolve as a natural process instead being imposed from outside. This requires the understanding of human nature. Every moment Sri Rama exhibits this.

And this is the reason he is considered as the symbol of idealism.

The first thing to be understood: you have to be authentic to yourself -- sincere, and honest. But that does not mean that you have to hurt others through your honesty and sincerity, that does not mean that you have to disturb others, that does not mean that you have to disturb the rules of the game.

All relationships are just rules of the game. And many times you will have to act and wear masks, false faces.

The only thing that is to remember is: never become the masks. Use it if it is good, and keep the rules. But never become the mask. Never get identified. Act it, and live the relationship does not get identified with it.

This is a great problem, particularly in the West and for the new generation. They have heard too much. Also they have already been seduced by this idea. This requires being sincere and being honest. This is good, but you do not know how cunning and destructive the mind is.

Your mind can find excuses. You can say a truth, not because you love truth so much but just to hurt somebody; you can use it as a weapon. And if you are using it as a weapon it is not truth, it is worse than a lie.

Sometimes you can help somebody through a lie, and sometimes relationship becomes easier through a lie.

Then use it - but never get identified with it. What I am saying is: Be a good player, learn the rules of the game.

Never be too adamant about anything. This is psychological jargon. If we cannot see the psychology in the understanding of Sri Rama that creates the model for human life there is no way to call ourselves religions. Religiousness does not mean going to temple modeling best clothes offering large donations.

All these things are secondary and meaningless if we do not have the understanding of Sri Rama. Indeed only that person is religious who exhibits the slight trace of the understanding of Sri Rama. Start the journey somewhere. Choose one aspect of his life. Go deep into it. This will bring greater awareness in you.

Such understanding is more sacred and sublime than walking through the aisles of the society in the garb of a religious one with false masks.

The one thing has to be remembered. Life is a great complexity. You are not alone here, there are many others related to you. Be sincere unto yourself, never be false there. Know well what you want, and for yourself remain that. But there are others also. Never unnecessarily hurt them. And if you need to wear masks, wear them and enjoy them, but remember, they are not your original face, and be capable of taking them off any moment. Remain the master, and never become the slave; otherwise you can be violent through your sincerity. And then this violence will become way of your life.

I have seen persons who are cruel, violent, aggressive, sadistic - but sincere, very true, authentic. But they are using their authenticity just for their sadism. They want to make others suffer, and their trick is such that you cannot escape them. They are true, so you cannot say, ‘You are bad.’ They are good people, they are never bad, and so no one can say to them, ‘You are bad.’

They are always good, and they do the bad through their good.

Never do that. Also never take life too seriously.

Nothing is wrong in masks also, faces also. Just as in the drama on the stage they use faces and enjoy and the audience also enjoys, why not enjoy them in real life also? It is not more than a drama. But I am not saying for you to be dishonest. Be sincere with yourself, and do not get identified. But life is great; there are many around you related in many invisible ways. Never hurt anybody.

This Sri Ram exhibited through his life as ideal son, brother, husband, friend, and enemy.

Introduction to Commentary on Sri Rama Gita

by Taoshobuddha

T

his entire science of Reality, along with the techniques of realization or sadhanas, forming the essence of the Upanishads, is sung by Me as SRI RAM GITA. Now the ‘quarter’ that is to be realized only through the Upanishadic declarations. He who with firm devotion to his teacher with ardent faith merely reads or hears this Rama Gita, he, too, can reach My form – if he has faith in My words.

karmas of others. This macrocosmic vasana or tendencies is the equipment of the Lord or Isvara.

No conditioning, situation, or being can entrap the enlightened one again. He has awakened to the state of the Self. He lives in a realm beyond the sense perception of body; emotions of the mind; and the thinking of the intellect. Thus he lives blessing the world with his pure holiness, even if he is not ‘doing’ anything. His mere presence is an inspiration to the rest of humanity.

Once his share of destiny is exhausted, he merges into Brahman. This state is called videha-mukti.

Even earlier, when others were considering him as a member of the community, he was already a liberated person jivan-mukti.

If he is thus liberated from all equipment, why are the equipment not falling away dead, when their owner, the ego, has been liberated? The answer is that the force of its prarabdha karma keeps the body alive. The body is the product of our own karma or vasanas, and it is also a product of the karmas of others. One can redeem oneself of all one’s own karmas, but the body still lives and functions, because of samasti karma or the

Thus, the Enlightened One functions under the Lord’s will only. Without any sense of ‘I-do’ ahankara and any attachment asakti, he appears to be functioning in the world, himself ever living the experience of the infinite Self, Sri Rama.

Whoever can reflect upon the meaning of these sutras and contemplate upon their significance, if he has cultivated deep devotion to the guru, and also the ability to intellectually gain an understanding of the subtle impact of these verses sraddhavan, even if he only reads or hears this Gita, he too, can gain ‘My form divine.’ Rama-form here is identical with the nature of the Self (Atmasvarupa).

Preface to Commentary on Sri Ram Gita

by Taoshobuddha Sri Rama Gita is a unique text. Since the purehearted Lakshmana is the listener and Sri Rama himself the teacher, the explanation soars to vivid heights of subtlety.

Lakshmana like students alone can comprehend the truths expounded herein. Through these pages I am bringing such a subtle text for the benefit of an aspirant.

In short, this is no elementary text. Indeed, it is an advanced text - a spiritual text given out only to a sincere and spiritually inclined aspirant.

In line with the spirit of the origin of the Gita, any scripture or literary work which takes a philosophical and deeper view of things and

becomes an advice at a crucial moment, is also called a Gita in a symbolic way. This is how we call Rama’s advice to Bharata and Lakshmana as Rama-Gita.

Sri Rama - the name brings to our mind the image of the Sri Rama as the embodiment of all idealism.

The expression sends quivers and a joy of a different kind to us. We come across quite often person who is ideal in his respective field of work or as his role in understanding and performing human relationships. Sri Rama was the perfect ideal in each and every respect. He was an ideal son, husband, and disciple, ideal brother, friend and even an ideal enemy. However his role as a spiritual teacher is not as well-known as Sri Krishna’s through his message of Bhagavad Gita addressed to Arjuna.

Sri Rama Gita forms the part of Uttarakanda of Adhyatma Ramayana . We meet Sri Rama in the role of an ideal teacher dispelling the ignorance of his most devoted and dear brother Lakshmana by imparting the knowledge of the Self.

The subject is subtle, and the exposition by Sri Rama is brief but fully comprehensive. This text seems to have inspired even Sankaracharya, as we find many similar verses in his Atma Bodha.

Tulsidas has also given Sri Rama Gita in the Aranyakanda of his famous work Sri Rama Charita Manas. His source of inspiration is this Gita alone.

Through this work I have tried to provide insights into the sutras of Sri Rama Gita, revealing the deep significance of each sutra in an effective and enchanting manner. The entire message of Sri Rama is an exposition of Vedanta philosophy and expresses the essence of the Upanishads.

Sri Ram Gita happens two times. The first is the message to Bharata. It was after King Dashratha

had died and on returning Bharata came to know of the exile of Sri Rama, Death of King, and the cause behind all this he was filled with rage.

Somehow the rites were performed and Bharata along with the Guru and the mothers comes to the forest to pursue Rama to return to Ayodhya. It was at that time Sri Rama gives the teachings to Bharata which is known as Sri Rama Gita.

The next time Sri Rama Gita appears when after Sri Rama had abandoned the queen Sita Lakshmana is saddened and is confused.

Therefore to dispel this Sri Rama explains the essence of Upanishads to Lakshmana as Sri Rama Gita.

Through these pages I have chosen the sutras from the message to Lakshmana as Sri Rama Gita as the subject matter.

This entire science of Reality, along with the techniques of realization or sadhanas, forming the essence of the Upanishads, is sung by Me as SRI RAM GITA. Now the ‘quarter’ that is to be realized only through the Upanishadic declarations. He who with firm devotion to his teacher with ardent faith merely reads or hears this Rama Gita, he, too, can reach My form – if he has faith in My words.

Whoever can reflect upon the meaning of these sutras and contemplate upon their significance, if he has cultivated deep devotion to the guru, and also the ability to intellectually gain an understanding of the subtle impact of these verses sraddhavan, even if he only reads or hears this Gita, he too, can gain ‘My form divine.’ Rama-form here is identical with the nature of the Self (Atmasvarupa).

The Enlightened One functions under the Lord’s will only. Without any sense of ‘I-do’ ahankara and any attachment or asakti, he appears to be functioning in the world, himself ever living the experience of the infinite Self, Sri Rama.

A

dhyatma Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit work that extols the spiritual virtues of the story of Ramayana. It comprises around 4200 verses embedded in Brahmanda Purana and is considered to be authored by Ved Vyasa.

Literally meaning 'Spiritual Ramayana', Adhyatma Ramayana is a poem spread across 4200 double verses, and considered a treatise of Vedantic philosophy. It is supposed to have provided Tulsidas (1511-1637 AD), the inspiration to write his seminal work Ram Charit Manas. It also inspired several later versions of the story of Rama like in Oriya, Bengali and Malayalam.

Traditionally it is believed that Adhyathma Ramayana was narrated by Shiva to Parvati. The sacred verses are an extract from the latter portion of the Brahmanda Purana composed by the great Veda Vyasa. The verses are a dialogue betweenShankara (another name of Shiva) and goddess and universal mother Parvati.

Thus the story was recited to the universal mother Parvati by the Shankara. This religious book contains the ideal characteristics of Rama, the precept related to devotion, knowledge, dispassion, adoration and good conduct. The main context of the book based on spiritual and metaphysical knowledge.

On my own authority I say that mere reading of or listening to these verses enables one to attain selfrealization.

Adhyatma Ramayana represents the story of Rama in a spiritual context, in this version everything is preordained, and Rama being the Brahman himself, does not kill or destroy, rather offers salvation to those he kills, thus this act is called, ‘Uddhar.’

Rama, Lakshmana and Sita It also provides several valuable insights into the various seeming anomalies in the popular versions of

Ramayana, like: The provocation of the Queen Kaikeyi by her maid Manthara, was not an evil act of her choice as presented in the Valmiki’s version of Ramayana. Instead it was mastered by the goddess of knowledge, Saraswati, thus Manthara appears only to be playing her character in the larger drama of destiny, which lead to the killing of Ravana, the sole reason Lord Vishnu had incarnated as Rama.

Similarly, according to the text, real Sita was never really abducted by Ravana. Rama being the allknower has premonition about the abduction.

Therefore he tells Sita that the time has come when we have to perform our roles for which we have assumed the human form. And thus instructs Sita to invoke Agni, the God of Fire and ask him to create an illusionary self, or Maya Sita. The real Sita went under the care of Agni and in place Maya Sita was created. Thus Ravana abducted the illusionary Sita.

And later once Ravana was killed original Sita was regained from Agni Dev through a fire ritual.

It makes us aware of the larger than life aspects of Ram and the fact he being the Brahman or Supreme Creator incarnate, acts to instruct. Adhyatma Ramayana raises every mundane activity of Rama, to a spiritual or transcendent level, thus instructing the seeker to view his own life through the symbolic vision for his soul, where the external life is but a metaphor for eternal journey of the soul.

The text is aimed to be used as guide and ready source of instruction for a spiritual seeker as it presents Ramayana as a divine allegory, where an exiled king, a man out of his elements, gets beguiled by the lure of maya or the illusions, - maya mrigya, hence loses his Beloved - Sita, to the demon or dark forces Ravana.

Later when he repents and asks for divine grace, he is given the strength and friends like Hanuman to help him reclaim his divinity – as his Beloved.

Dialogue between Rama and Kaikeyi The provocation of the Queen Kaikeyi by her maid Manthara, was not an evil act of her choice as presented in the Valmikiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s version of Ramayana. Instead it was mastered by the goddess of knowledge, Saraswati, thus Manthara appears only to be playing her character in the larger drama of destiny, which lead to the killing of Ravana, the sole reason Lord Vishnu had incarnated as Rama.

In short, it is no use employing our minds in fields which are contrary to our nature. Everyone has a precise place in the scheme of created things. Even a blade of grass has significance in the scheme of the existence. Each one has his own importance and none is to be despised, for, each can do something which the others cannot do so well. There is no redundancy in the Lordâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s creation; not even a single blade of grass, anywhere, at any time, is unnecessarily created! Everything has a purpose. Not only the good but the bad also are His manifestations and serve His purpose.

The Pandavasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; glory is, no doubt, great, but the manifestation of the wickedness in the Kauravas is also the glory of His creation. Without the latter, the history of the former would not have been complete.

Nothing is to be condemned; none to be despised. Everything is He. And He alone IS. Ravana, if not the chief is the most important character of Ramayana. Without him Ramayana is meaningless. It is because of Ravana, and also because of the salvation of Ravana, Ahilya, Shabri, and to set the trends of righteousness Vishnu assumes the human form as the son of King Dasaratha.

What is going to happen is determined by accumulated individual actions and the totality of all actions.

Actions are preceded by thoughts. For the process of transformation these accumulated actions must dissolve. Actions therefore are like dried leaves on the tree of consciousness that are no more needed.

Just as when the leaves turn gold their role in the life of the tree in that form is not needed. Thus they fall and in place new leaves appear. However the leaves that have fallen from the tree provide nourishment to the tree. We all know this. Thoughts, actions and their dissolution are part of the process of transformation.

Before I proceed further it is important to explain one more thing. The beings can be classified into three categories: enlightened, ignorant and those in whom the seed of consciousness has started sprouting. The enlightened one is rare. He is the salt of humanity. Without them the humanity will remain dwarf and decay. The ignorant is the one in whom the process has not yet begun. They are at the lowest rung of the process of transformation. Such beings exist in large numbers. The last category is of those in whom the process of transformation has begun. These people swing between these two extremes according to circumstances and situations.

The enlightened ones can see beyond time and space. They do not judge any one. They know everything has a purpose and everyone has a role to perform. They enter into any action, role etc., with total

awareness without any involvement. And none of the actions bind him. Such is not the case with the other two categories. Their thinking and actions accumulate and create bondages for the cycle of birth and death.

The majority of the people who read the scriptures belong to these two later categories. And in most of the cases even those who narrate also belong to the same category. Rarely the enlightened one speaks.

He waits for the right person who is on the borderline. These scriptures are composed by the enlightened ones. And therefore cannot be understood through your level of understanding. This creates misconception.

In the epic Ramayana the forces are divided as divine and demonic. None wants to see the scripture without any prejudice. As I have said earlier without Ravana there was no need for Vishnu to take human form. And without this the curse inflicted upon Ahilya could not be removed. The promise of sage Matanga to his disciple Shabri could not be fulfilled. All these events are part of one greater scheme or sequence.

If Kaikeyi was not instigated by Manthara to seek the exile for Rama the curse inflicted on Dasaratha by the blind parents of Sharavana Kumara would remain unfulfilled and so was his salvation. Without Ramâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s exile the purpose of Vishnu assuming human form was not possible. Your problem is that you cannot see beyond time and space. And you see the events in isolations not as part of the totality.

The very purpose of these scriptures is to prepare you for a life beyond time and space so that the process of evolution may continue and the seed of consciousness blossoms in you. It is in this light we need to understand these scriptures. And it is in the light of this awareness look at various characters and their role in the scheme of the existence.

When you look at Ravana he is very intelligent, profound scholar, proficient in Sanskrit language, and other scriptures. He composed Shiva Tandava Strotam in a state of extreme agony when his whole arm was crushed under the weight of the mount Kailash. Spontaneously Ravana composes Shiva Tandava Strotam as prayer to please Shiva. Whatever he composed is profound and even today no alteration could be made in the musically composed Strotam. Ravana also composed Ravana Samhita a treatise for the kingdom. All these are impossible without awareness. Ravana was enlightened who assumed human form only for one moment of lapse in his awareness. He has to exhibit utmost enmity with the Lord as that was the only way for salvation and return to the abode of Vishnu.

Kaikeyi is the instrument of awareness too. Such a person acts according to totality of understanding beyond his or her will. To such a person fulfillment of divine will is all that matters and works without worrying about what others say. She was an excellent charioteer as a result she accompanied the king in the battles. Once there was a battle between Ravana and King Dasaratha. In that battle Kaikeyi drove the charioteer. Dasaratha got badly wounded in the hands of Ravana and was unable to continue the war. He was sure to be defeated in the hands of Ravana. Kaikeyi realizing the situation drove the chariot skillfully and reached the safe place where she took care of the wounded king.

Ravana made mockery of the king. Hearing which Kaikeyi pledged to be the cause of the death of Ravana. Hearing this Ravana laughed hilariously and further mocked Dasaratha and Kaikeyi together.

Kaikeyi became resolute to be the cause of Ravanaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s destruction. So when Dasaratha had the four sons it

was Kaikeyi who started training Rama in archery and other war tactics.

She was even instrument behind Rama going with sage Vishvamitra to protect his yajna. This laid the foundation of the work Rama has assumed human form.

All those who have written on the story of Rama have realized the significance of Kaikeyi. But those who talk and follow the scripture despise these characters as negative. In the process they forget that negative and positive are two sides of the same coin. Just as two legs are needed for walking, two wings are needed for flying so too these dualistic are very essential. In the process both support one another.

Just as unless positive and negative currents neutralize one another there will be no illumination. So too togetherness of the opposing forces is essential. Without this there is no possibility of going beyond.

Going beyond is transcendence.

Tulsidas, the composer of the portrayal of Sri Ram as Ram Charit Manas, is enlightened master. His poetic genius is unique. I have seen the original script of Tulsi Das when in 1953 when I visited the place accompanied by my grandfather Sufi master Brij Mohan Lal. We were given the original script for our viewing which is not done with other visitors. We were given the script because of the aura that Sufi Brij Mohan Lal had around him. For your sake I give the image of the original script:

Original script of TulsiDas at the temple in his birthplace Rajepur, Banda, India BalKand is the first section of the scripture that contains the birth and the early life of Sri Rama. The following is the last composition. Balkand is followed by Ayodhyakand. From here the life begins in Ayodhya and many dramatic events of the exile of Rama, death of Dasaratha, abandonment of Kaikeyi

by Bharata, Lakshmana and Sita accompanying to the forest and the host of other events.

At the end of Balkand Rama returns to city along with his bride Sita and those of his rest of the brothers.

The poetic genius of Tulsidas signifies this change from first section to the second by just changing the structure of the composition of the two lines. Through this slight change in the composition he has indicated the events that were about to happen since the sons returned along with their brides to Ayodhya.

The meaning of the two lines is the same. The lines meant â&#x20AC;&#x201C; since Rama returned home after marriage there are joy of many dimensions. Every day is celebration. The first line is at the end of the first section while the second line if from the beginning of the next section â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Ayodhyakand.

The following composition is from the second section â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Ayodhya Kand and the first line has a changed composition. However this change in composition does not change the meaning of the line. Certainly Tulsidas has indicated the changing future events with this change.

These are the fine nuances that Tulsidas has brought with his genius and understanding. Remember Tulsidas is not educated or has any university degree or expert or scholar in Ramayana. He is simply illiterate. But certainly has the realization which even the most scholarly present day geniuses do not have.

Now I take you one of the important dialogues from the epic between Rama and Kaikeyi. These are the mystical insights and not the part of regular word to word meaning.

Without any hesitation Kaikeyi explains the entire story to Rama. She speaks of the agony, disgrace and pain inflicted upon the king in the hands of Ravana. While narrating, her tone filled with emotions at times spoke harshly full of rage. As Kaikeyi finished Rama spoke softly addressing her as ‘Janani’ or mother. There is slight difference in the expression and the intention of Sri Rama in addressing Kaikeyi this way. Tulsidas being a mystic felt this therefore expressed this in the through the choice of words.

One aspect of the mother is the one who conceives the child and finally gives the birth. This aspect of motherhood we all know. There is another aspect of motherhood wherein the mother trains, brings up and thus prepares the child for a greater role. This is another aspect of mother’s role. Rama is addressing Kaikeyi as ‘Mother’ in this role.

In Rama Kaikeyi saw the potentiality of destroying the demons and thus restore the somewhat lost pride of the dynasty. She was very much aware of the entire sequence of events beyond time and space. She knew the purpose of the life of Rama. She loves Rama the most. From the childhood she groomed Rama for the future events. Initial training of archery and warfare she taught to Rama. For all these reasons Rama addresses her as his mother although she was his stepmother. Rama, addressing her says: ‘Listen! O mother that son alone is blessed who devotes his life for the cause and the words of his both parents. A son who gratifies both father and the mother through his actions is indeed rare.’ Both parents though bound by one common bond are two separate individuals with different minds and approaches to life. Therefore pleasing two such persons is rare indeed.

This was even confirmed by Kausalya. She was unaware that the King has given the kingdom of forest to Rama and rule of Ayodhya to Bharata. She tells Rama, in this case considering the status of the mother to be greater than the father I ask you not to go to the forest. However if both father and the mother have asked you to go then forest is equivalent to a thousand Avadha of the kingdom of Ayodhya.

On the eve of coronation of Rama as the Prince Designate the arrangements were made for the morning ceremony. All around there was the environment of gaiety and celebration. Amidst all this there was restlessness in Rama. This is not the purpose of his human form, Rama thought. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Who to resort to for a solution to thisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; the name of Kaikeyi came. Thus Rama goes to the palace of Kaikeyi and explains the predicament. Kaikeyi listens to the entire predicament and assures Rama not to worry instead go to his palace she will take care of the entire situation. However, she said, after this humanity will despise her.

Such is the role of the man of awareness. For him fulfillment of divine will is all that matters. He does not care about the opinions of others. Only a man who is beyond duality can indeed understand the role of Kaikeyi.

One who despises Kaikeyi is far away from truth One who consider each individual not a divine instrument And continues to live the life of duality Indeed is far away from truth.

He cannot understand the essence of the epic Ramayana.