Learnings from Ramayana

Ramayan was propagated by English scholars as mythology in 20th century.  But it is history of India which has been told by Indian sages in form of story writing. The archaeological and astronomical proofs have been proved that Ram existed on this earth 9000 ybp (years before present) just like you and I.

What message our sages wanted to give us by the life story of Rama. Why was he accepted as God(Avatar) ?

Ancient Indian sages believed that true education system should not be preached by speech only. Teaching should be given by examples. So they accepted the path of storytelling with pictures. Ram and Krishna were accepted as Gods because their life was full of moral values which could motivate general public to follow them. In today's time we can say that Mahatma Gandhi was God of 20th century in India. Sachin Tendulkar has been called God of Cricket because his life has all the motivators for those who want to become cricketer. Same way Ram's and Krishna's life has all the motivators for those who want to become good human being.

Concept of God -  

In Ramayana it has been clearly stated that supreme personality of godhead can be worshiped in two 

ways.
1 - Virtue- less and formless - Nirakar (nigun)
2 - Concrete, personification - Sakar (sagun)

The word God is not Hindi word. This is English word which was accepted during British rule. In west they have concept of God. So same was taught to Indian kids in school during British rule.

In India there are thee words which are used to identify the God -

1 Ishvara    - Virtueless and formless
2 Bhagvan - Personification, Concrete, Avatar (God)
3 Devata    -   Demigods

1 Ishvara     

is formless. Ishavara has no gender. It is an energy which did controlled atomic explosion in space to create the world. By this explosion, DNA was formed and  human body was formed by DNA.  We can connect our-self to this supreme personality of Godhead through meditation.  During this atomic explosion one light came out from middle. This light is represented by Shivling(Symbol of creation).
An individual can achieve meditative stage only through free service to human kind and Yoga.

Ram also did worship to symbol of creation and gives message to people to serve the humanity to get closer to Ishvara.

2 God

Every body is not able to live in austerity and can not practice Yoga & Pranayam (breathing exercises) with principals like celibacy, moral values. So sages introduced the concept of God(Avatar), Ram was accepted as Avatar because he had moral values which could motivate the general public to live peacefully in society. Jesus was God in west because he had moral values which motivated people and brought people closer to humanity. Indian sages started the practice of worshiping Avatars in concrete form with ceremonial ways. Indian sages thought if continuously people will pray in front of an deity(Image worship), they will also practice principals of God. Read more

In today's time we see the failure of this system. People go to temple to ask for wishes and do not follow morals practiced by God. Nobody wants to follow the path of God Ram and God Krishna. This is the main reason of degradation of society.

3 Demigods (Devta) 

Vedas (Holy book of Hindus) explain the 33 kind of demigods. These demigods were natural elements like fire, air, water etc. First book of Veda - rigveda was written 1700 bce. In this time there was no temple.  

In 800 BCE, Brahmins(Priest) did the personification of these natural elements. They asked people to worship these deities to ask for wishes. These priests asked for money and gifts to cure the sin of the people. They made rigid customs and traditions. Priest ask people to just take name of God and demigods and their sin will be washed away and problems will be finished. This custom made the situation worst.  General public got into fear and pressure of these priest. 

So in 600 BCE,  Buddha started teaching people about concept of Ishvara(formless) whom can be met through mediation. He asked people to give up the ceremonial ways and image worship. He asked them to follow eight limbs and these eight ways were inspired by eight limbs of Ashtanga yog. He emphasized on knowing yourself. Go deeper inside you to find Ishvara.  Buddha came for fulfillment of Hinduism. Read more

Other messages of God Ram -  

1 Power of Union

If you want to fulfill any big work. You must have power of union. God Ram wanted to bring her wife back from kidnapper Ravana. So he also made an army of monkeys and other resources available. He did not go alone to destroy the kingdom of Ravan king.

Same message was practiced by Mahatma Gandhi. He motivated illiterate Indians to make a union to fight against English rule. 

2 Importance of Struggle 

If a great men will start living in luxury and laziness. Then who will set the example in the world for morals. A great man accepts the struggle and strives to solve the problem of the world. 

To make this point clear to human being, sages made arrangement so God Ram should not get kingdom in his  early age. He was sent for exile for fourteen years in his early age. And practiced austerity and principles. So later he became a capable and humble king. 

In today's time we are giving too much luxury to our young kids which leads them towards drugs and laziness. 

3 Power of Faith

 Faith is another name of believe. If a man believe something with strong will then he can achieve anything. Read more

Vibhishan was the younger brother of Ravan. He was always fearful of Ravan. He was not even little powerful than Ravan. But Vibhishan had strong faith in God Ram. During war Ravan shot an arrow on Vibhishan but God Ram came in between and fainted due to shot of arrow. Due to devotion of Ram, the weak vibhishan started fighting with Ravan. And he fought very powerful individual war with Ravan which was not possible without faith medicine.

4 Importance of goodness 

In "Lanka kand" when Ravan arrived on his golden chariot and God Ram was standing in war field bare feet. So Vibhishan became worried that my God has no resources how will he fight against mighty Ravan. That Time Ram explained the importance of quality, attributes , goodness. God Ram said to Vibhishan, the base of win is goodness. If you follow right path you can develop qualities to win. Any resources used against truth and goodness  are waste. 

5 Importance of  Strength exhibition 

Exhibition of strength sometimes solve the problem up-to some extent. People have faith on strong man and always get ready to do friendship with them. 

Mahatma Gandhi once said " If you want to live peacefully then be strong". 

God Ram wanted support of Sugriv for battle against Ravan. But Sugriv asked him to show his strength first. So God Ram cut the trees of many palms with one arrow only. After seeing the power of God Ram Sugriv(Monkey King) got ready to help him. 

6 Importance of simple living

Increase your capabilities and decrease your needs. 

Once Hanuman(monkey god) was passing the sea. On the way he met an evil lady(Trishna) who had a boon to grow her body size as much as possible. She challenged Hanuman to enter in her mouth and come out. If he do so, she will allow him to pass the sea without fight. Hanuman wanted to skip the fight because was in hurry to reach Lanka.  So she started becoming big so Hanuman could not pass without entering her mouth. Hanuman  also started increasing his body size. But that lady was much stronger than Hanuman and she also increased her size just double of Hanuman. Suddenly Hanuman got an idea and he became smaller as soon as possible. Lady could not understand God Hanuman's trick. So as a tiny man, Hanuman entered in her mouth and came out immediately 

Today Man has increased his needs a lot. So his desires are also increasing. But desires have no limit. You can not fulfill all desires.  So best way to beat the recession, depression and financial liability is to decrease your needs and enhance your capabilities to earn maximum. We are doing opposite of this. We are increasing our needs and spending time in  luxury instead of struggling for new skills. 

7 Greed destroys Intelligence 

Today man is running blindly behind money. All life he gives up his health and peace to earn money and in old age spends same hard earned money to get back health and peace. 

Wife of Ram was in the garden and she saw a deer of gold. Before then this no body heard about golden deer. She asked for golden deer and God Ram went out in searching of golden deer. Later he did not find the golden deer and his wife was kidnapped in the mean time. 

So God Ram said in the greed of golden deer, I have lost even my wife.  

8 Drawback of bad company

If God Ram had become King, then there was no harm of anyone because he had moral values. But his step mother was convinced by her servant that God Ram will not give sufficient share to her son (step brother of Ram.)

But truth was God Ram and all other brothers were like one soul. 

But due to bad company that lady asked for exile of God Ram and Ram's father passed away due to loneliness and in the memories of his son. 

So bad company can bring such bad results in our life

9 Role of Master 

One person can have many masters and can be his own master.  It is stated in Ramayan. When king Dashrath had no son. He consulted many scholars. During the marriage of God Ram many scholars were consulted.  God Ram took education from two sages 

So if you can learn something good from someone, do not hesitate in accepting him your Master(Guru). 

10 Action is higher than ceremonial worship 

Once a sage (kakbhushundi) was worshiping in the temple of Shiva. Suddenly his master came in but this sage did not bowed in front of master.This is the duty of a student. 

Although master did not paid attention on it. But God Shiva became angry. God Shiva gave him this message during his meditative stage that duties are higher than worship. Duties should be fulfilled before worship. The worshiping of God like chanting his name, lighting lamp, offering flowers are symbolic. This has psychological benefits. First fulfill your duties and in free time worship the God. 

11 Thinking and Action

Religion has two forms -  Thinking and putting it into character/practicing it. The synonym of religion is action. 

If you are reading and chanting name of God but not practicing his morals in your life, then all efforts are waste.  

12 Never care for taunting 

We can see people taunting God. If there is less rain or more rain, people keep on taunting even God. So as a human being we should  not care about taunting. Keep doing your job with strong will power. 

References -

Akhand jyoti Magzines