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Sitaram · Site Admin Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 1079

Date: Wed Jun 25, 2003 7:01 am
Subject: The Holy Lake of the Acts of Rama

http://www.sulekha.com/chpost.asp...ilosophy&show=0&cid=64866

THE HOLY RAMAYANA

In Kerala, Ramayana month begins on 1st karadakam (17th july 2003).
In almost all Hindu families one will read the Holy Ramayana and
other members will listen the same. The climate during the period is
almost rainy and many people will not have any work and it is also
considered as a month for preventive treatment. Elaborate arrangemets
will be made in the temples to read ramayana and preach the mesage.

The Ramayana (The Journey of Rama) is perhaps the world's oldest
literature. Cherished throughout India and Asia for millennia, it has
been faithfully preserved and passed on in varied forms of popular
expression-epic poems, folk tales, music, dance, drama, puppet shows,
sculpture, painting, even films and comic books. Its story and
characters have captured the hearts and minds of countless
generations.

Despite its huge popularity in Eastern cultures, and even though it
is recognized by many Western scholars as a literary masterpiece,
most people in the West have never heard of Ramayana.

The story of Lord Rama is both a spellbinding adventure and a work of
profound philosophy, offering answers to life's deepest questions. It
tells of another time when gods and heroes walked among us, facing
supernatural forces of evil and guided by powerful mystics and sages.

Revered throughout the ages for it's moral and spiritual wisdom, it
is a beautiful and uplifting tale of romance and high adventure,
recounting the odyssey of Rama, a great king of Ancient India. Rama,
along with his beautiful wife, Sita, and faithful brother Lakshmana,
is exiled to the forest for fourteen years, where Sita is kidnapped
by the powerful demon Ravana. Along with his brother Lakshmana and a
fantastic army of
supernatural creatures, Rama embarks on a perilous quest to find his
beloved Sita.

The Lord Himself says in Ramayana, "If one surrenders unto Me
sincerely, saying, `My Lord, from this day I am fully surrendered
unto You,' I always give him protection. That is My vow." Since the
ultimate benefit of hearing the Ramayana is increased faith in Lord
Rama, everyone will want to read this important book.

- M.P.Bhattathiry

========

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shetubondhon/message/1462

The Ram which Gandhi and others envisioned is quite different from
the epic character of Valmiki, created approximately around 2000 BC.
It is taken from the works of a mysterious folk poet-saint named
Tulsidas who composed the `Ramacharitamanasa'

(The Holy Lake of the Acts of Ram)

Little is known about Tulsidas' life. He was probably born at Rajapur
and lived most of his adult life at Varanasi. The Ramcaritmanas was
written between 1574 and 1576 or 1577. The oldest complete manuscript
is dated 1647. The poem, written in Awadhi, an Eastern Hindi dialect,
consists of seven cantos of unequal lengths. The Ramcaritmanas
expresses par excellence the religious sentiment of bhakti ("loving
devotion") to the Vaisnava avatar, Ram, who is regarded as the chief
means of salvation.

The chief quality of Ramcacharitamanasha is its unifying power under
one set of divine rules and a call for unquestioning submission to
the grace of Ram. It is perfectly suited to organize statehood among
a group of subjugated, ignorant and infighting people. Unlike the
enlightened democracy of a classical
polytheistic pantheon this idea is monistic, authoritative and all
encompassing. It urges the believers to follow the life and conduct
of Ram as their divine leader. Everything that was supposedly done or
decreed by Ram would have the merit of becoming state laws in Ram-
Rajya. The sheer simplicity of this approach is central to its
tremendous potential of empowerment, organization and nation
building, exactly what BJP is seeking in modern India.

We must remember that Shahenshah Akber the great reigned over India
between 1556-1605 AD and was contemporary to Tulsidas. The Hindu
intelligentsia came in close contact with their Muslim counterparts
in his very cordial and liberal court for free exchange of ideas
without prejudices. Tulsidas probably realized the tactical advantage
of Islam under one God and following one Prophet, over the
contemporary Hindu society divided between castes and gods of all
kind.

Hence his Ram attempts to unify the whole population who call
themselves Hindu into one class, one God and one path of salvation.
That political quality of Ram is being utilized still today. It
serves to provide the Hindus a prophet like figure whom they can
blindly follow. Like other prophets his ways are conducts can be
questionable to the skeptics but believers will be happy to live and
die following his leadership. And who doesn't know that one fanatic
worth ten skeptics as the former is ready to go out there and kill
all ten of them if necessary.

There is one little problem. While other prophets are historical
people this one is just a mythological figure. RSS is working hard to
blur that gap and recently called all Indians (Hindu, Muslim, Sikh
and Christian) as descendants of Ram. Whatever Ram did was right,
period. No chads, dimples, and no hair splitting argument over the
validity of secularism: - this is how the millions of Hindi-speaking
people feel about it. A simplicity that is so ominous for people who
do not share it.

- Kaushik Sen

========
Devotion

The path to the Unmanifest is very difficult for embodied souls to
realize [by effort at meditation]. But quickly I come to those who
offer me every action, who worship me only, their dearest delight,
with undaunted devotion. Because they love me, these are my bondsmen,
and I shall save them from mortal sorrow and all the waves of life's
deathly ocean.

- Bhagavad Gita

Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he
sat at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of
pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over
his head. But there were some who said to themselves
indignantly, "Why was the ointment thus wasted? For this ointment
might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and given
to the poor." And they reproached her. But Jesus said, "Let her
alone; why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.
For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you will, you can
do good to them; but you will not always have me. She has done what
she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burying. And
truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole
world, what she has done will be told in memory of her."

Gospel of Mark Ch. 14

Heaven and earth contain me not, but the heart of my faithful servant
contains me.

- Islam, Hadith of Suhrawardi

=======

Popular Custom and Public Opinion

Minor social usages will also be recognized and accepted when they
are compatible with the spirit of the true scriptures and the conduct
and example of the holy sages. But blind allegiance only to usages
such as are repugnant to the spirit of the Shastras and the conduct
of holy sages has been one of the main causes of the downfall of the
Aryan race.

Imagine for a moment the eternal Hindu religion as a towering temple,
and how many ways of approaching it! And what can you not find there?
From the absolute Brahman of the Vedantin down to Brahma, Vishnu,
Shiva, Shakti, Uncle Sun, the rat-riding Ganesha, and the minor
deities such as Shashthi and Makal, and so forth. Which is lacking
there? And in the Vedas, in the Vedanta and the philosophies, in the
Puranas and the Tantras, there are lots of materials, a single
sentence of which is enough to break one's chain of transmigration
for ever. And, Oh! The crowd of devotees! Millions and millions of
people are rushing towards the temple. I, too, had a curiosity to see
and join in the rush. But what was this that met my eyes when I
reached the spot! Nobody was going inside the temple! By the side of
the door there was standing a figure with fifty heads, a hundred
arms, two hundred bellies, and five hundred legs; and everyone was
rolling at the feet of it. I asked someone the reason and they
replied; "Those deities that you see in the interior, it is worship
enough for them to make a short prostration, or throw in a few
flowers from a distance. But the real worship must be offered to him
who is at the gate; and those Vedas, the Vedanta, the philosophies,
the Puranas, and other scriptures that you see - there is no harm if
you hear them read now and again; but you must obey the mandate of
this one." Then I asked again, "Well, what is the name of this God of
gods?" "He is named Popular Custom."

- Vivekananda

===========

A Barbershop Religion

A man went to a barbershop to have his hair and his beard cut as
always. He started to have a good conversation with the barber who
attended him. They talked about so many things and various subjects.
Suddenly, they touched the subject of God. The barber said: "Look
man, I don't believe that God exists as you say so. "Why do you say
that?" - asked the client. Well, it's so easy, you just have to go
out in the street to realize that God does not exist. Oh, tell me, if
God existed, would there be so many sick people? Would there be
abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering
nor pain. I can't think of a God who permits all of these things."
The client stopped for a moment thinking but he didn't want to
respond so as to prevent an argument. The barber finished his job and
the client went out of the shop. Just after he left the barbershop he
saw a man in the street with a long hair and beard (it seems that it
had been a long time since he had his cut and he looked so untidy).
Then the client again entered the barbershop and he said to the
barber: know what? Barbers do not exist. "How come they don't exist?"-
asked the barber. "Well I am here and I am a barber." "No!" - the
client exclaimed. "They don't exist because if they did, there would
be no people with long hair and beard like that man who walks in the
street." "Ah, barbers do exist, what happens is that people do not
come to me." "Exactly!"- affirmed the client. "That's the point. GOD
does exist, what happens is people don't go to Him and do not look
for Him that's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world."

=======

Enlightenment consciously chosen means to relinquish your attachment
to past and future and to make the Now the main focus of your life.

- Eckhart Tolle, "The Power of Now" Eckhart Tolle New World Library,
1999

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