Ramayana

To understand and appreciate this Lila of Lord Ram we would need to appreciate the values held sacred by the Vedic culture that the Ramayana demonstrates. The Vedic culture considers all relationships and all positions as opportunities for sacred service, service to God and to all his children.

In Vedic culture King to be able to effectively rule the people, the king himself has to be exemplary and that exemplariness has to be a manifest expression in all walks of his life. King and queen used to be an exemplary couple for the citizen, they should be spotless. So spotless that even rumours are not possible about such a person. We have been raised in a culture where what to speak of rumours, even when evidence are there, the administrators, the politicians, the kings don't care and they continue to hold on to their post and to do their irreligious, corrupt and immoral activities. So it's very difficult for us to comprehend this level of morality, we have absolute no experience of such exemplary personalities.

At that time, it was a culture that woman should not spend a night out of the house and this rule had no exceptions, and woman in Ayodhya started doing this with the excuse and reference of mother Sita. So to protect dharma Lord Ram has to take this step and show an example of detachment to protect dharma.

When Lord Rama heard the accusations being leveled against his consort, this situation constituted an ethical crisis. In an ethical crisis, one has two choices, both moral, unlike in a moral crisis, when one has two choices, one moral and the other, immoral. To resolve an ethical crisis, one needs profound wisdom to recognize the higher moral principle and adjust the lower moral principle accordingly. So, through this incident, Lord Rama, who was God incarnate playing the role of an ideal human being, taught us how to wisely resolve ethical crises. As an ideal husband, the Lord was duty-bound to protect his wife. But as the ideal king, he was also duty-bound to exemplify and teach his citizens, whom he loved like his own children, the path to spiritual advancement.

Ordinarily, people are very attached materially to a spouse, children, house, wealth. So, the king is duty-bound to demonstrate to his citizens the principle of detachment so that they become inspired toward detachment and thus make spiritual advancement. That's why Lord Rama considered his duty as an ideal king more important than as the ideal husband and so sacrificed his love for his wife for the sake of his love for his children (citizens).

Some people say that for the sake of His own reputation, He gave up His wife. But at best a reputation can give a person only material pleasure so if material pleasure was all that was His interest and if reputation was all that was His interest then He could always have preserved the reputation by having some other wife, but he never did that.

At the time of their marriage, He had promised Sita that He would take an ekapathni vrta, He would not accept any other wives and His fidelity to Sita is seen through His keeping that vrta and further if we see although when yajnas are to be performed, the husband and wife have to sit together. Now although there was no one who could substitute for Sita unless Lord Ram married and there was pressure on Him that if He had to perform ashwameda and other yagnas, He had to have a queen with Him, so then He made golden image of Sita and that image was what sat with Him. The fact that He went to the extreme of doing that indicates that he was not irresponsible or immoral just concerned about worldly pleasure through reputation or enjoyment. Lord Ram himself was very principled. So what He is exhibiting through sending Sita away from His palace are not irresponsibility or immorality but detachment and exemplary conduct. So detachment means that as far as setting up the dharma is concerned one is not ready to compromise at all. One is ready to sacrifice any pleasure that is required for the setting up of dharma. So this is from Lord Ram's perspective.

So Lord Ram had a conflict in between His duty as a family member, as a husband and duty as a king and He did His duty as a king by exemplifying detachment and He did His duty as a husband by ensuring that Sita cared for although She was not cared for directly in His palace by Him, but She cared in His kingdom through His representatives, sages who were there and elderly hermits that were there in the sage's hermitage.

Now we might argue that actually if Sita had been at fault then all this might have been ok

So you could say what was Sita's fault that She had already gone through the agni pariksha and She had already proven Her chastity, first of all, She had maintained Her chastity despite all the allurements of Ravana. Both Ravana had threatened Her as well as tempted Her. So She maintained her chastity despite it all and then She proved Her chastity by going through the agni pariksha and then even after that She had undergone the mortification of being rejected by Lord Ram?

So now the most agonising and to some extent emotionally difficult to accept this is from Sita's perspective.

So certainly this is very heart rending and firstly we have to understand that in every scripture there is a story line, there is philosophy and there is a rasa. There is an emotional experience that that scripture suppose to offer and that emotional experience is purifying, uplifting and eventually liberating. So in the Ramayan, the primary emotional experience that is offered is called as "Karuna rasa". Karuna rasam is not exactly compassion. we can't have compassion for the Lord or His associates, but the idea is that normally compassion is invoked when we see somebody else suffering. So seeing the Lord suffering and the Lord gracefully accepting that suffering that inspires attraction to the Lord within us and that emotion which arises is purifying.

In Vaishnava acharyas especially in the Sri sampradaya, they have actually taught that Lord Ram's exiling mother Sita was to invoke this karunya rasa, Jiva Goswami also talks about it and from the rasa point of view there is a higher experience also that love in separation is higher than love in union in the sense that the emotions become intensified. They say that "the heart grows fonder in the absence of the beloved". So Lord Ram wanted to give Sita that highest experience of love in separation and for that purpose, this happened.

So overall we can understand this at multiple levels,

1. At first level from the administrative point of view as a king, Lord Ram had to set the example of complete detachment so that He could exemplify dharmic detachment for His citizens and He did that
2. On the other hand, Lord Ram as a husband was not irresponsible, He arranged for the care of His pregnant wife.
3. Then from the still higher perspective of the Ramayan, it exemplifies to us how even the Lord undergoes suffering with grace and inspires us to accept whatever suffering we undergo in our lives because of our past karma to also accept it gracefully.
4. It also increases emotional attraction towards the Lord in our hearts
5. And lastly, it enables Sita and Ram to taste the supreme rasa of love in separation which is the highest emotional experience between lovers.

Unfortunately, all of us, for whose sake he did this glorious sacrifice, fail to appreciate him.

one[ wuhn]

adjective1.

being or amounting to a single unit or individual or entire thing, item, or object rather than two or more; a single: one woman; one nation; one piece of cake.

synonyms

[http://www.dictionary.com/browse/alone alone], [http://www.dictionary.com/browse/definite definite], [http://www.dictionary.com/browse/different different], [http://www.dictionary.com/browse/odd odd], [http://www.dictionary.com/browse/only only], [http://www.dictionary.com/browse/particular particular], [http://www.dictionary.com/browse/peculiar peculiar], [http://www.dictionary.com/browse/precise precise], [http://www.dictionary.com/browse/separate separate], [http://www.dictionary.com/browse/single single]

[http://app.dictionary.com/click/hbnm17?clkdest=http://dictionary.com/browse/one ] [http://app.dictionary.com/click/rovvlr?clkdest=http://dictionary.com/ ]

Yes, Rama had most scrupulously followed dharma. He is still the best example ever quoted to have the best character any human should emulate.

1. New Understanding of Religion: One of the most significant contributions of Swami Vivekananda to the modern world is his interpretation of religion as a universal experience of transcendent Reality, common to all humanity. Swamiji met the challenge of modern science by showing that religion is as scientific as science itself; religion is the 'science of consciousness'. As such, religion and science are not contradictory to each other but are complementary.

This universal conception frees religion from the hold of superstitions, dogmatism, priestcraft and intolerance, and makes religion the highest and noblest pursuit - the pursuit of supreme Freedom, supreme Knowledge, supreme Happiness.

2. New View of Man: Vivekananda's concept of 'potential divinity of the soul' gives a new, ennobling concept of man. The present age is the age of humanism which holds that man should be the chief concern and centre of all activities and thinking. Through science and technology man has attained great prosperity and power, and modern methods of communication and travel have converted human society into a 'global village'. But the degradation of man has also been going on apace, as witnessed by the enormous increase in broken homes, immorality, violence, crime, etc. in modern society. Vivekananda's concept of potential divinity of the soul prevents this degradation, divinizes human relationships, and makes life meaningful and worth living. Swamiji has laid the foundation for 'spiritual humanism', which is manifesting itself through several neo-humanistic movements and the current interest in meditation, Zen etc all over the world.

3. New Principle of Morality and Ethics: The prevalent morality, in both individual life and social life, is mostly based on fear - fear of the police, fear of public ridicule, fear of God's punishment, fear of Karma, and so on. The current theories of ethics also do not explain why a person should be moral and be good to others. Vivekananda has given a new theory of ethics and new principle of morality based on the intrinsic purity and oneness of the Atman. We should be pure because purity is our real nature, our true divine Self or Atman. Similarly, we should love and serve our neighbours because we are all one in the Supreme Spirit known as Paramatman or Brahman.

4. Bridge between the East and the West: Another great contribution of Swami Vivekananda was to build a bridge between Indian culture and Western culture. He did it by interpreting Hindu scriptures and philosophy and the Hindu way of life and institutions to the Western people in an idiom which they could understand. He made the Western people realize that they had to learn much from Indian spirituality for their own well-being. He showed that, in spite of her poverty and backwardness, India had a great contribution to make to world culture. In this way he was instrumental in ending India's cultural isolation from the rest of the world. He was India's first great cultural ambassador to the West.

On the other hand, Swamiji's interpretation of ancient Hindu scriptures, philosophy, institutions, etc prepared the mind of Indians to accept and apply in practical life two best elements of Western culture, namely science and technology and humanism. Swamiji has taught Indians how to master Western science and technology and at the same time develop spiritually. Swamiji has also taught Indians how to adapt Western humanism (especially the ideas of individual freedom, social equality and justice and respect for women) to Indian ethos.

I would say yes in my opinion.

Rama, history and mythology:

There is precisely 50% historical evidence for the existence of Rama.

The places mentioned in Ramayana really exist. Many of the kings and kingdoms mentioned in it too did exist.

However, one half of Ramayana appears to be purely mythological. Hanuman flying in the air carrying a mountain in one hand, for example, appears to be purely mythological.

This makes non Hindus to wonder whether Rama is mythological or historical.

Hindu beliefs about Rama:

Hindus have three kinds of belief about Rama.

1. When religious they firmly believe that Rama did incarnate on earth.

2. When atheistic they suppose that Rama is just mythological.

3. Normally they suppose that there is just 50% historical evidence for the existence of Rama.

The reason for multiple beliefs among Hindus:

Human beings are created to dwell at the junction of their real and imaginary worlds. Hinduism too makes Hindus to dwell at this same place.

Thus, depending on their difficulties, Hindus can be religious, natural or atheistic at different times and there would be a smooth transition among the three states.

When they have no difficulties Hindus would automatically be atheistic. However, they would ignore Rama, never look at him from an atheistic angle and thus never lose faith in him.

Rama's nature to the non Hindus:

People of other religions, and even scientists, can live either in real or imaginary worlds. This, makes it impossible for them to conclude whether Rama is historical or mythological because there is precisely 50% evidence for each.