Revisiting Ramayana

 Vijayadashami is celebrated in our country by burning the effigies of Ravana, a symbolic representation of victory of the righteousness over the evil. In the olden days, the saints and sages used to explain the wisdom of life and living by telling a story and then relating it to individual life. Ramayana is one such epic which teaches us way of life.

As per Spirituality, Soul (Atman/Energy) from the soul world enters into a Corporeal body (the one residing in the materialistic world) at birth and leaves it at death to enter another body. This vicious cycle of life and death continues unless it is broken, which is called "Attaining Moksha". In this state, the soul becomes a part of Paramatma (The Supreme Soul/Energy) and no longer participates in the cycle. The soul and the supreme soul are the one and the same.

Ravan is always portrayed with 10 heads. There are different explanations and interpretations for the 10 heads.

1. In an optimistic sense, the 10 heads represents the knowledge of 6 shastras and 4 Vedas.

2. The 10 heads may represent the Six Shad Ripu (Shad =6 & Ripu =enemies of the mind ) & Four Anthahkarana (inner faculties of the mind).

3.  The 10 heads may represent the 10 vices present in varying amounts in all humans. They are - Desire/Lust, Anger, Attachment, Greed, Jealousy, Pride/Ego, Hatred, Deceit, Stubbornness and Laziness. For explanation purpose, we would be referring to this analogy , further in the article.

"Every character in Ramayana has a specific meaning to them and beauty lies in the fact that each person in it can be attributed to ourselves. "
"We all are Sita to begin with. We turn into Ravan at one point and after realization, we eventually return to Ram and become him."

Sita - Soul i.e. all of us
Panchvati - Physical/Material/Corporeal body formed from five elements of nature (Pancha Bhuta) and eventually becomes a part of it
Ram - The Supreme Soul
Lakshman - Lakshya -Purpose & Mann - Mind
Lakshman Rekha - Line of Maryada (discipline/values/principles)
Golden deer - Materialistic Desire
Ravan as sage - Attractive distraction
Ravan with 10 heads - The Vices

The ocean - Materialistic / Corporeal world

Lanka - The Prison

"Let us revisit Ramayana in a brief manner using the above mentioned meanings"

Sita (Soul) resides in Panchvati (Corporeal body) and belongs to Ram (The Supreme Soul). Lakshman always stays close to Sita and Ram (Mind reminds us the purpose of life i.e. being Soul Conscious)

Sita (Soul) is attracted to the golden deer (materialistic desires) sent by Ravan (Vices) and wishes for it (Becoming Body Conscious). Ravan (Vices) wishes to abduct Sita (Soul) but he can't come in his true form. He takes the form of a sage. This indicates that vices are constantly attempting to affect the soul but to do so, initially, they disguise themselves as attractive distractions.

Since Lakshman advises Sita not to cross the line, Ravan was unable to capture Sita as long as she was within the Lakshman Rekha. This indicates that vices don't affect the soul per se. Only when we go beyond the line of discipline/principles, the vices attack us.

Sita realizing that she has been abducted by Ravan, calls for help and waits for Ram to rescue her from Lanka. This denotes that we lose our soul consciousness and fall into the body consciousness (materialistic/corporeal world). It is only when we realize that we are in sorrow or pain because of our vices, we remember God (The Supreme Soul) and reach out for help.

Ram then crosses the vast ocean/border to reach Lanka. The Supreme Soul lives in the soul world and the ocean represents the corporeal world beyond which we (Our Souls) are present trapped in prison.

The battle between Ram and Ravan ensues where initially Ram beheads Ravan but every time his head grows back. This continues for few days in the battle. This indicates that even though we target to eradicate vices individually, they again recur.

Ram then eventually shoots down Ravan at his navel (Nabhi) which eventually kills Ravan. This indicates that only when we target the root cause (navel) of all vices i.e. body consciousness, we will be liberated from all of them at once. Thus through knowledge, love and power, the Supreme Soul liberates us (soul) from the vices. This process of killing the ten vices is referred to as Dusshera (Dus- Ten and Hara- killing). That is symbolically portrayed by the burning of effigies of Ravan.

We live in a materialistic world being drawn to these vices. Festivals in our culture are designed to be as a wake up call for us. The whole concept of Navratri followed by Dusshera and eventually culminating in Diwali is that by adopting a Satvik/spiritual lifestyle for the nine days (Navratri), we can eradicate the ten vices (Dusshera) which brings enlightenment in our life (Diwali).

"Let us understand this essence of our festival and aspire to conquer our inner vices and celebrate true victory of good over evil."

 

 - Written by Dr.Manikanth Vivek