What Can We Learn From Lord Rama's Life

by

VK Saluja

We are going to celebrate “Sri Ramnavmi” on 27 th March. Sri Rama was the maryada purshotam- the ideal man. The purpose of his avatar was to teach us how a person should live in this world. On the same day three other mahapursh were born who taught us how to love. These three persons are none but brothers of Sri Rama – Laksmana, Bharat and Shatrughana,

Tulsi Das describes Bharat’s relationship with Sri Rama as the relationship of “bee and the flower”. The bee and flower are not always in physical proximity. Whether they are together or not, however, the bee is constantly enjoying the nectar- the very essence of flower. In the same way Bharat was absorbed in the divine essence of Sri Rama, even though he was not always with LORD.

Lakshmana, on the other hand, always followed Sri Rama everywhere. He is described as the “flagpole” on which the flag of Sri Rama’s glories is hoisted

ragupati kirati bimala pataka,danda samana bhaayujasa jaka

Here we find that physical closeness is essential to relationship. A flag that is folded and stored in the drawer is never saluted, nor is a bare flagpole given a second thought. However when the flagpole is hosted on the pole then people salute it and sing the national anthem. Yet the flagpole is not given any special attention or praise. Lakshmana always wanted Sri Rama’s glories to be spread everywhere, never desiring praise for himself.

The third brother Shatrughan, the name means “the killer of the enemies” but Ramayana nowhere describes Shatrughan slaying demons or military might. What enemy then ha he slain?

In our life we observe that the mind alone is source of all enemies, within and outside. Inside us the enemies are desires, likes, dislikes, etc. which are the biggest obstacles to our peace and happiness. When we interact with the world under the influence of such a volatile mind we cause both good and bad reactions therefore any enemy in the external world only a reflection of some inner imperfection in us. By conquering the mind, therefore, Shatrughana had destroyed all his inner demons and removed external enmity also at the very root.

In addition, the relationship of Shatrughana to LORD RAMA was indirect as Lakshmana and Bharat served Sri Rama directly but Shatrughan served devotee of Rama.Shatrughan served Bharat who himself was servant of Rama .To be servant of a servant one needs to have complete absence of “egoism” and an utterly humble nature.

So we may not be close to Rama but we can serve the devotees of Rama, human beings to our best ability. We may try to become humble and destroy our egoism

Just as the clouds gather water and become heavy, they hang lower near the earth ; similarly an intelligent person becomes more humble with growth of knowledge.

Knowledge that increases the pride is actually ignorance though the person may be well versed in his field.

When water comes on earth it is pure but gets mixed up with mud and becomes slushy and turbid similarly the “ jiva”, basically pure and of the nature of “sachidaanand” becomes clouded by “ maya” at birth.

Rivers flow into ocean from all directions, losing their own identity when they merge with it. They are restless only until merge in the ocean just like “ jiva”,who becomes restful only when he finds sri Hari.

Our efforts should be to learn to discriminate between good and bad qualities, hold on to the qualities of a noble person and keep dropping those that are wicked.

JAI SRI RAMA

(Based on article written by Swami Tejomayanand)