Ramayana - Another Great Epic

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Topic started by Raghu on Tue May 31 9:15:48 2005. [Full View]

Dear All,

Let's discuss about Ramayana, just like we have been discussing Mahabharath,in full depth, chapter by chapter.

Rama was Lord Vishnu's 9th avatar in Satya Yuga, prior to Dwarpara Yuga, in which Ram, Lakshman, Bharatha and Satrughna, were born to King Dhasratha and his 3 wives, Sumitra, Kaikeyi, and Kausalya in Ayodhya.

The epic evolves mainly Around Ram, Lakshman, bharatha,Sita and Last but NOT least Hanumanji, but not much importance was given Satrughna's character, any idea as to why?

The purpose of this incarnation of Lord Vishnu is to destroy evil Ravana a fanatical Mahewsar Bhaktha, Even though Ravana was evil, he did posses some noble qualities, such his extraordinary Maheswar Bhakthi, but these were outclassed by his evilness.

Shall we discuss his Noble qualities as well as evil qualities?

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From: Raghu on Mon Aug 18 4:25:51 2008.

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Sudhaama wrote:

Raghu wrote:

Sudhama sir,

I beg to differ, I am not arguing who is better god that is childish, I have my views just like everyone’s views, I just expressed, sorry if I have hurt anyone.

But please answer this

Why in Some places Rama is described as Mankind and a GOD in other places in Ramayana???

I can understand Krishna was regarded as GOD in Mahabharata, but here in Ramayana raama is regarded as an 'Ordinary Human being' so surely he cannot have supernatural powers?

Remember Lord Bhrama's boon to ravana was that no body (God, demons, animal..etc) can not kill him, Ravana due to his ARROGANCE regarded human the weakest, hence Human was not involved in the boon . This was the reason for Lord Vishnu to incarnate as raama as an 'Ordinary Human Being ' to slay Ravana

So Rama was prince a normal noble human being, but he is shown as god in some circumstances and a human in other, hence there is no logic in this,

pls correct my ignorance , if any

Very Good point... all have to remember.

Yes... According to Valmiki... Rama declares openly...

...Aathmaanaam maanusham manyae... meaning, "Among the Creations I am a HUMAN-BEING"

And so he exhibits the normal basic Manly feelings... generally.

...including Desires, Disappointment, Weaping, Lamenting, Anger etc.

In no other Awathara... any God has openly WEPT...

...except Rama Awathara... a clear proof of weakness of Mankind.

And Rama demonstrates by action... by subjecting Himself along with His emulative Wife, Seetha...

...what are the main causes of Human-Suffering.?

There are Six causes... the most important, prominent.. are the Two..

..Anger and Avariciousness.

The whole Ramayana episode is built on these TWO HIDDEN ENEMIES ... as detrimental Inner qualities.

If we analyse the characters which caused the miseries to others and themselves...

..be it Dasaratha, Kaikeyi, Mandara, Vali, Soorpanaka, Ravana and so on.

Even the Hero and Heroine are not the exception.

Main content of the whole misery picks up fast... from the AVARICIOUSNESS / GREED of Seetha...

... to secure the unusual Illusory Deer... for Herself... who is NOT QUALIFIED to aspire for anything...

...since leading the Saintly-Life of Celibacy... secluded away from the regions of Human-inhabitancy of Towns and Villages...

... but forced to live in the Forest... amongst the Animals and such other Sub-Humans.

This is the Major Failure.. and Crux of the whole Ramayana...

..followed by Rama's blunder... in losing temper, got angry and killed the Deer...

...which was not His purpose of chasing...

...besides that Deer had done no harm to Rama, to justify fatal attack by an arrow.

If Seetha would not have been GREEDY... and if Rama would not have UNNECESSARILY become angry...

...there would not have been any suffering for the couple.

Similarly, there are many.

Valmiki clearly depicts Rama as a Man... but a GREAT MAN of Noble Qualities...

...iinnate with IDEAL HUMAN CHARACTER... rather an Exemplary Man.. emulative to Mankind to confront all sorts of Ups and Downs...

..coupled with the Onslaughts of Fate ... so called God's plan.

Thus has imparted a Lesson to Mankind as well as a Silent Message...

"Oh Man.. look at our experiences... POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE...!!!

...when we performed in the right Dharmic path... we were glorified and all of us could be happy.

..Contrarily... when anyone or more of us have burnt our fingers... that eventual fire...

...affect all the persons as INNOCENT VICTIMS.

So my dear Human-brethren... learn Life from our Lesson.. do not unduly suffer like us....

...Never lose control of yourselves by being subjected to be OVERPOWERED by your Inner Enemies... Six bad propensities

...especially GREED AND ANGER.!!
.

Dear sudhama sir,

Unfortunatley during my generation, we learn a hell of a lot from media, I have migrated to uk in the late 80's , hence I missed out on all religious teachings about hindusim, it is with my own eager and greed , I try to learn all of these, so please pardon me if I show any ignorance in any of these mythical topics.

but I feel Ramayana, Mahabhratham have all lost its authenticity thanks to all these cartoons we see in the TV, I am very much upset about this as characters in the epics are portrayed in contradicting way than the original scriptures of the epic!, hence misleading the community and esp. the younger generation!

From: Sudhaama on Mon Sep 1 20:29:16 2008.

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Raghu wrote:

...............but I feel Ramayana, Mahabhratham have all lost its authenticity thanks to all these cartoons we see in the TV, I am very much upset about this as characters in the epics are portrayed in contradicting way than the original scriptures of the epic!, hence misleading the community and esp. the younger generation!

While Rama and Seetha were highly and widely accepted and worshipped as God and Godess...

..not only all over India... but all over Asia as well... wherever Hinduism had spread.

But the subsequent generations could not digest the thought that even the God and the Godess too suffered like Mankind...

..then how can they deserve to be called and qualified as the Super-human.?...

...people started questioning on the Original story of truth of Valmiki

Besides the Kings felt the Ramayana as the Model-document... to force people to honour the King and Elders.

And they also felt the necessity of the story in their local languages enabling the children to be taught in schools.

Eventually the Kings encouraged new Ramayanas in local languages... as well as in the so called Deva-basha, Sanskrit.

...depicting the Hero King of Ramayana as God.

Thus several Ramayanas cropped up... most of them far different... as also mutually contradicting each other too.!

All such Ramayanas highly glorifies Rama and Seetha... some of them even extols Ravana as Great...

One such Ramayana glorifies Ravana so highly that

..Ravana was the Father of Seetha.!
.

From: Janar on Sat Sep 6 10:46:00 2008. [Full View]

And ya in such stories, Ravana and Sita will never know about this..

..kamba ramayanam is clearly one of the sweetest work of the ramayana...valmiki covers all aspects of rama's story in a frank, blunt manner..kambar focuses only on rama's good, representing Him to be truly God...two different perspectives on the same character..kamba ramayanam is more appropriate for bhakti though, where in contrast, valmiki's ramayana toches on topics controversial.
From: Janar on Sat Sep 6 10:54:40 2008. [Full View]

A story:

Ravana wished to approach Sita but she rejected him of course. Ravana's chief wife Mandodari suggested that he should disguise himself as Rama.

" When I am disguised as Ram, Ram's mentality of eka patni vrta (one man to one woman) permeates through my mind!"
and so he will never embrace women who are not his wives..

So Ravana can never touch Sita, in Rama's form

Such is the greatness of His (accurate) form!
From: Raghu on Fri Sep 26 11:54:26 2008. [Full View]

I was watching the latest misleading cartoon by RamAnandSagar again, this time this was hilarious

here the joker decsribes hanuman to be an avatar of Maheshwar

I am going to make my own ramayan, now every one can make such a mockery of the great epic, no wonder , Non-Hindus can ever understand hinduism thanks to various jokers who make money in the name of epics
From: Sudhaama on Fri Sep 26 14:16:18 2008. [Full View]

.
. Hanuman.. the Awathara of Lord Siva... in Ramayana?

Raghu wrote:

I was watching the latest misleading cartoon by RamAnandSagar again, this time this was hilarious

here the joker decsribes hanuman to be an avatar of Maheshwar
....

Yes. Some of the authentic 18 Puranas say so... that Hanuman is the Awathara of Lord Siva...

...Combined with the aspect of Vayu, His father... thus qualified to be named as Vayu-puthra also

..And in one of the Keerthanas... Swami Thyagaraja, the Awathara of Valmiki... also confirms this fact.

If we keenly study Ramayana... we can wonder whether Ramayana is the epic to praise the Glory of Rama the Hero...

... or on Hanuman his Ambassador....

...similar to Lord Krishna, the Ambassador... whose Glory is highly extolled in Mahabharatha... although he is Not the Hero of the epic...

..but only a Secondary Character..

..Not even Second-Hero.!

So We can justify to change the name of Ramayana...

...as Hanumanaayana...!!!

Yes... without Hanuman... there can be No Ramayana.

Ramayana is not only the Awathara-story of Vishnu.. but also many other Gods...

...including the Lord Siva, Indra, and so on.

Hanuman is the ONE AND THE ONLY CHARACTER... in the whole epic...

...who has never yielded to Earthly onslaughts...

...nor buckled under the cunning Machinations of the enemies or the evil characters...

...nor subdued to Human-weaknesses.

...and always the UNFAILING VICTOR... UNPARALLEL.!...

..Never faced any Failure nor Defeat... even in the least... anywhere.!

Rather the only character in Ramayana... who exhibited WHOLLY the Godly propensities on Earth..

..although showing as just a SUB-HUMAN... a WEAK-LOOKING ANIMAL... so called Monkey....

...is only Hanuman.

... quite opposite inwardly... contrary to His simple and Humble attitudes outwardly.

Lord Vishnu exhibited Himselves in Mahabharatha... as just a HUMBLE-SERVANT on one side...

... as also the Ominipotent God... on the other side.

Similarly Hanuman exhibited Himself in Ramayana as the Humble Servant of Rama and His Devotees... on one-side

...as also the invincible Terror to His Enemies... on the other side parallally.

In one of the Sri-Vaishnava Temples for Rama, at Chennai...

...Hanuman is very famous for His benign Grace quite fast to the seekers...

...rather so called VARA-PRASADI... (Boon-bestower)...

..the Namam Alankaram (Thirumanh on the holy Face) of Hanuman... is adored like Viboothi Sign for Shiva...

...Three lines HORIZONTALLY.... Not Vertically as Namam.!

Even Rama the God-leader has left the Earth towards His permanent abode Vaikunta..

..while His Ambassador Hanuman... the Chiranjeevi.. has not accompanied His Master, Rama...

..but preferred to continue His duties towards His Devotees... even after Two Yugas..

...by overstaying on Earth, during Kali-yuga too.!!!

Rather Hanuman still exists here and is LIVING WITH US ... on Earth.

So it is NOT WRONG to believe and worship Hanuman...

... as the awathara of the Lord Siva.
.
From: CLUELESS on Wed Jan 7 9:27:51 2009. [Full View]

can anyone provide the lyrics and translation of:-
YAAROO IVAN YAROO

by ARUNACHALA KAVIYAR IN
RAMA NATAKA KEERTHANAI

thanks
From: podalangai on Wed Jan 7 10:03:41 2009. [Full View]

CLUELESS wrote:

can anyone provide the lyrics and translation of:-
YAAROO IVAN YAROO

by ARUNACHALA KAVIYAR IN
RAMA NATAKA KEERTHANAI

thanks

There's a version on Chennai Online:
http://archives.chennaionline.com/music/Thamizhsongs/2004/song26.asp

Ramanatakam is a beautiful work, both in terms of its music, but also as an interpretation of the story of Rama. Does anyone know of books which compare the various Tamil versions of the Ramayana?
From: CLUELESS on Wed Jan 7 11:33:06 2009. [Full View]

THANKS FOR THE LINK.
ARE THERE OTHER SOURCES ON THIS SUBLECT?
REGARDS.
From: Raghu on Tue Jun 23 10:19:10 2009. [Full View]

can some one elaborate on Lava Kusa story pls?

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