Rama Katha Rasa Vahini - Post 3

Chapter 1

Rama - Prince and Principle

The name 'Rama' is the essence of the Vedas; the Story of Rama is an ocean of Milk, pure and potent. It can be asserted that no poem of equal grandeur and beauty has emerged from other languages or from other countries until this very day; but it has provided inspiration to the poetic imagination of every language and country. It is the greatest treasure inherited by his good fortune by every Indian.

Rama is the guardian deity of the Hindus; the Name is borne by the bodies in which they dwell and the buildings in which those bodies dwell. It can safely be said that there is no Indian who has not imbibed the nectar of Ramakatha, the story of Rama.

The Ramayana, the epic that deals with the story of the Rama Incarnation, is a sacred text that is reverently recited by people with all varieties of equipment, the scholar as well as the ignoramus, the millionaire as well as the pauper. 

The Name that the Ramayana glorifies cleanses all evil; it transforms the sinner; it reveals the Form that the Name represents, the Form that is as charming as the Name itself.

As the sea is the source of all the waters on earth, all beings are born from 'Rama'. A sea sans [without] water is unreal; a being sans [without] 'Rama' is without existence, now or ever. The azure Ocean and the Almighty Lord have much in common.

The Ocean is the abode of the Almighty, as myth and legend proclaim; they describe Him as reclining on the Ocean of Milk. This is the reason behind the title given by Valmiki (son of Prachetas) the great poet who composed the epic, to each canto, Kanda. Kanda means water, an expanse of water.

Contd………..

Commentary by author (by the SAI in the Author)

In the previous post, Swami wrote on Rama thus:-

“Rama is the Indweller in every Body. He is the Atma-Rama, the Rama (Source of Bliss) in every individual. “In first chapter, He wrote, “As the sea is the source of all the waters on earth, all beings are born from 'Rama'. A sea sans [without] water is unreal; a being sans [without] 'Rama' is without existence, now or ever.”

Connecting the two sayings of Swami, what do we learn???

“Rama is the indweller in every body as Atma Rama.”

How the above truth is revealed wonderfully by SAI in the second statement???

A sea without water is unreal and non-existent. 100000 of waves or bubbles may exist in an ocean but they are all non-existent without water.

Howsoever vast an ocean may appear to be, if one takes out water from ocean, what is the identity of ocean???

Exactly in the same manner, the apparent physical existence of all human beings, of all the floras and the faunas, of this entire creation (if taken as ocean in the above example) is BUT PURE EXISTENCE, THE ATMA RAMA.

Love.