[Advaita-l] The Human aspect of Jnanis - 2

[V Subrahmanian]

The Valmiki Ramayana itself does not contain the story  told by Bhagavan
Ramana.  The report I have provided mentions this incident 'as depicted by
Valmiki'.  Also, in the Ramayana itself there is a statement of Rama, when
reminded of his true nature by Brahma:

AtmAnam mAnuSham manye Ramam DasharathAtmajam

[I consider Myself a human, named Rama, the son of Dasharatha]

Regards,
subbu

On Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 6:51 AM, S Jayanarayanan <sjayana at yahoo.com> wrote:

> --- On Tue, 7/13/10, V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> [..]
>
> > If we take up the life of Lord Rama as depicted by Valmiki,
> > we see that He
> > exhibited very intense grief on Sita being abducted by
> > Ravana.  Are we then
> > to assume that Rama was an ignorant, dejected, common
> > person and not an
> > incarnation?
> >
>
> The above story has been narrated by Ramana Maharshi, who interprets Rama
> as only having *acted* like he was grief-stricken to the third person:
>
> ("Spiritual Stories as Told by Ramana Maharshi", Story: "PARVATI’S TEST")
>
> ---
> RAMA AND LAKSHMANA were wandering in the forest in
> search of Sita. Rama was grief-stricken. Just then Siva and Parvati
> happened to pass close-by. Siva saluted Rama and passed on. Parvati
> was surprised and asked Siva to explain why He, the Lord of the
> Universe, being worshipped by all, should stoop to salute Rama,
> an ordinary human who having missed his consort was griefstricken
> and moving in anguish in the wilderness looking helpless.
> Siva then said, “Rama is simply acting as a human being would
> under the circumstances. He is nevertheless the incarnation of
> Vishnu and deserves to be saluted. You may test him if you choose.”
> Parvati considered the matter, took the shape of Sita and
> appeared in front of Rama, as he was crying out the name of
> Sita in great anguish. He looked at Parvati appearing as Sita,
> smiled and asked, “Why Parvati, are you here? Where is Sambhu?
> Why have you taken the shape of Sita?” Parvati felt abashed and
> explained how she went there to test him and sought an
> explanation for Siva saluting him.
> Rama replied, “We are all only aspects of Siva, worshipping
> Him at sight and remembering Him out of sight.”
> ---
>
> Regards,
> Kartik
>
>
>
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