[Advaita-l] Ananda Ramayana

[jaldhar at braincells.com]

(was Re: [Advaita-l] Karma yoga: the kinder, softer preparation for 
self-inquiry and surrender)


On Thu, 11 Mar 2021, Akilesh Ayyar via Advaita-l wrote:

> Hrm. Rama re-incarnates as Krishna, who gets the arrow in his foot because
> of Rama's deceit. Does this mean Vishnu has not attained liberation from
> samsara? This is a profound misunderstanding of the meaning of liberation
> from samsara.
>

I'm not going to bother refuting every little thing said by someone who is 
no longer even a member of the list but this was so bizzare I thought 
Akilesh must have got it from some Dravidian propaganda or something.  I 
had to find out more.

In fact it is from an obscure Sanskrit work called Ananda Ramayana.  Some 
historians date it to circa 15th century AD but little is known about who 
wrote it or why.  But it has all kinds of bizarre stories such as Sugriva 
only being able to kill Vali because Shri Rama shot him with an arrow in 
the back  (This is due to a misunderstanding of the phrase para~Nmukha 
vadham kR^itvA in Valmiki Ramayana.) and as a result he had to reincarnate 
as Shri Krishna.

This is certainly not found in any well known source on the life of Shri 
Rama such as Ramayana, Yoga Vasishtha or Ramacharitamanasa or of Shri 
Krishna such as Bhagavata Purana or Harivamsha.  For a start these 
avataras are amshas of Bhagavan Narayana whose "descent" (avataraNa) to 
our world is to fulfill a specific purpose.  One avatara cannot be the 
avatara of another.


-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>