[Advaita-l] Ramayana Soundaryam

[Kuntimaddi Sadananda]

Note: This article was written basedon the talk by Guruji, Swami Tejomayanandaji at the 17th  Chinmaya Mahasamadhi Camp in Los Angeles in2010. I am posting this article in view of the Shree Ramanavami. The article istaken from my book, ‘Self and the Supreme,’ published by the Indic Academy andis available online on Amazon. 

 

                                          Ramayana Soundaryam

 

Soundaryam means beauty. What dowe mean by beauty? When do we say that something is beautiful? To start with,when an object appeals to our eyes, we say it is beautiful. Beauty is thatX-factor that makes us admire, that which makes the object stand out from itssurroundings, that which is esthetically appealing to our vision, that whichseems to have perfection, an order, or a structure. For example, not manypeople can appreciate modern art, where deeper thinking may be required toappreciate the message depicted by the artist – which has more appealing to theintellect than the mind.

 

In contrast, a beautiful objectappeals immediately to our emotions. Subsequently, we may also admire thecreator of that beauty intellectually and appreciate the intelligence behindthat creation. Soundaryam or beauty has an immediate mental or emotionalappreciation, as our experience shows. Beauty melts our hearts and fills ourhearts with noble sentiments. For example, when we see a beautiful flower infull blossom with all its fragrance, which radiates with brilliant colors andtextures, our vision gets arrested, at least for a few seconds. In thosemoments of admiration, we forget the rest of the world, and we even forgetourselves since no other thought arises other than emotional identity with thatbeauty. The mind becomes silent, with no words to express or verbalize it –other than some meaningless mantras – Oh!, Wah!, or What a beauty!, etc. Theintellect may step in later with some critical analysis involving comparisonsand contrasts with the things that were seen in the past, with gradations inthe scale of beauty, with a desire to own it, or to be proud of it if it isalready owned, or to be jealous of the person who owns it. We do not understandwhat satyam and jnaanam mean, but we understand sundaram, beauty, ananda, orjoy associated with it; the total fulfillment, even for a few moments of joy,in the vision of the beauty.

 

Thus, when there is beauty, themind is attracted to it. Hence attraction is the expression of soundaryam, thatwhich is beautiful. The perfection or the order in the object manifests asattraction towards it, which in turn invokes love and passion. It maydegenerate later into the desire to possess the object. Before the desirearises, there is an emotional identification with the object of love, which isthe object of attraction, which is the object of beauty. There is a saying thatbeauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Thus, beauty causes attraction andexpresses as a love for the object, and that love involves an identity withoneself, bridging the gap between the seer and the seen, at least for thosemoments. No words can reach to express that beauty, that love, that happiness.Every object of beauty is a creative expression or vibhuuti of the creator, thesupreme.

 

At the sense level of perception,esthetic order in the creation is recognized as a thing of beauty. At themental level, it expresses a love for the object with momentary fulfillment. Italso expresses as happiness, which is one’s own intrinsic nature. Those who areintellectuals can also appreciate the beauty of logical presentations. Thisbeauty also expresses as admiration and then love. Any love involves theidentity of the subject and the object of love. In essence, I love what givesme happiness; in that love, the duality or separateness of the subject and theobject of love ceases. 

In a sense, soundaryam isdifferent from aiswaryam, where aiswaryam means glory. Incontrast to love, aiswaryam, invokes an intellectual admiration,respect, or reverence; and sometimes may degenerate to even jealousy. There isa gulf of distance between the subject and the object. To bridge that gulf, thesubject may surrender to the object of reverence only if the attitude ofreverence combines with the attitude of gratitude. It is the relationshipbetween a disciple and his teacher or between a devotee and his deity.

 

The story of Rama, every Hinduknows – from a child to an adult. Yet, one still gets fascinated by hearingthat story again and again. It is not history, but it is HIS story. If so, whydo we want to hear the story of Rama again and again? The love for Rama is anexpression of love for oneself too. It is not Rama’s story – it is our story.Rama means one who revels in everyone, and He is the one in whom everyonerevels. The one who revels in everyone is the Lord himself -I am in the heartof everybody, says the Lord, heart being the seat of love. In essence, it isthe self that is the core of one’s individuality. The story of Rama is thestory of righteousness over evil, the story of Dharma over adharma, the storyof success against all the odds, and the story of the self, which we cherish, andwhich we ourselves would want to be. Rama was the beauty incarnated. BhagavanTulasidasji describing the beauty of Rama, says his eyes are like the lotusflower, his face is like the lotus flower, and his every organ is like thelotus flower, so delicate, so full of fragrance.

Why is the analogy with lotus, wemay ask? Lotus is that which grows out of muddy waters (pankaja, born out ofmud). Yet, in spite of it, it stands out with all its beauty and fragrance, untouchedby the surroundings and even glorifying them. Rama’s beauty was so captivatingthat even the Rakshasas like Khara and Dushana said that they had no heart tofight with him. The name is so captivating and glorifying that even thechanting of it in reverse as mara, mara,.., converted a butcher into a sage(Valmeeki). While the presence of Rama had blessed the people of Ayodhya aswell as many sages and saints at that time, the name has become even morepowerful since it has been blessing millions since then. Such is the beauty ofRama, in name and form. 

Many have written on Ramayana.One famous poet says- it is not famous poets who wrote on Ramayana, but theones who wrote on Ramayana became famous poets - that is the glory of Ramayana.The sage Valmiki, when he first saw a hunter killing one of the two birds thatare in love, could not contain the sorrow or shoka. Words came out ofhis sorrow and became the first sloka. The shoka (sorrow) is transformedinto sloka (poem), even to the surprise of the great Rishi, and made himultimately into a poet, in fact, the first poet. As he was pondering on thesloka, getting concerned about why he cursed the hunter in the form of thesloka, Brahmaji appeared and blessed the sage, saying that Goddes Saraswati herselfexpressed in the form of Sloka. He advised him that he should compose the storyof Rama that he had heard recently from the sage Narada. 

 

Rama means the one who loves alland also the one whom everyone loves. That is the very self within. PujyaGurudev described the Vedantic significance of the story. He is born inAyodhya, meaning where there are no internal conflicts, to Dasharatha, meaningthe one in whom all ten sense organs (five sense organs and five organs ofaction) are fully under control. He had to leave Ayodhya when conflict arose todwell in forests where meditative sages are there, contemplating on the selfwith a pure heart. The whole of Ayodhya was trying to follow Rama. In theforest of the world, the mind (Sita) gets carried away or gets side-trackedwith the fascinations of the glittering world that lures in the form of agolden dear, gets lost and gets captured by the sense of indulgence evendeceptively in the form of Dahshamukha, the ten-headed monster (five senseorgans and five organs of action), whose whole life is all the time centered instomaching all those enjoyments, by hook or crook. When the mind later repentsand longs for Rama, the self within, He has to come as a teacher and destroythe ego with Brahmaastra or aham brahmaasmi, aiming at the stomach,which is the center of indulgence. Sita, the mind, after the completepurification by fire of spiritual sadhana, joins back with Rama, the selfwithin. Thus Ramayana has inspired many authors where the purpose of life isbeing pointed – it is not just a story that fascinates children, but a messageof the very purpose of one's life, the story of dharma, the story of thelonging mind, which is in search of one's own love, the happiness that one is,and uniting with that source of happiness. It is the story of duty bounded bylove, the story of the message to the whole of humanity for its evolution. 

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Hari Om!Sadananda