In Ayodhya, ( yudhdha means conflict, Ayodhya means where there is no conflict ) to the king Dasharatha ( = one who has conquered all the ten indriyaas ) was born the Supreme Lord, Sri Raama (= ‘That One’ who is revelling in every form – ‘ sarve ramanti yasmin iti Raamaah ‘ ) as a baby.
Sri Raama grows up in Ayodhya (without any conflicts ) and then goes out of Ayodhya with sage Vishwamitra to protect the yagnaas.
Sri Raama gets married to Sita. Janaka is her father. Janaka found her while ploughing the mother earth, most improbable place to come out from. Ultimately, she goes back to mother earth. So here is someone who came from no-cause and goes back to no-cause, and this is called, in vedaanta, as ‘ Maaya ‘.
Thus Sri Raama, the Atman, the self, gets wedded to Maaya. Once ‘ Self ‘ gets wedded to Maaya, the Ego, ‘ I ‘ can not remain in Ayodhya. Conflict must necessarily start. Thus he goes to jungle with Sita. Jungle means the forest of pluralities, conflicts, in which you and I live today.
There, as long as Sita was looking at Sri Raama, living in Sri Raama, for Sri Raama, ( Ego thinking of God only ) she never knew the difference between Ayodhya and forest. But one little moment she turned her attention outwards and there stood the Golden deer – the delusory golden deer.
And once we see that delusion, we do not want God, we want that delusory thing only. Sita got stung by the desire, rejected Sri Raama, sent him away saying, ” I want that Golden deer “. Sri Raama goes. The deer is killed no doubt, but it starts crying out and Sita asks Lakshmana also to go. He hesitatingly goes.
It is at this time that Ten-headed monster, Ravana, comes in the guise of a Sanyasi Bhikshu. See the anti-thesis. Dasharatha, who has conquered the ten indriyaas, is in Ayodhya, and Dashamukha is in Lanka. We are like Ravana. Our attention is constantly turned outwards through the ten indriyaas. Materialism enters the bosom of a seeker in a deceitful form. Ravana, the extrovert man, with lusty living came to Sita in a deceitful form. He comes and takes her away and Sita becomes a prisoner in Lanka.
Her fall from Ayodhya to Lanka is the fall of man from greatness of divinity into the present condition of guilt, sorrow, agitation, worries and suffering. Thus you and I are Sita now in Lanka.
What did she do there ? We must also go through the same discipline. She refused to co-operate with materialism all around. When she says ‘ NO ‘ materialism can not touch her. She remained under Ashoka tree. Shoka is sorrow and Ashoka is sorrowless. Though there is sorrow in all our minds, we refuse to recognize it. There under the Ashoka tree she contemplated on Sri Raama with a sense of total surrender, recognizing and realizing the terrible mistake that she made and remained there. When we thus remain contemplating on Sri Raama, every seeker will get intimation from the Divine, Sri Rama, that ‘ I am coming ‘. Hanuman-ji reaches her and gives her the Symbol. Her hope increases and she is confident that Sri Rama is coming. She awaits the arrival of Sri Rama.
As Mata Sita weeps for him, Sri Rama also expresses sentimental emotions. Valmiki wants to communicate to us that when we cry for God, he responds. How will he go there ? He is in jungle. The only army he can have is monkeys’. We find so much of criticism in Western literature that monkeys can not make an army. But here it has to be monkeys. Human minds and thoughts are the only ally for the Lord , the Spiritual Self, for I and you to reach that state. Monkeys and human minds have the same qualities of ‘ chanchalatwa ‘ and ‘ asthiratwa ‘ ( lack concentration and attention ).
These monkeys can never be the ally of the Lord as long as they are ruled by Vali, the incorrigible lust. As long as our minds are ruled by lust we are not ready to do Sri Raama‘s work. So Vali is to be destroyed and see who comes to the throne – Sugreeva. Greeva means the reins of horses. Sugreeva – the total self control ! Under Sugreeva the monkeys are available to do Sri Raama’s work and together they build the bridge – the bridge of contemplation to reach the realm of Ravana – the realm of pure materialism, to destroy the extrovertedness, destroy Ravana and take Sita to Sri Raama.
Mata Sita, the ego, when comes face to face with Sri Raama, the Self, the ego disappears. Just as ‘ the dreamer I ‘ disappears before ‘ the waker I ‘ . Sita thus disappears. It is Kapila muni who tells Sri Raama that he can not go back to Ayodhya and bring about Raama Rajya without a queen. Hence the Kapila muni makes a delusory Sita with whom Sri Raama returns to Ayodhya and rules for a short time. All men of Realization, having realized the Truth, always come back to the world for a short time to serve as Saints, Prophets. We can not work in the world without an ego. But here, it is not a true ego, but an illusory ego. When he thus rules, Luva and Kusha are born. Similarly when a Jnani works in the world, a Bible or a Koran, a Gita or an Upanishad will necessarily emerge out of Him.
Then he gives up the world . There is no compulsion on him to give up because it is already an illusory one. It is not a real one. He gives up the world and there ends the masterpiece.
Thus Raamayana, from Ayodhya to Lanka is the process of an individualized Ego , coming into the present state of misconception that I am a limited, individualized ego, and the return of Sri Raama back to Ayodhya from Lanka is the man’s pilgrimage fulfilled in the Realized Self. There after they live in the world for a short time serving the mankind and then the story ends.
Thus there is a spiritual background to the entire story of the Ramayana. That is the reason why it is so popular. The average man is happy with the story. To the mediocre man, the idealism that Sri Raama stands for is a great education. But even the man of Realization enjoys Ramayana , because he sees in and through the story , the entire Vedantic Wisdom, echoing and re-echoing as a melody Divine.
