P.S. Eventhough I am christian I read the book Ramayana with full devotion and faith. Whenever I read the book I made sure the place where I am reading should be clean and the atmosphere should be serene by lighting some incence sticks. It is just the faith which you have to carry to respect religion. Whatever faith or religion you are it doesnt matter when you have respect towards others religion and their followings.
Jai Shree Ram...Jai Shree Ram...Were the words which I said as soon as I completed the book Ramayana. Simply an amazing book to read. How come I had the patience to read a religious book. Hats off to me.ha ha ah..
Eventhough I had seen Ramayana in DD long time back when I was kid. I never ever read any book related to Ramayana. The craze of Ramayana was started long back when I was in my engg College. There some of my colleagues rooms were filled with huge posters of Ram,Lakshman and Hanuman. Something attracted me. I kept in my mind I had to read the book any how. But I never gave a try to fetch the book at that time. Recenlty I had a chance to go to Ramakrishna Math in Chennai. I laid my hands on the Book Ramayana written by Raajagopal Chakravarthy. I know Ramayana was originally written by Valmiki ,but you get books translated by other authors also. I just wanted to read it and feel the characters moving in my mind.
It was really ecstatic to read an epic Ramayana. I was so much engrossed in reading the book, that I never realized that when the time was midnight. I completed the book on 6 April 2010 in the morning by 3am. So anyone can understand how much I was involved with the book and the characters.
Coming to the book. I really liked the whole book. Many people would say, it is purely fictional, it is not true, or many other things to oppose the book. To all those people I would just want to say. Why you are thinking in the negative way by telling it is not true or it is purely fictional. Why don't you take the many positive teaching which the book wants to teach to the world. May be when we can learn the positive things from the book then we truly can say we have gained something from the epic Ramayana. I am not saying I have become a sage or a very wise person. But I can say I have gathered many good things from many characters in the book.
Ramayana Book Learnings from the book :
Ram An amazing personality(sorry to use the word personality). He was the incarnation of lord Vishnu. There are many good qualities which you can learn from Ram. The kindness,softness like a coconut water. How a son or an elder brother should be there can be learnt from Ram. I know it will be very dificult or possibly impossible to lead the path of Ram. He was en embodiment of a perfect person. The way he followed what his father said to be in forest for 14 years. The compassion by which he treated his brother Lakshmana,Bharath and Shatrughan, still makes me stunned. I sometimes even feel is it even possible to emulate 10% of the qualities of what Ram had.
Lakshmana and BharathA pure expression of respect and love towards his elder brother. Even he was not said to live in forest, still he went with his brother Ram. This showed the commitment and respect which he showed towards his brother. He knew it would be very difficult to live in forest,but just for his brother he went with him. Another brother who wished to give up everything including the full of his kingdom for Ram.
Hanuman The power and strength of both brains and body can be seen in Hanuman. It was because of his heroics Ram was able to find Sita in Lanka. I can still visualize the scene in front of my eyes when he single handedly made fool of the Lankan warriors in their own corridor.
Dashrath A man of principles. He can go to any extent to keep his words. Eg. He sent his son Ram to jungle just because he gave a word to his wife Kaikeyi. That doesnt mean he was a bad king. Even he was in high pain after sending Ram to the forest .
Sita A divine women who was with his husband in all phases. May it be happiness in Ayodhya or even if it was the harsh times in the forest. She was a woman who had the qualities of a chaste woman, who always had high respect for her husband. Without questioning anything to her husband she jumps in the fire and comes out without any scare. This shows the purity of thoughts and actions of Sita.
Raavan He was the villain or the hero of Ramayana. But he was a person who made his presence felt in many parts of Ramayana. Eventhough he had an eye on Sita,but never touched or forced her for anything. May be some of his qualities like greed, false pride,ego etc made a downfall of such a huge multi faced person.
There are many other characters like Jatayu for the heroism, Angada and Sugriva for their friendship. And many more.I might have missed many things to say or describe. Please excuse me.
This was just a small approach to put some thoughts of mine about the epic book which I had read. I know I might have not done justice to all the characters and their teachings thorugh this blog. But it certainly had taught me lot of stuffs.
I hope I can follow some principles which Ramayana wants to teach. I can just suggest to all the readers, if they get a chance to read Ramayana do read it. You will surely enjoy and in the process you will learn a lot of life lessons. The next epic I am planing to read in near future in Mahabharatha.
Moral : Reading Ramayana was a divine experience.