Rama & Sita- Valmiki's Yogic Metaphors

-Kirti Tarang Pande

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Originally Published in Daily Bhaskar

The most interesting thing about Rama is that everyone feels strongly about him, because he is different to different people- with scientists finding evidence of ‘Ram-Setu’ a historian may look at Rama differently from a mythologists’ point of view. Those with romantic hearts see him as a passionate lover who walked across jungles all the way to Sri Lanka for Sita. A feminist may look at him as the man who disowned his wife. In present India, your views on Rama maybe decided upon by your political allegiance or vice-versa. Do you know why it is so? You may love him or hate him, but why you can’t ignore him?

Who is Rama?

As always, the simplest answer lies in Yoga. Sankhya Darshan, the philosophy from which Yoga & Ayurveda have emerged, uses Rama as a metaphor for Self Realization. Goswami Tulsidas has said,

“Ja ki rahi bhawana jaisi,

Prabhu moorat dikhe tin waisi”

Everyone paints Rama with their own brush

At Home Yogis’ Home, we initiate our students in Self-Realization meditation, where they discover themselves through their version of Rama.

How is finding Rama relevant to everyday life?

If we are in bondage of Maya, we can never find Rama. Bondage of Maya means limitation of perception. Only the things that we see through our senses come in our experiential field. Our experience forms our memory. Our memory tells us what we can do and what we can’t. This is what cages our true potential. Imagine, how our story would have turned out if our monkey ancestors would have been caged by their perceptions?

They would have thought, “We have never seen an ape on two legs? In our memory we can’t recall a monkey that ever walked on twos. We can never walk on twos”.

Thankfully, they didn’t allow themselves to be caged by perceptions and we evolved into bipeds.

Literally, monkeys can evolve if they break-up from Maya (limitations of perceptions) and take refuge in Rama (become self-relized). Just visualize what benefits we can draw from it as humans!

But how to find Rama?

Rama can only be discovered through Sita.

Valmiki through his Ramayana, shares the yogic path of self- realization in a poetic way. So, instead of clear philosophical reasoning we get visual metaphors.

Rama is self realization & so is Sita. Rama is the ‘action’ aspect of the consciousness while Sita is the ‘bliss’.

 Laxman guarding them is our ‘buddhi’- ability to discriminate . Bhrittrhari in Niti Satakam says;

“Aharanidrabhyamaithunam ca samanyametat pasubhirnaranam|

Buddhirhi tesam adhiko viseso buddhirvihinah pasubhih samana||”

Meaning, it is the Buddhi, the discriminating power, and it is the freedom of choice that characterizes us as human beings. Otherwise, food, sleep, fear & sex are the attributes of animals too.

Till now we have got our ‘self’ that’s pure consciousness comprising of action & bliss, which guarded by our discriminatory power. The minute we let down our discriminatory power, the bliss is gone. The minute Laxman leaves Sita, she is abducted by Ravana. Ravana is Sankhya Darshan, a metaphor for Maya and ego. When we are trapped by the limitations of our perceptions, how can we achieve our goals? How can we find bliss- Sita?

That’s when Rama takes help of Vayu putra Hanuman. Hanuman represents our Prana-the life force. The Vayu within us, the oxygen that we take in is our life-force. We can’t live a minute without it. It’s when we devote our life-force to self-realization, as Hanuman is devoted to Rama we can find our true potential, our bliss.

How to channelize our life-force?

Swami Vivekananda has given us four paths to it:

1. Bhakti Yoga: We surrender to Hanuman and focus our senses to devotion of Hanuman.

2. Raja Yoga: By practicing pranayams, keeping our awareness fixed at the breath.

3. Janana Yoga: Reading & understanding the essence of Ramayana with respect to the metaphors that it contains. Then, transferring that wisdom from the realm of intellect to the realm of action.

4. Karma Yoga: Staying in the present all the time, guarding our actions, thoughts & speech with discrimination and freedom of choice.