THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RAMA AVATHARAM AND RAMAYANA The Concept of Avatar Avataara means the Lord who is in the

highest realms of Paramapadam chooses to come down to earth. This descent is called Avataara. No blemish attaches to the Divine as a result of this descent. There is no diminution in His puissance. Here is the example of a child playing on the ground. If the mother feels it is beneath her dignity to bend and calls upon the child to leap into her arms, the child cannot do so. But out of her love for the child, the mother herself stoops and picks up the baby. By bending down to take the child, does the mother bow to the child? Likewise, God descends to the level of the human to bless and rescue those who cannot rise to the level of the Divine. The ignorant assumes that because the Divine has descended with a human form God has lowered Himself to the human level. This is a case of bending and not kneeling down. It is an act of benediction and not of submission. The concept of Avataara is a distinguishing feature of Hinduism that is not present in any other religion. God's will is supreme. So, whenever He wants, He can take an Avataara. But, the most important of them all are known as Dasa Avataara the Ten Main Avataaras. He can appear in this world as a concrete person and appear to be in flesh and blood though His body is Suddhasatva. and every such manifestation is called an Avatara high heavens.

existence and ascend' unto him. himself to teach us realize how humble we really are.

o make us feel worthy of him. The doctrine of Avatharam The philosophy reflected in the Hindu epics is the doctrine of the avatar (incarnation of Vishnu or God as a human being). The two main avatars of Vishnu that appear in the epics are Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, and

Krishna, the friend of the Pandavas in Mahabharata. Unlike the superhuman devas (Gods) of the Vedic Samhitas and the abstract Upanishadic concept of the all-pervading and formless Brahman, the avatars in these epics are the human intermediaries between the Supreme Being represented as Saguna Brahman and mere mortals. This doctrine has had a great impact on Hindu religious life, for to many it means that God has manifested Himself in a form that could be appreciated even by the least sophisticated. Rama and Krishna have remained prominent as beloved and adored manifestations of the Divine for thousands of years among Hindus. The Upanishadic concept of the underlying unity Brahman is revered by many to be the pinnacle of Hindu thought, and the concept of the avatars has purveyed this concept to the average Hindu as an expression of the manifestation of the Hindu's highest single divinity as an aid to humanity in dark times. The Hindu cycle of creation and destruction contains the essence of the idea of "avatars" and indeed relies on a final avatar of Vishnu, that of Kalki, as the final destructive force at the end of the world. Concept of Avatharam and its possible co-relationship of the with the Theory of Evolution We can not say much about this co-relationship but we may derive a parallel:

er and land (amphibian) (Koorma); -lion and Half-man - a stage between Homo sapiens and animals (Tiryaks) (Nara + Simha); the rough and tough and not so civilized human (Parasurama, Rama with the axe) the bow) with the plough)

The significance of Ramavathara Indeed, the Ramavatara is one of the most splendid of Maha Vishnus manifestations in order to redeem His pledge to "appear in bodily forms whenever virtue decays and evil causes misery to the good and the virtuous, and the earth itself". According to Tulsidas, the two syllables of Sri Rama's name, ' ra' and 'ma' are like the sound of a clap that drives away birds of doubt, leading to unclouded faith in the redeeming nature of the Divine. In the Mahabharata, Bhishma, awaiting death on a bed of arrows, revealed the esoterics of the namas to Yudhishtira. Part of the revelation was that meditating on the essence of each Nama frees one from fear and sins and leads to the Lord's perennial grace. Parvati once asked Lord Shiva the way to attain Maha Vishnu, who was beyond comprehension. Shiva, with delightful simplicity, answered that by meditating on the sweet name of Sri Rama, one attained blissful union with the 'Immaculate One' as the persona of Sri Rama embodied the Vishnu Sahasranama. The Ideals of Ramavatara The Ramayana is a work which holds out ideals for every home and every family. The foremost lesson to be learnt from the Ramayana is how to foster unity and harmony in a family. When each family is united, the village enjoys unity. When the villages are united, the nation basks in prosperity. "Be ready to sacrifice the son for the sake of the village and the village for the sake of the nation." This was the dictum taught by Vidura in the Mahabharata. Ramayana is an epic which delineates with remarkable clarity and the precision of a surgeons knife, how to conduct human relationships of all types. It appears to be an authentic interpretation in sociology, a comprehensive directory of human relations. There is no end to this variety of relations between man and man, man and woman and it may be surprising that the ideal behaviour of almost every human relationship has been depicted in this Epic. To name a few: the relationship between father and son as represented by Dasaratha and Rama; son and stepmotherRama and Kaikeyi; husband and wifeLakshmana and Urmila; king and his subjects Rama and inhabitants of Ayodhya; brother and brotherRama, Bharata and Lakshmana; married man and a wantonLakshmana and Surpanakha; God and devoteeRama and Sugreeva; king and his armyRama and the Vanaras; master and servantRama and Hanuman; sworn enemiesRama and Ravana;

ideal husband and wife relationshipRama and Sita.

For every human situation, for every intricate relationship, there is an answer in the Ramayana and it is an ideal answer worthy of emulation in all countries, by all people, at all times. The Epic emphasises rajdharma that rulers can never be above the law but must forever sacrifice their personal interests, their paramount consideration being only the welfare of the state and all its citizens. Rama stands out as an ideal ruler intensely responsive to the wishes of the people. Rama demonstrated the ideal relations that should exist between the ruler and the ruled. Highly sensitive even to the remarks of a petty washer-man, Ramasent away Sita to the forest out of a feeling that the washer-man's comment might be an indication of the unspoken feelings of many others among his subjects. Depicting Dharma and Virtues in Ramavathara In Ramavathara, Rama is depicted as the embodiment of Dharma and Virtues through mind, speech and action, as exemplified by the following: performance of duty particulate individuals strength ly becomes superior to temporary happiness renouncing her presence in his life prospects, grants the desires of Lakshmana and Sita to follow him renouncing the world for the Self nds to help those that suffer, even while he is suffering

renunciate knows only God

heavenly or worldly rewards : sinful, debased, mean, selfish, greedy, driven by lust as the Id leads one to hell demons that come to him in sincerity f surrender, or the stick of defeat Rama and Sita as an example of an ideal, perfect couple Rama and Sita are the Hindu ideals of a Perfect Man and a Perfect Woman, with emphasis on truth at all times of trials and temptations, endurance under privations, and devotion to duty under all vicissitudes of fortune. In this respect, the Ramayana gives us a true picture of Hindu faith and righteous life. Rama suffers for fourteen years in exile, and is chastened by privations and misfortunes, before he ascends the throne of his father. In a humble way this course of training was passed through by every pious Hindu of the ancient times when every brammachari was taken away from his parents at an early age, and lived the hard life of a student under his teacher for twelve or twentyfour or thirty-six years, before he entered the married life and settled down as a householder. The pious Hindu saw in Rama's life the ideal of a true Hindu life, the success and the triumph which follow upon endurance and faith and devotion to duty. It is the truth and endurance of Rama under sufferings and privations which impart the deepest lessons to the Hindu character, and is the highest ideal of a Hindu righteous life. The ancient ideal may seem to us far-fetched in these days, but we can never fully comprehend the great moral Epic of the Hindus unless we endeavour to study fully and clearly its relations of old Hindu ideas and old Hindu way of life. And if trial and endurance are a part of a Hindu's ideal of a man's life, devotion and self-abnegation are still more essentially a part of his ideal of a woman's life. Sita holds a place in the hearts of women in India which no other creation of a poet's imagination holds among any other nation on earth. There is not a Hindu man whose earliest and tenderest recollections do not cling round the story of Sita's sufferings and Sita's faithfulness, told in the nursery, taught in the family circle, remembered and cherished through life. Sita's adventures in a desolate forest and in a hostile prison only represent in an exaggerated form the humbler trials of a woman's life; and Sita's endurance and faithfulness teach her devotion to duty in all trials and troubles of life. As Seetha once said: For my mother often taught me and my father often spoke that the home of a wedded woman is what her husband makes. As the shadow to the substance, to her lord is the faithful wife; And she parts not from her consort till she parts

with fleeting life! Therefore, let me seek the jungle and in roam in pathless forests; Where the wild deer freely ranges and the tiger makes his home, Happier than in father's mansions in the woods will Sita live; Waste no thought on home or kindred, nestling in her husband's love!" The tale of Sita was a tale of womanly faith and self -abnegation which charmed and fascinated the Hindu world. Repeated trials bring out in brighter relief the unfaltering truth of Sita's character; she goes to a second banishment in the woods with the same trust and devotion to her lord as before, and she returns once more, and sinks into the bosom of her Mother Earth, true in death as she had been true in life. The creative imagination of the Hindus has conceived no loftier and holier character than Sita; the literature of the world has not produced a higher ideal of womanly love, womanly truth, and womanly devotion.