Naam Ramayana 3 – Rama exhibits his miraculous abilities

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you. Hare Krishna.
Hare Krishna. So we continue our discussion on the Naam Ramayana. The third set of third verse.
Ghor Tataka Ghataka Rama Mari Chadi Nipataka Rama Kaushika Makha Samrakshaka Rama Shreemad Ahalyodharaka Rama So Ghor Tataka Ghataka Rama that here we have come in the Balakand to Lord Ram going to the forest at the request of Vishwamitra. The last name was Vishwamitra Priyadhana Rama. He is the dear wealth of Vishwamitra and as a service to Vishwamitra what did he do? Ghor Tataka Ghataka.
So Tataka was a very fierce, ferocious, ghastly looking demoness and Ram, what did he do? Ghataka. He brought her down. He destroyed her.
But this was the first martial campaign of Ram and he fought it with such gallantness. Tataka was such a demoness, she was gigantic and she was, what happened? She just marched on Ram and Lakshmana and they could hear just the size of her caused the entire underbrush, under wilderness to tremble and she marched towards Ram and Ram shot and shot and shot arrows and she just brushed off all the arrows. But eventually Ram just shot arrows so fiercely that she was completely overpowered.
So the first act of Kshatriya heroism that Ram did was in the service of the sages and it was not just what he fought against but what he fought for. Now anybody can be demonized by saying oh you are attacking so and so person. But why are you attacking? If we have a quarrel with someone and we attack that’s violence but if the police are chasing someone who is a lawbreaker and that is not violence.
That is actually something which is essential to do to protect the law and order in society. So Ram was a Kshatriya and he was central to the machinery, the system that was maintaining law and order in society. And his first encounter was with one of the most formidable demon and she happened to be a demoness but more important than the gender of the body is the mentality of the mind, is the disposition of the mind.
And Ram initially hesitated considering that she is a woman, I shouldn’t attack her. And that is noble, that is laudable. But within the demon family even the demonesses they can be horrible.
They can be horrible, horrifying and they have no moral scruples. So Ram not only had to kill the demoness but he had to reconceptualize his idealistic understanding of life to the realistic assessment of ground realities. So demons don’t follow human codes and within human society cultured people never raise their arms against women but female demonesses were first demonesses and second females.
Ram saw them first as female and then as a demoness but Vishwamitra told him no, you have to change this priority. Don’t see her as a female who should never be attacked. See her as a demon first and he is acting with a demonic mentality.
So people have multiple levels of identities and which identity we focus on first determines how we approach them and how we deal with them. So this was not just an exhibition of skills but education about realities for Ram. So he exhibited his prowess but he also was educated about how power needs to be exercised in the real world.
Then next was Maricha Adinipataka Rama. So Tataka was accompanied by many other demons. Primary among them were two of her associates Subahu and Maricha.
So Subahu was also slain by Ram but Maricha is a very interesting character and Ram spared him. In a war there is some armies who have a policy of no prisoners taken. That no prisoners taken means that whatever happens we just slaughter everyone.
So Ram did not necessarily have that attitude. So he felt that rather than slaughtering all the demons that if the demons learnt what had happened and they saw that for protecting the sages there is a powerful enough king who is available who is there and ready, royal prince who is ready. Then if that demon spreads the news to others then maybe that demon would deter others from similarly vandalizing and persecuting the sages.
So considering this Ram hit Maricha with a blunt arrow and yet Ram’s arms had such formidable power and the arrow was hurled at Maricha with such incredible strength that Maricha was flung far away. Sometimes when a blow is hit, let’s say arrow is hit, the arrow just passes through the body but in this case because the arrow was a blunt arrow it did not pass through the body but instead it just hit Maricha and Maricha was flung far away. Nipatak.
Nipatak means hurled to the ground and Maricha was first infuriated and then he was terrified. So later on the Ramayana Maricha tries to attack Ram again coming in the form of a giant Sharabha beast. Horrifying beast not only because of the physical size but also the kind of dimensions and features that he had.
But Ram again shot him. Ram recognized that this is actually Maricha in a disguised form and he again shot him with a blunt arrow and again he was hurled away. So sometimes not killing can also act as a way of deterring and then preventing further destruction.
That’s what Ram wanted to do over here and that’s what he did. So when he hurled this demon away, to some extent this worked positively, some extent it didn’t work positively. Later on when Ravan wanted to abduct Sita, he tried to conscript Maricha in his scheme and Maricha refused.
Anandini refused. He strongly warned Ravan not to antagonize Ram and in that sense Ram’s strategy worked. But unfortunately Shurpanakha incited Ravana’s lust and Ravana came back again and he forced Maricha to join his ranks.
So Maricha became the instrument through which Ravan’s conspiracy to abduct Sita became successful. But that is the history of Maricha that he was hurled away by Ram’s formidable arrow and that was also both a memorable exhibition of power as well as a powerful deterrent for further recurrence of fights. Then, Kaushika Makha Samrakshaka Rama, Srimad Ahalyodharaka Rama.
So Kaushika Makha Samrakshaka Rama. What this means is Kaushika was a great sage and as a great sage what did he do? He actually worked extremely, he was a very powerful sage, Makha Samrakshaka. So in this way the Makha is the sacrifice, Samrakshaka, Ram competently protected the sacrifice of Kaushika.
Now it’s interesting who is Kaushika? Kaushika is non-different from Vishwamitra. In fact Kaushika was his name and Vishwamitra was his title. So it’s interesting that a different name is used over here.
He was celebrated by the name Vishwamitra which he had got because of his great austerities. But here it is described that he had come to the Ashwath’s kingdom to ask for Ram’s assistance for the successful conduct of his sacrifices and for Ram that mission was successful. Ram very gallantly fought and protected and thus he succeeded right in his early childhood in fulfilling the mission of his descent that is Paritranaya sadhunam vinashaya ja duskrtam dharma samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge So dharma samsthapanarthaya to maintain the principles of dharma and to protect those who are virtuous and to neutralize those who are vicious.
That’s what Ram was meant to do and that’s what Ram did. Heroically. Now why is it so significant that yajnas be protected? Yajnas are ways in which the cosmic harmony is maintained and maintaining such harmony is vital.
It’s just like if in a particular country for the administration of the country the taxes have to be collected and if the bandits or thugs they prevent the taxes from reaching the state then the resources for the state will get diminished and the state will not be able to act effectively. So similarly the fire sacrifices are like the cosmic tax we have to pay. It is that devan bhaveta nena te deva bhavayantu vaha parasparam bhavayanta shreya parama vapsita The Bhagavad Gita it is said that what we offer to satisfy the gods they give it back to us in return and in that way we move forward in a way that is constructive and if that doesn’t happen then the cosmic order can get disrupted and that disruption of the cosmic order can be prevented if we all work together.
So Ram by we all means the terrestrials we on the earth and celestial those in heaven we work together. So yajnas are the way by which we humans, human society harmonizes with the rest of reality and Ram by protecting the sacrifice of Kaushika was not just acting to serve that sage but was helping humanity stay in harmony with the rest of reality and then shreemad ahalyodhara karama shreemad ahalyodhara karama So here after that, after the sacrifice was successfully completed now for Ram and Lakshman going out in the forest with Vishwamitra was adventure it was their first major trip out of the kingdom and especially it was a ground trip it was like a trek and when they would otherwise travel they would go with all the royal paraphernalia it was a comfortable journey but now it was at the level of ground realities they were going so then they Vishwamitra decided to give them a further adventure a further opportunity to go and explore various things in their life I will take you to the swayamvar of Sita to the kingdom of Janak Maharaj and as they were going that way Ram performed what we could say was his first miracle now we can use the word miracle in two distinct senses one is that wherein something which is very difficult to do and somebody does it oh that’s a miracle so it’s not against the laws of nature but it is it is something which is very very difficult to do with extremely low probability of something working out so it’s a miracle say for example somebody has a particular disease for which they need may be a bone marrow transfer they need a donor and it’s extremely difficult to find a donor but just in the nick of time they find a donor might call this a miracle or somebody the chances of particular medical treatment working for them is extremely low but it works we might call that’s a miracle that’s one sense of the word miracle so where if something is of extremely low probability and it happens we call it as a miracle the other is that where something involves suspension or transcendence to the laws of nature now miracles are not against science they are above science that there are higher principles beyond what physics explores and discovers and to understand and explore those higher principles we need to open our minds so Ram performed his first miracle when he came to this particular when he was going along towards Janak’s kingdom they came to a hermitage which looked very at one level it looked barren and it looked deserted but another level so that there is one rock on which a Tulsi plant was glowing and then Ram touched that Tulsi plant and suddenly transformed into a saintly lady she was the hermitess and her name was Ahalya so Ahalya who had become a stone was converted from a stone to a human being to a human being and Srimad Ahalya Dharakarama that Lord Ram delivered Ahalya she who had become a stone was converted into human being she is liberated from the stone like existence and brought into return to restore to human existence the story behind this we will discuss in the next name of Ram in the next session