Naam Ramayana – Our worldview shapes our responses to the world’s ups and downs

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
They were happy even there. Naam Ramayan, names 33 and 34.
Virachita Nijapitra Karma Karama Bharatarpita Nijapaduka Rama. So here is the part of the Aranya Kanda. Lord Rama is in the forest and Bharata has come to meet him and Bharata has given the news, the heartbreaking, devastating news that the Shrut Maharaj is no more.
And Rama swoons in agony. After he comes back, he pulls himself together. And regaining his composure, he goes to the nearby river in Chitrakoot.
He has been residing in Chitrakoot as mentioned earlier. Chitrakoot, Adrinike, Tanna Rama. While he was residing in Chitrakoot, goes to a nearby river and he offers water to his deceased father.
Virachita Nijapitra Karma Karama. One’s responses are shaped by one’s worldviews. In today’s world, if we hear that a close relative, I mean, someone as close a relative as a parent has died, there would be possibly the first part of the reaction, crying, being overwhelmed by grief would be common.
But along with that, there would be another part of the reaction. And that is recognizing that we are, we may not really think of immediately offering water. It depends on what kind of cultural conceptions we have of what a person is meant to do.
For example, say in the army, if there are veterans who come to know soldiers, that another soldier has passed away, has been killed in a war. Then they, depending on the particular army’s convention, they may immediately get up and stand erect and offer a salute. That is the way within the army, although they will also experience the normal emotions of grief at the loss of a colleague.
But their military training kicks in and they channel their grief towards the direction of honoring the deceased and they honor the deceased by saluting. So now, saluting is honorable way of responding to grief. At the same time, that is not necessarily the most enlightened way of doing so.
Just like the idea of saluting is just like if somebody is, somebody is, somebody respectable is coming, we might raise our arm and salute, set our hands and put it on the forehead to salute and honor that person. So like that, somebody who has passed away, we are honoring them by raising the hand and salute. But if you understand that actually we are eternal souls and as souls, we are separate from our bodies and the soul continues to exist even after bodily destruction.
Then the person will not just give up the body. We understand that we cannot just, we need not just honor the person, but we can also do something more for the person and that is we can pray for the well-being of their eternal soul, which has now gone to another destination and that is what is attempted here. When Viruchitapichitkaramakarama, that Lord Ram offered water of the nearby sacred river to his father, the idea of offering water to a river is that everything comes from the water and everything, the water has come from the water itself, but through the act of offering the water, we offer our devotion.
So like that, to that absolute truth, everything has come and everything is returning to that absolute truth. Of course, everyone will return to that absolute truth as per their own karma and their own pace with many diversions or even U-turns, but we can offer auspiciousness to them by praying that, by offering water in a symbolic gesture with prayers, that they attain the absolute truth soon. Viruchitapichitkaramakarama, so at least, if they do not attain the absolute truth, they at least attain an auspicious destination and we pray and desire and do our part in their onward progress.
Through such rituals, which may seem pointless actually, in a subtle way, when such rituals are done in a prayerful mood, then the pious credits coming from those rituals go to the deceased person and help them in moving towards a more auspicious future destination. It is considered a vital duty of an offspring, especially a son, to perform such final rites for his father and of course, the eldest son should normally light the funeral pyre, but when that is not possible, at least, they, water should be offered and that is what Ram did here. Viruchitapichitkaramakarama, because the body had already been cremated, which could not be preserved for so long and Ram would not have come back to the kingdom anyway.
So, Bharata decided to cremate it himself, that itself had taken several days because it had, he had to be out of station. So, Bharataarpita nijapadukarama, Bharataarpita nijapadukarama, actually Bharata is extremely resourceful person. So, he was, so Bharata beseeched and begged Ram to return and take the kingdom and there is a very loving debate between them, which embodies a succession conflict that took place after the Patriarch Bharata, the Ashwath departed.
Normally succession conflicts are caused by selfishness, where both the, where all the heirs to the Patriarch want the biggest, biggest piece of the pie, if not the whole pie. But here, both the brothers Bharata and Ram were saying, you take the kingdom, you take the kingdom. So, where a selfishness causes normal succession conflicts, the succession conflict was caused by selflessness.
And herein, Ram refused, so Bharata was asking with love and Ram was answering also with love, but he was thinking of his duty to his father. He said, the only way I can now serve my father is by honouring the word that he had given, by keeping my word to him, I’ll be ensuring that his word comes true. And thus he decided to stay in the forest.
And Bharata, becoming desperate, said that, I cannot, I will not go back. I’ll fast till death. If you don’t come back, you must accept the kingdom.
And he sat down on Kusha grass with a resolve to fast. So, Ram was momentarily perplexed, but then he smiled and he lifted up Bharata and embraced him. He said that, your love has won and I accept the kingdom which you have brought me.
As Bharata’s face lit up with joy, Ram continued that, and after accepting the kingdom that you have given me, I entrust it to you. Because I want to carry out the order of my father. So, therefore, rule on my behalf as my representative.
I’ll accept the kingdom from you, but I request you to be the ruler in my absence, so that I can follow my father’s word and be in the forest for 14 years. So, on hearing this, Bharata’s heart fell, even as his pride rose at how his brother was unflinchingly fixed in performing his duty, not giving in to any temptation. And thus, knowing that he would not be able to change Ram’s mind, Bharata said that, Please, O Ram, give me something by which the world can know that it is you who are the king and not I. And then he asked for Ram’s sandals.
Normally, now, if there is a conflict, if one brother takes out his sandals and gives to another brother, the other brother will probably take it and hit the older brother on the head with those sandals. The younger brother would feel mortified, humiliated, scorned to be handed sandals. But Bharata was not like that.
Bharata was delighted. And he put those sandals on his head and he went back and then he enthroned those sandals. And he sat there.
He did not sit on the throne, but he sat on the foot of the throne, letting the whole world know through the external positioning what the internal position, what the political position was. He was not the king. He was the servant.
And Ram was the king, as was conveyed symbolically through the sandals which were on the throne. Such was the selfless love between Ram and Bharata. Thank you.