Value Education and Spirituality 22 – Ramayana 4 – Bharata – Stick to integrity amidst opportunity for immorality

Transcript

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next session.
Thank you. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.
Welcome back to the Value Education and Spirituality series we are discussing about the Ramayana we will discuss about Bharat how we demonstrate the principle of stick to integrity even amidst opportunity for immorality you know it is very easy to talk about how one should be incorruptible one should be principled one should be fair-minded when one is just protesting against the unfairness or corruptness of others but actually when one is put in a situation where one has the opportunity to be corrupt and to get away with it also then to maintain integrity is an extremely difficult challenge and if one maintains integrity at that time then it is it is a great testimony to one’s character that is true integrity indeed so Bharat was out of Ayodhya at the time he was visiting a relative another king at the time when the nightmare of Ram being exiled, Dashrath succumbing to the heartbreak and the whole kingdom reeling under the double grief of their beloved prince being exiled and their beloved king dying so Bharat got some nightmares at that time when he was at his relative’s place and then he got the summons please come back immediately and he rushed back he had a huge army and a continual of soldiers and carriages of gifts with him but he just left them all behind and charged ahead on his horse with just a few trusted assistants and then when he entered Ayodhya he found Ayodhya had been reduced to a ghost town nobody would meet his eyes and now he had expected his father would be there waiting for him his father was not there at all and naturally he went to his mother’s chambers and when he went there his mother said Bharat you have come back she welcomed him and he saw his mother attired in a peculiar garb he started getting premonitions at that time he said where is my father why is the whole kingdom so gloomy and in a month when he came back he told her the whole kingdom was shocked he said what have you done he said how can you possibly think that I would take a kingdom that is entitled for my brother and how can I take the kingdom at the cost of not just my brother’s exile but at my father’s death so I will never let this happen I will never let this happen what have you done oh mother I feel ashamed to call you as my mother I just walked away leaving kai kai stunned he said Bharat I did all this for you he says how could you ever have thought that I would be pleased by such a thing he says you have sunk me into an ocean of shame and you have sunk the whole city whole Ayodhya into an ocean of grief can you not see your mother what you have done and Bharat walked away in horror and disgust and shame now here Bharat’s integrity first comes into the picture he could very well have grabbed the opportunity and later on he could have rationalized he said I did not do anything oh the king had passed away Ram is sore as the forest I am simply doing my duty isn’t it my duty as the only prince in the royal family now the eldest prince in the royal family available for ruling that I take up the kingdom he could have justified rationalized whatever he wanted to do rationalize means to just to come up with false reasoning to make the wrong thing seem right so that’s a rationalize the spelling is r-a-t-i-o-n-a-l-i-z-e but it can also be spelled as rational lies r-a-t-i-o-n-a-l-i-e-s rational lies so the point here is that actually he could very easily have rationalized accepting the kingdom so today people are so greedy for power now we have in the Indies to the example of Aurangzeb he killed his elder brother Dara Shukoh and he imprisoned his father and he grabbed the kingdom for Lakshman everything was done the father was dead and the brother was out in the forest the kingdom had come as if for a platter and he would have feigned innocence you know my mother did it I didn’t do anything and anyway I didn’t want the kingdom but it has come he could have rationalized it but Bharat did not do that he strongly disapproved what his mother did and he immediately set out to correct the wrong which he had not done but which had been done in his name so actually for all of us we will also face sooner or later situations when actually corruption and lack of integrity and immorality can be at various levels at a most extreme level is one becomes utterly insensitive and knowingly hurts others for one’s selfish gains a person say there is nowadays there are natural calamities happen the government often gives relief funds now there are government officials who can see there are people who are homeless people who are starving, people who had respectable lives before the calamity are now destitute often after natural calamities the extent of suffering is heartbreaking and the government officials can see it with their eyes but sometimes they are so corrupt that the money which is given for relief that goes off into their own pockets and people get very little of the money that is when one knows that people are being hurt and still one does the activity which is going to hurt them one does corruption at that level so that is actually very culpable form of corruption the other is there is a whole chain and one says that okay if I am not a part of the chain then anyway the chain is going to go on and the others in the chain may hurt me also they may victimize me so let me keep quiet and I will not actively do be corrupt but I will just passively be a part of whatever is happening now that also of course is undesirable but this what Bharat was doing was actually he is definitely not actively being corrupt or exploitative trying to seek the property from others seek the property of his brother but he even refused to be a passive part of the chain actually for him to reject his own mother whose breast milk he had drunk who had loved him since he was a small infant it is not easy but he knew that no matter how much he loved his mother still his mother had done a terrible wrong and because she had done a terrible wrong it needed to be corrected and he worked to correct it worked tirelessly so this is the example that Bharat gives first thing is he refuses to be a passive participant in a chain of corruption and injustice not only does he refuse to be a passive participant he actually becomes a active agent of change and correction so he immediately arranges for the funeral ceremony with full state honors for his deceased father and as soon as his duty is over then what does he do actually at that time as Bharat and Shatrughan are returning after the funeral ceremony at that time Bharat is intervened by some state officials for some state business and starts talking Shatrughan keeps returning back to the palace and that time he sees Manthara over there and Manthara is bedecked with all jewels now in the intervening period after Ram had been exiled and before Bharat came back Kaikeyi had been celebrating oh now my son is going to become the king and her celebration she was expressing in her celebration she gave a lot of gifts to Kaikeyi also so Kaikeyi was sorry Kaikeyi gave gifts to Manthara also so Manthara was dressed very affluently and when Shatrughan saw her he rushed up to her and she screeched and tried to run but Shatrughan ran and caught her and was running to catch her and she ran into Kaikeyi’s palace for rescue and the palace guard caught her and he brought her dragging in front of Shatrughan he says catch her and punish her she is the cause of the tsunami of sorrow that is inundated Ayodhya punish her now Shatrughan caught her and started shaking her violently and Manthara screamed to Kaikeyi Kaikeyi help and Kaikeyi came running out Shatrughan stopped Shatrughan was so furious he paid no attention to Kaikeyi at that time Bharat came walking over there and Kaikeyi immediately called out to Bharat Bharat was her son Shatrughan was her step son Bharat tell Shatrughan to stop so Bharat looked at Kaikeyi and he said I feel like doing with you what Shatrughan is doing with Manthara Kaikeyi was shocked to hear these words but then Bharat said Shatrughan stop stop I also feel like doing what you are doing but if we hurt her in any way we hurt Manthara if we hurt Kaikeyi Ram will never forgive us and our foremost concern now should be to get Ram back we should not do anything which will displease Ram we should conduct ourselves in a way that will inspire Ram to come back so please let her go please be forgiving so here then we are wronged at that time there is a tendency to lash out at those who have wronged us and punish them disproportionately putting aside principles so actually a man should never raise his hand against a woman no matter what happens that is the Kshatriya principle and Shatrughan was so angry and Bharat was also angry but Bharat controlled his anger and the way he got his inspiration to control the anger the strength to control the anger was by remembering his higher relationship with Ram so actually there are times when certain low minded people can bring out our lower side but at that time those of our relationship that inspire us those people whom we respect and love we remember them remember our connection with them and remember how they will be displeased if we behave inappropriately and therefore we check our lower side from coming out now immediately so Bharat neither succumbed to the weakness of rationalization nor did he succumb to the weakness of self righteous rage but he stuck to the path of beauty and then he thought Ram will not come back so easily so what should I do he said let us to persuade him to come back if it is just he says Ram is my Ram is elder to me he will not listen to my word therefore he said let us take the whole large part of the army let us take a large part of the citizens of Ayodhya and let us take most of the ministers and Vashishtha you also come Vashishtha Vashi you also come so when all of us go together and then Ram says that it is our collective will and request and fervent plea that he come back then he will not refuse then he will come back so this way it was not just Bharat was not making just a surface nominal for show attempt sometimes we want some things to happen in a particular way but we want to also make an appearance oh I would be happy if things happen in other way if you got the post it would have been better I would have been happy if you got the post but now I have got the post let me take it if you want it you can take it I will give it to you actually Bharat did not have that sort of patronizing attitude towards his brother nor did he want to just make a show of doing the right thing he wanted to do everything that was on his power so that the right thing happened and so that Ram was persuaded to accept the kingdom and that’s why he actually arranged for make all the logistical arrangements for take a whole city out to the forest it’s not easy but he did that and when he got there he actually first he told Ram that Ram was grief struck they offered water and did the last rites for deceased father and then Bharat presented his request begged to him he said that I can no more take the kingdom than a crow can take the mantle of the king of birds the eagle Garuda so he said that you are meant to be the king and I will be your servant Ram said that actually I appreciate your sentiment but for me carrying out my father’s word is most important and he said now when father has departed it’s up to me to ensure that his words not turn out to be false so he has told me to stay in the forest and you to be the king you should honour the word so he said but actually now what happened at that time was Kaikeyi also had a change of heart after all this and Kaikeyi requested let me also come and Kaikeyi also came and when Ram spoke this words Kaikeyi said that no Ram it is because of me that your father made that request I take back that request please come back to the kingdom Ram said whatever be the reason why my father gave me that instruction that is not important for me what is important is that he gave me that instruction I must honour his memory by honouring his word so Bharat was so grief struck he said if at all our father’s word has to be honoured then yes it will be honoured he says I will stay in the forest in your place and you go back and rule so at that time Ram smiled and he said oh brother we all have to bear the results of our own karma we cannot disrupt the cosmos order by taking one person cannot take up the karma of another please not hurt yourself like this please do not insist on that which is not possible then when Bharat heard this his face fell and then again he rose his chin in determination he said oh brother if you do not go back to the kingdom then I will also not go back I will sit here with you and I will fast and Bharat sat down and Ram realised it’s a long and fascinating conversation I am describing it very briefly over here the point is both brothers were simply trying their best to offer the kingdom to the other so it was Ram here was the personification of duty to the father Lakshman was the personification of duty to the elder brother so Ram was motivated by love for his father Bharat was motivated by love for his elder brother who would win so would it be so when Bharat sat down like this Ram smiled and he said to Bharat Bharat your love is so selfless and pure that it has conquered me Bharat’s face had become so shriveled and blossomed and all the assembled courtiers and citizens they all became so happy you want to offer me this kingdom I accept it Ram said Bharat was delighted and Ram said I accept the kingdom that you have given me I accept the love that you want to show to me by giving me this kingdom but I also request you to let me express my love to my father by honoring his word therefore after accepting the kingdom that you have given me I entrust this kingdom to you you do not want to rule the kingdom you want me to rule the kingdom I accept that but then I request you that for the 14 years that my father asked me to stay in the forest you rule the kingdom on my behalf Bharat knew that Ram was not going to change his will at least he had the satisfaction that Ram had accepted his request then he said oh brother if you want me to rule on your behalf it is your kingdom which you are entrusting to me then give me some insignia by which the whole world will know that it is your kingdom and I am your servant and then Lord Ram looked and smiled and Bharat said please give me your padukas, please give me your slippers your woollen sandals and Lord Ram he took out his sandals and Bharat took them he gave it to Bharat and Bharat took it and put it on his head in today’s world we know that one of the biggest business magnates of India he was a very poor person who built one of the biggest business empires in the country and then when he passed away what happened to his two sons they fought fought like cats and dogs even their mother she had to intervene and she could not entirely stop the conflict today if one brother gives his slippers to another brother the other brother would take the slippers and smash them on his head only and smash them on the elder brother’s head but what did Bharat do Bharat took the slippers and put it on his own head and he carried it back so when one shows such integrity when we have leaders whose only motive is service then society gets such shining examples that people in general get inspired to also live a life of service of contribution not of exploitation of giving not of taking of benefiting others of not just benefiting oneself this is the supreme value of integrity amidst opportunity for immorality that Bharat demonstrates thank you Hare Krishna