Story of RAMAYANA: is the Best EDUCATION! ~ Swami Chinmayananda

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[Excerpts from commentaries, letters and articles by Swami Chinmayananda]

RAMAYANA supplied the rich melody that modulated the heart and moulded the muscles of Indian Culture. Even now it can work this magic!

Spiritual glory, mystical quiet, moral splendour and physical valour are the essential stamps of the Hindu life. And all these were at once generated, nourished and kept blazing in the Bharatiya character, through the constant study of this world famous Epic, RAMAYANA. It can now repeat its magic!!

Sage Valmiki who wrote Ramayana, not only wanted to give his readers, a complete picture of an ideal human being facing every possible situation of life with utmost inner equipoise, but he also had his own experience of the Self to express. Valmiki was not mere author and publisher. He was essentially a Man of Realisation, a champion of the scriptures. These inner symbolisms and significances of the Ramayana are generally lost sight of by the students who are charmed away by the minute beauties in the workmanship of his pen!

A “Classic” must contain geography, history, social customs, people, beliefs, superstitions, moral values etc. It is showing a mirror to that time. But the hero is an “Ideal”, “Perfect”, “Master” — in that Culture. RAMAYANA is a Mystical poem of classical dimensions recorded in classical form.

RAMA, the ideal perfect-one, is made to play life on a stage as filthy as the world that is the common lot of all of us. Criss-crossing through its exhaustive drama are the tensions of passions, emotions, jealousies, pride, lust and greed, the madness of power, the hunger of wealth, the thirst for pleasure and the delusions of attachments. 

There are the tender narrations of innocent childhood, heroic descriptions of irrepressible youth, learned discourses upon the wisdom of old age. Every incident here is an illustration of “Dharma-in-action”. 

In short, RAMAYANA is a picture-gallery, where each picture is a perfect one — and yet, the entire gallery is confusing with its own variegated colours and rich profusions. Just like the picture of the world about us!

In and through them all, SRI RAMA stands out, the Kodandapani, bearing his righteous bow, ever in the defence of honour and truth, of justice and peace. He has a dash of frailties too, which make him truly human. And yet, in his divine glories, he stands out distinctly a colossus of beauty – a mighty titan of strength – a soaring peak of Olympus.

Ramayana is a necklace of priceless gems, each gem dazzling with the divine brilliance of the ideal personality of Lord Rama, In a vivid story form, it clearly demonstrates not only the brilliant charm of living in the enduring moral-values (Rama) but also how one’s life can become a dark and dreary tragedy if, in spite of one’s prosperous wealth and glory, might and power, one has not cultivated moral-values (Ravana) to live and enjoy one’s life.

Ramayana – dive deeper and deeper into it, discover Rama, as One who revels in all, and invoke Him to express through you so that the veiled and hidden Rama in all may wake up and reveal Himself! The world needs this Rama-Blast to Bliss-out the sorrows and tensions of baser living!

In the Ramayana, we find very many high ideas and ideals “concretised” as it were, and presented in the characters like Rama and Sita, Bharata and Hanuman. Many a Hindu has drawn inspiration from one or the other of these ideal personalities. In the lives and precepts of these mythic characters, the entire ethics of Hinduism lies shining like a Pole-Star.

To bring the story of RAMAYANA to our growing children at home is the best EDUCATION that parents can give to their sons and daughters, — an education that can instil into them a reverence “for life”, and a sense of moral beauty and spiritual alertness “in life”. Every child must get a chance to grow up in an atmosphere of inspiring ideals, helping it to form its own personal “vision-in-life”.

These stories of Bala Ramayana are to be read out and explained by the PARENTS THEMSELVES to their children. This must be done in an atmosphere of religious inspiration. Even if we don’t arrange a complete altar, at least let us keep a picture of Sri Rama on a table nearby, and let us light up a joss-stick (agarbatti) in humble reverence and devoted respect.

Sit down, and let the father (or mother) read from this book, each day only one section. Let it be translated in simple homely words in the vernacular. TELL THE STORY to the children, NEVER TRY TO TEACH THEM.

At the end of the reading the parent must prostrate to Sri Rama’s picture….. please, never tell your children to do so. Leave it for them to decide for themselves. Even those who were not doing it in the beginning, will start prostrating sincerely after a few days. Ten times repeat SRI RAMA JAI RAMA JAI JAI RAMA before the reading-session, and also after the close of the section. Let the children sing in chorus, or chant together with you.

See that every following day even the smallest baby in the group of listeners can repeat the story described the previous day, and the days before. Then only proceed ahead. The “first-reading” must be thus done along with the elders and parents. Then they can leave the volume of Bala Ramayana for the children to read for themselves. The day the reading is concluding, see that the children get some unexpected presents, and some milk-pudding (kheer) as “prasadam!”

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