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Online Lectures - Video
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The Ideal of Rama April 21, 2013 Please click the ' Play' Button to start.
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Summary of this Lecture: This talk was presented to commemorate a special day, Ram Navami – the birth anniversary of Rama. Sri Rama, along with Sri Krishna, is among the most revered gods in the Hindu pantheon. When the Ramayana was shown on TV in India, the whole country became a “ghost town”, as everyone was watching the show. Rama is unsurpassable, being the ideal husband, king, father, son, brother, and warrior, among other roles. Because of the evil designs of his step mother, Rama was exiled into the forest for fourteen years. Rama happily complied with his father’s wishes, and his wife Sita, and his brother Lakshmana, insisted on going with him into exile. The evil king Ravana played a trick on Rama and abducted Sita, whereupon Rama fought a war against Ravana with the help of Hanuman and his monkey army, to rescue Sita. When he won the war, Rama established a perfect kingdom, as he was always concerned about the poor and justice. Tulsidas, the author of the most popular version of the Ramayana, indicated that he could not have described Rama if he hadn’t seen him. Rama is completely human and completely divine. If he were only divine, he would be out of our reach as a role model, and if he were only human, he could not be the ideal that he is. Rama was also the ideal environmentalist, looking to nature for inspiration. The Holy Mother, when she saw the Shiva Linga where Rama had offered his prayers after the war, said: “It is just as I had left it.” Although she tried to downplay this comment, it shows that she was the same as Sita. This talk was accompanied by songs and dances about Rama, with dance by Anuradha Tata, along with Koyel Ghosal on sitar, Arunim Roy singing, and David Cordeiro on tabla. |