Notes Of Philosophical Nature

Notes Of Philosophical Nature

The Ramayana also offers us some philosophical points which I consider important to address, albeit briefly.

Man has always felt the need for a personal God. It could not be otherwise, since man is a person. Our longing has always been directed towards the discovery of transcendence, but in the presence of this, we are sometimes dismayed, terrified at the absence of individual entities. We need a personal God. And in fact he, according to the best Vedic texts, is really a person. Sometimes, then, we would like him to be like us, in a certain way “in flesh and blood”.

Rama is very close to this divine ideal. Rama suffers, Rama has seen himself deprived of his wife; Rama is like a man. In fact, more than as a divine incarnation (avatara), he behaved like a superman, and we can thus feel him close and at the same time look at him with respect and veneration, unable to help but being influenced by his irreproachable character. In the Ramayana, there is more emphasis on Rama’s humanity, on his being a man rather  than on his divinity. The gods are gods, and sometimes we feel them distant, as they are not partakers of our pains and joys.

But, after hinting at Rama’s humanity, we see his divinity. First of all, what does divinity mean? According to the ancient Vedic texts, the divinity is not just a concept: it is a very specific person. For this reason, when the need arises, He incarnates himself, that is, He descends on this earth while keeping His divinity intact. This means that He does not acquire a body made of material elements, but rather maintains his spiritual body. 

Spiritual world with precise varieties, therefore, with delineated individualities and salvific purposes towards those who are in this world of “illusions”. So why, one wonders, if Rama had a body made of spiritual elements, at certain moments he is wounded, bleeds, and feels pain like any other man? How come, in his divinity, he falls under the deceptions of Ravana? Why is it that if relationships and the spiritual nature itself are eternal and full of joy, there is so much pain in his story? 

The answers to these questions are found in the Bhagavad-gita and in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the ancient Vedic texts that give precise information on the spiritual nature and the laws that govern it. Divine activities are imponderable in their personal essence: God is not something that must forcibly go beyond our capacity for understanding. We can often understand His soul by looking at ours and making the right proportions. After all, aren’t we made in His image and likeness? God person means tastes, pleasures, and even pains; not like ours, which are material, but spiritual. They may seem like ours, but they are not. Their qualities vary immensely.

Spirit and matter, therefore: two different energies that come from the same source: one and different. According to the Vedas, what God does is never material, but always spiritual.

In the past, in the circles of Hindus scholars and intellectuals, one of the most debated philosophical point was the spiritual principle, which could never come into contact with the opposite principle, the material one. Sita was the incarnation of Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune, the companion of Vishnu, an undisputed absolute spiritual principle; and Ravana was undoubtedly a materialist, one of the worst in history. The question was therefore set like this: according to the Vedic precepts a materialist can never come into contact with a spiritual reality, what about kidnapping it, that is, possessing it, overriding it, even if for a relatively short period of time. Matter can never overwhelm the spirit. He can only be attracted to what the spirit represents. 

In Ravana, the undisputed master of all that surrounded him, only one thing was missing: divinity, that is, to be God himself. Lakshmi was the eternal companion of Vishnu, the Supreme Lord. We should not be surprised that Ravana was attracted to the principle that Sita personified. Possessing Sita meant for Ravana  becoming God. 

With that being said, the following question remains: how did Ravana even touch Sita? This point has been debated for centuries. Finally the answer came. Who found it, in the yellowed pages of an ancient Purana (the Kurma Purana), was the famous holy and mystical Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, considered one of the most attractive divine incarnations. The answer was simple: Ravana did not kidnap Sita. A materialist cannot touch a spiritual principle, but only a shadow of it, a semblance. The moment Ravana grabbed Sita, she transformed into Durga, the terrible goddess of the material universe, who has the task of deluding and then destroying every materialist. Ravana, in his euphoria, could not imagine who he was carrying in his arms. What looked like only a beautiful woman would be the cause of his destruction. Then, when Sita entered the fire and came out unscathed in the company of Agni, she regained her original identity. Sita, therefore never remained in Ravana’s house and her purity is beyond any discussion. 

What does it mean to be devoted to Rama, or to Vishnu, or to their primeval origin, Krishna? It means loving him, it means serving him, it means giving him everything you have, however little. In the Ramayana itself there is a very nice story that has been omitted in the previous edition of this text. I’ll bring it back now. While the mighty Vanaras picked up huge boulders, mountain peaks, gigantic trees, and anything else that could add volume to the construction of the bridge, a spider wanted to participate by pushing grains of sand into the water with its paws. Hanuman saw him and laughed at him. 

“Move, can’t you see we’re working? What do you want us to do with your grains of sand?” 

Rama was not far away, and he heard it. 

“No, Hanuman,” he scolded him, “don’t say these things. For me, there is not difference between the service you are rendering me and the one he is offering me. Service, when done with love is absolute. What matters is the devotion, not the quantity. This spider wants to serve me by doing what is in its capabilities, and you are serving me in what is in yours. So what’s the difference between you and him?” 

Hanuman understood and was saddened to have spoken to the spider in that way. 

Bhakti (devotion) for Rama or Krishna means serving him with love in all we are capable of. The qualities of the action is what matters; the quantity is secondary. It is, then, between you and Him. 

To conclude, we will also say something about Ravana and Kumbhakarna. According to the Srimad-Bhagavatam, Fourth Canto, the two guardians of the spiritual planets Vaikuntha named Jaya and Vijaya committed an offense against the four wise sons of Brahma, the Kumaras, who cursed them to fall into this material world. They were reborn three times as great demons: the first time as Hiranyakasipu and Hiranyaksha, the second as Ravana and Kumbhakarna, and the third time as Sishupala and Dantavakra.

 

Post view 110 times