Shri Rama Chandra Swami
Sri Rama, Hare Rama, Ramachandra, Ramakrishna, Ramaayya, like this many many names are taken by many many hindu's everyday, mostly when ever they face an obstacle it could be a small irritant or a very serious issue, "Ramachandra", comes to one's mind immediately, whether it is a learned behaviour or a intutive cultural thing, I do not know.
Shri Rama Chandra is the 7th incarnation of Shri Vishnu, born as a prince in Ayodhya in India, in the Treta Yuga, that would be around 1 million years ago, well do not ask me for carbon dating etc, he is know for his humane qualities and has set an example for all humans to follow them, but then it was in the treta Yuga, when everything was in place, but now we are talking about Kali Yuga, where the life of a human being is decided by flipping a coin, so, to live like Shri Rama is little difficult but not impossible.
Shri Rama means, Purushottama, i.e. to be popular among masses, Kind, Brave, Just, Obedient, Intelligent, Patient, with a great sense of universal love, and be dutiful, and before preaching anyting he practised it himself then asked others to follow, this again is the characteristic of Lord Vishnu, well he got the best attention one can imagine, but was asked to leave the kingdom by his stepmother, as dutiful and obedient as he was, without asking the reason, why?, he left the kingdom for 14 years, his devoted wife Sita and brother Lakshmana followed him.
They spend their life in forest as wished by his stepmother, the story begins here, it is a story about POWER and its understanding, the mighty demon king of Lanka RAVANA's demon sister, Shurpanaka happens to raom around in the forest at the same time, she spots Shri Rama and falls for him, she asks him to marry him, Shri Rama refuses and instead asks her to go to his brother Lakshmana.
Lakshmana is a sharp and impatient person, he chops her nose and ears and asks her to get lost, all hell breaks loose, Shurpanaka runs to her mighty brother RAVANA, after hearing her story, he decides to teach the brothers a lesson, and with his deception and other manipulative techniques, kidnaps Sita devi and takes her to his fortress in Lanka, and asks her to marry him, Sita is a incarnation of Lakshmi devi, consort of Lord Vishnu, Instead Sita devi asks him to protect himself from Lord Rama and his divine powers.
RAVANA Keeps her in the Ashoka Vatika for almost a year, meanwhile, Rama and Lakshmana figure out the whole story, as to what happened to Sita, they finally reach Srilanka after building the Rama varadhi between India and Sri Lanka, with the help of mighty Hanuman and the monkey force.
Meanshile in Lanka, RAVANA's younger brother Vibhishan cautions Ravana and asks him to return sita to Rama, but Ravana is filled with pride and knows that no one can kill him (since he has a pot of ambrosia in his stomach and unless untill the ambrosia is removed from his stomach, no one can kill him etc a boon he got from Lord Shiva.), this family secret is revealed to Rama by Vibhishan, that is after RAVANA asks Vibhishan to leave the kingdom, RAVANA Ignores everyones request to forget and return Sita, but he remains adamant of teaching a lesson to Shri Rama.
After a bloody war, RAVANA is killed along with his brothers, sons, and other soldiers, Sita is returned to Rama by Vibhishan, and Vibhishan is made the king of Lanka by Shri Rama.
Moral of the story is:
Had RAVANA asked his sister to forget about the incident and went on with is life, the whole story would have been different, but as it is know when the time of destruction arrives, even the most intelligent behave like fools, so did RAVANA just to satisfy his foolish sister's foolish pride he staked everything he had and lost.
People who feel they are powerful should remember that :
POWER is within oneself and not because you know someone like RAVANA, POWER is a gift given by nature and human should know how to use it in a proper way, but most of the humans as history suggests misuse the POWER and get in to deep trouble.
Surya Ianala
Mar 27, 2007 on the occasion of Shri Ramam Navami.
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