Sri Ram Navami

   Today, Thursday, the April 2, 2020 is Sri Ram Navami (Sharvari samvatsara, chaitra masa, shukla paksha), celebrated all over the country as the birth day. Sri Ram was born on this day! Pundits have given the exact birth date and time! It is said to be punarvasu nakshatra, chaturtha pada (Fourth quarter), equivalent to June 5114 BCE. 12.30 pm. at Ayodhya Koshala, on the Banks of the R. Sarayu, in the present Uttara Pradesh. This suffices for the present day Ram Navami celebrations and the place of birth of Lord Sri Ram. If this date and year is taken as the Anglicised version of our four yugas, the entire vaivasvata manvantara will be only 10 000 years, not 4 320 000 years* according to scriptures!

    As far as the epic Ramayana is considered, Sage Veda Vyasa is the author. Ramayana is one of the eighteen great epics conceived by Sri Krishna Dvaipayana, who came to be known as Veda Vyasa for his work of classifying the lengthy Vedic mantras numbering almost a lakh into four divisions! Sri Krishna Dvaipayana is also known as Badarayana and nobody knows who is this Badarayana! Even today, people refer to Badarayana if they do not know the times and works of any person. Thus, 'Badarayana' stands for any old unknown status of a person or work! 

   Now, Ramayana is almost like a biography of Sri Ram woven into a skit, drama, novel or a mythological story. This famous epic Ramayana, along with the other great epic Mahabharata, has become so popular that the names of Sri Ram and Sri Krishna have become the sacred chants of every household. People in rural areas used to hear the story in the evenings as pastime, katha kalakshepa).
    Sri Ramachandra is worshiped as 'God'. King is God as per the Gita. King protects his people and is deified. But, here Sri Ram has attained is God-hood by attaining to the Knowledge of Self, Atma jnyan. Vashishta Gita gives a very lengthy account of instructions to Sri Ramachandra about Atmajnyan (knowledge of the Self) and thereby enables him to attain 'divine consciousness', spiritual attainment. Sri Ramachandra, thus, attains the highest, the divine state!
    Although Sage Veda Vyasa is believed to be the author of the original (script?), a number of persons have rewritten the original story according to their own understanding! Today we have Ramayana credited to Valmiki, Kamba, Tuslidas, K.V. Puttappa (Ramayana Darshanam) and many others. But, none of these portray the true story depicted as real mythology or ancient history of the great epic! There is no reference to the origin of the name 'Rama' anywhere! It is in Srividya, the ancient texts which gives how Devi Sharadamba (in the form of a shalagrama and Srichakra in Srinagara, Kashmir, later on established at Sringeri by Sri Shankaracharya) who breaths unto others without Herself breathing, creates the sounds, syllables, and words! Here, the two syllables 'Ra' and 'Ma' refer to the two chakras (in our body). The sound 'Ra' (agni tattva) comes from manipura chakra at the navel and, the sound 'ma' (aksha tattva) comes from the vishuddhi chakra at throat level.

   Etymologically speaking, the term 'Rama' stands for Sun and Earth. 'Ra' is Light and 'ma' is the gross form of solar flares cooled and consolidated as the Planet Earth. Thus, 'Ram' is the form of Vishnu and 'Sita' is 'Bhu devi' (symbolically found in a box in the field!). Since the jiva is also formed of the five elements, the soul is 'Ra' and the body is 'ma'. If 'Rama' is the soul and the body, the life force is vatatmaja and Anjani suta Anjaneya (anjani suta and vayu putra), borne out of fire and air!  Now,who is Sri Ram? It is common knowledge that the names of children are given after gods and Goddesses. Here, the King Dasharatha gave the name Ramachandra to the his first born child after the Sun since he belonged to Ikshvaku dynasty, worshipers of the Sun God. 

   Now, the question is: "If Sri Ram is the son of King Dasharath who ruled Ayodhya in the treta yuga, how can it be just 5114 BCE? May be, historically right, but not mythologically, definitely not! The real problem is one of the divisions of Krita, Treta, Dvapara and the Kali yugas? It is said Kali yuga lasts for 432 000 years! and the Dva para (second upper or prior to Kali) and the Treta (Third from below, Kali?) are twice, and thrice that age, respectively? It is mind-bogging! This goes to 432 000 X 3 years! Something wrong somewhere?

  Now, the entire episode of birth of Ram is more interesting! Actually, King Dasharatha had no children and the four children born to his wives Koushalya, Kaikeyi and Sumitra are the result of divine grace, sharing the sacred fruit given by a sage! These are like the Pandava born to Kunti by mantra! Thus, 'Rama' is the sacred name given to the first born! Vishnusahasra nama in Bhishma Parva of Mahabharata has this reference. The Grandsire Bhishma says, the two sacred letters 'Ra' and 'Ma' deliver us, the mortals from this mrutyu lok! He says, these two syllables are enough to liberate the embodied souls- Rama nama varanine |  

   Always chant the name of Rama and be happy. Wishing all our well wishers, blog users, a very happy Rama Navami!  

  [* According to scriptures, kali yuga is 432 000 years; dva para is 864 000 years; treta is 1 296 000 and krita is 1 728 000 years - a total of 4 320 000! Certainly, we do not know what is this 'Time scale' called 'Years'!]