Ramayana : the path of our inner light

Although Diwali, the festival of lights, is celebrated as the triumph of good over evil, the story of Lord Rama is not told as that of a hero but as that of a teacher.

Lord Rama teaches a path, the dharmic path, a path to righteous living and adherence to dharma in navigating the challenges of life. The concept of dharma, or righteous duty, is central to Hindu philosophy. By sticking to one's duty, we minimize our negative karma so we are not trapped in an endless cycle of rebirth to keep repaying our karmic debts.

When Lord Rama is told on the day of the coronation that he has to relinquish his throne and go to the forest between of a promise his father made to the latter's second wife, he was under no obligation to do so because he made no promise himself and was never even aware of the existence of such a deal. Rama, however, chose to respect the words that his father gave. He said that it was in the tradition of his ancestors, the Raghu clan, that one's words must be kept even at the cost of one's life.

When the demon king Ravana took Sita away, any man would have turned into a savage and gone on a mass killing spree. Rama chose not to go to war and involve the massive army he had at his command as a prince and future king. He chose to act following the dharmic way.

When Sugreev forgot his promise to him, Rama did not get angry or abuse him. He went to Sugreev and excused himself for not making his demand clear enough for the latter to understand his need.

When Vaali told him, "I have a much bigger army than my brother; I could have helped you find Sita easily," Ram replied: "the path you have chosen was bound to lead to your destruction. I am here to see to it that Dharma is restored."

When his enemy Ravana lay dying on the battlefield, shot down by Rama's arrow, the latter did not gloat or celebrate his victory; he showed respect and asked his brother Laxmana to learn whatever he could from Ravana.

If you take the story of the Ramayana and remove the values, it is just another story of war and bloodshed. The truth is that Lord Rama never used vile means to reach his goal. He never sought praise for his achievements and never sought to be glorified. For him, what mattered was doing one's duty with a sense of righteousness and upholding moral and ethical values.

There is hardly anyone today who lives by these values. Instead of sobriety, we have people who talk big and make a lot of noise because the public tends to fall for gimmicks more than substance. Instead of showing respect, we thrive on criticizing others and insulting and abusing our opponents. Doing things based on your personal values and convictions is a far cry from today's obsession with doing things to show off. Walking your talk is nothing like talking big without holding yourself accountable for your words and actions. Our idea of change is through aggression and violence rather than by using our wisdom to do what is right. Aggressiveness does not solve any problem; it merely displaces it.

Ramayana, Ravana represents animal consciusness and Rama represents divine consciousness. In fact, all the opponents of Lord Rama in the Ramayana, whether it is Ravana, or the latter's sister Surpanakha, or the monkeys Sugreev and Vali, or the rakshasas he comes across in the forest, obey the law of the jungle, based on power and domination. They hunt and grab what you want to satisfy their primal needs.

As humans, most of the things we do are also governed by our animal instincts. Our primal brain responsible for feeding, fighting, fleeing and reproduction evolved over millions of years. Our logical brain responsible for reasoning and language is still developing, we have become civilized for only a few thousand years.

In the story, Rama is trained in his early years by a guru Vasishtha who gave him theoretical knowledge. After that his second guru Vishwamitra brought him into the forest to hunt demons called rakshasas. The forest is a metaphor for the wilderness of the human mind, and the demons living in the forest represent our instincts and temptations. Learning to shoot with the bow and arrow represents mental focus. Ram going into the forest to kill rakshasas represents the work we have to do on ourselves to master those primal instincts that get us to be a slave to greed, envy, lust, hatred, cruelty, violence, make us want to belong to tribes, to have a status, and to want power and dominance over others.

Lord Ram follows a different code of conduct known as dharma, relating to our duty towards the greater good. His actions are not motivated by his personal desires and self-interest but aligned with a mission to serve the divine purpose. It is not anecdotal that Lord Rama spent the 14 years of his exile in the forest before he finally came back to become king. Throughout Ram's exile, the sages who lived in the forest thanked him for making the forest a safer place by eliminating numerous demons, meaning that he made the mind a more welcoming place for the divine.

It is said that everyone who has eyes can see but wisdom comes from reflecting on what is seen. It does not just happen, it takes hard work and self-discipline. This is always an inner journey we undertake on our own, into the wilderness that is our own minds. Lord Rama, therefore, represents a person's awakening to the divine within himself. The name Rama is chosen for a reason: Ra means light and Ma means in my heart. Rama is the light within our hearts.