Ramayana
The epic poem dealing with life and adventures of R€ma (whose name means “charming”), also called “R€macandra” (lit. “lovely moon”), identified as the 8th Incarnation (avat€ra) of ViŠu; the title in Sanskrit means “relating to R€ma.” It is the shorter of the two great epics of India, the longer being the MAHšBHšRATA; it consists of about 24,000 couplets in seven books. It is traditionally ascribed to the sage V€lm…ki (whose name means “anthill”; tradition has him meditating so long ants built a hill around him) who is said to have written it in the 4th cent. BCE. It describes R€ma’s royal birth in the kattriya class in the northern kingdom of Ayodhya (modern Oudh). He was taught by the great kattriya sage Vivamitra. Learning of a svayamv€ra (lit. “self-choice,” but often involving a martial contest) in Milthil€ by King Janaka of his daughter S…t€ (whose name means “furrow” because Janaka found her one day in a plowed field), R€ma entered the contest and strung a bow which none of the other contestants could do. Thus, he won S…t€ as his wife. Later, during a pilgrimage to the western part of India, during which R€ma put his brother Lakman on the throne, the demon king of Lanka (modern ®ri Lanka, called by the British Ceylon), R€vaŠa, disguised as a beggar, abducted S…t€ and carried her away in his magic flying chariot to his palace on the island of Lanka. R€vana’s other name was Daagr…va, literally “ten heads,” each of which was extraordinarily handsome. He had also had won from ViŠu, as result of austerities, a boon of immortality, modified only to the effect that he could not be killed except by an arrow shot by God to his heart. In other words, if one cut off one his heads, it merely grew back again. (A theosophical or metaphorical interpretation of this would be that he represents pride that cannot be eliminated from one’s nature by merely getting rid of one of its manifestations.) Not wanting to ravish S…t€, he attempted first unsuccessfully to seduce her, then to frighten her with his horrible demons. She, however, remained faithful to her husband.
S…t€ had dropped crumbs along the way as she was being flown to Lanka. R€ma, an incarnation of God (although he was unaware of it) followed this trail, enlisted the aid of the “monkeys” and others in South India, the chief of the army being Hanuman (lit. “having a jaw”), crossed the isthmus between India and Lanka with the aid of birds who dropped stones in the ocean, and attacked R€vana and his army, eventually killing him with an arrow to his heart. When R€ma returned to his kingdom with his wife, the people were not sure she had remained faithful to her husband and demanded she undergo a trial by fire, which she passed successfully as a result of intervention by the gods. Some years later, the people began to question her fidelity again and she pointed to the earth, asking her “father” to vouch for her. The earth opened up and swallowed her. R€ma, disconsolate, wandered in search of her. Imagining that he saw her image in a river, he dove in and drowned. When he arrived in heaven, he found to his amazement that R€vana was seated alongside ViŠu, and was told that R€vana had in earlier years committed a ritual fault and was given the choice of 100 incarnations as a devotee of ViŠu or 10 incarnations as his opponent; not wanting to be away from ViŠu any longer than necessary, he had chosen the latter course of action.
The theosophical or metaphorical interpretation of this epic, briefly, is that all forces, even those we consider evil, come from God. Thus, even pride is ultimately a divine force, just misused. R€ma represents our spiritual self (an incarnation of God), wedded to the soul (usually depicted as feminine in mythology), which must overcome pride with the help of our lower nature (symbolized as an animal nature, specifically in the form evolved from a monkey) by means of one-pointed action (arrow) to its very heart. Note also that Ayodhya is located in the north center of India, Lanka in the south center below the sub-continent and R€ma’s journey goes clockwise by way of the west, returning home by way of the east — clearly symbolizing the general pattern of involution and evolution depicted in what is termed in theosophical literature as the Three Outpourings. There is, in other words, a theosophical interpretation of this great epic.
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