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Copyright © 2016 by Linda Egenes, MA, and Kumuda Reddy, MD
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Ebook ISBN 9781101993057
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Egenes, Linda, author. | Reddy, Kumuda, author. | Våalmåiki. Råamåayaòna.
Title: The Ramayana : a new retelling of Valmiki’s ancient epic—complete and comprehensive / Linda Egenes, Kumuda Reddy.
Description: New York : TarcherPerigee, 2016. | Series: Tarcher cornerstone editions
Identifiers: LCCN 2016012659 | ISBN 9780143111801 (paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: Våalmåiki. Råamåayaòna—Adaptations. | BISAC: RELIGION / Hinduism / Sacred Writings. | PHILOSOPHY / Hindu. | BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Meditation.
Classification: LCC BL1139.25 .E54 2016 | DDC 294.5/92204521—dc23
Version_1
For Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, in gratitude
So long as mountains and rivers
have their place on the face of the earth,
the story of the Rāmāyana will be told in the world.
—Bāla Kānda 2.36
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Introduction
PROLOGUE
The Qualities of Rāma
ONE
Bāla Kānda
Childhood
TWO
Ayodhyā Kānda
The City of Ayodhyā
THREE
Āranya Kānda
The Forest
FOUR
Kishkindhā Kānda
Kingdom of the Monkeys
FIVE
Sundara Kānda
The Beautiful City
SIX
Yuddha Kānda
The War
SEVEN
Uttara Kānda
Epilogue
Glossary of Sanskrit Words
Acknowledgments
Books by Linda Egenes and Kumuda Reddy
About the Authors
Introduction
THE GREAT EPIC known as the Rāmāyana may be one of the most generative pieces of literature ever written. The sixteenth-century saint and reteller of the Rāmāyana, Tulsīdās, effused:
Rām incarnates in countless ways.
And there are tens of millions of Rāmāyanas.
The Rāmāyana has an extraordinary tradition of re-creating itself, and through this process it has appeared in many different forms and media. Whether chanted in Sanskrit or expressed in the literary traditions of the vast range of South Asian languages; whether appearing in the dim light of Indonesian shadow puppet plays or celebrated ritually in an all-night Kachuk dance; or whether decorating the royal palace in Thailand in miles of bas-relief or moving audiences in the many dance dramas in both classical and folk traditions, the sheer number of Rāmāyana tellings over the last several thousand years has been nothing short of astonishing.*
Continuing this tradition, there is always room for one more retelling of the Rāmāyana, especially when it captures the essence of the original, as reflected in this new retelling by Linda Egenes and Kumuda Reddy. Their abridged adaptation, with its direct and simple style, using rhythmic prose rather than poetic meter, has captured the essence of the original with a purity and simplicity that is true to Vālmīki’s original intent, yet is moving and touching to the heart in a very modern sense.
For those not familiar with the Rāmāyana, it has been described as the original epic quest—comparable to the Bible, Star Wars, and Romeo and Juliet all rolled into one. Revered today by over one billion people worldwide as the most sacred of stories, the Rāmāyana not only has its roots as the national treasure of India and Southeast Asia, but has emerged as one of the great classics of world literature. The Rāmāyana is the “ayana” (journey) of one of the most illustrious of epic heroes—Rāma.
Cognized by the illustrious sage Vālmīki, the Rāmāyana was originally chanted in Sanskrit, the language of the Vedic civilization of ancient India. The date of the composition of the Rāmāyana cannot be fixed, since in the tradition of Vedic knowledge, the literature was handed down orally for thousands of years, singer to singer, generation after generation. Whenever he actually wrote down his cognition, Vālmīki—considered the first poet—captured the Rāmāyana in poetry of unsurpassed dramatic power and richness in over 24,000 couplet verses, or shlokas, making it one of the longest epic poems ever written. Of the many branches of the Sanskrit literature, the Rāmāyana belongs to the Itihāsa branch, which also contains its longer companion epic, the Mahābhārata.
The Rāmāyana is the epic adventure of the enlightened hero Rāma and his quest to purify the world of ignorance and negativity. Along the way, Rāma is united with his wife Sītā; encounters separation from his beloved; and finally overcomes these challenges by destroying the forces of darkness and transforming the world. Throughout this journey, the themes of love and Dharma intertwine in an exquisite archetypal play that deepens the story at every turn.
There is a saying, “That which lasts longest is closest to the truth.” By this measure, the Rāmāyana holds a unique position in the field of world literature. Both in terms of its lasting impact over time, as well as its influence across many cultures, the Rāmāyana has maintained a universal appeal that has reverberated across millennia. In addition to its revered status throughout the East, the Rāmāyana has also had a seminal impact on Western mythic traditions and popular cultures. Many of the themes recurrent in Western myths and fairy tales, such as the “exile to the forest” or the “evil stepmother,” originated in the Rāmāyana. George Lucas was himself strongly influenced by the Rāmāyana as he created the original Star Wars. Unlike many of the archaic epics lost in obscurity, the Rāmāyana has remained a vital living tradition, propagating throughout the world in its myriad forms.
How has the Rāmāyana maintained this universal appeal? The secret of the Rāmāyana lies in its depth, within which is embedded a comprehensive, multileveled mythic structure—layer upon layer of understanding and meaning. These layers move from the most outward, surface level to the deepest and most refined levels—inexorably propelling the beholder to dive in toward the source.
Before we proceed, I would like to clarify the use of the term “myth.” Some individuals and scholars still treat the word “myth” as signifying a fanciful tale from the distant past. Many people in the field now use the word “myth” as the multicultural expression popularized by Joseph Campbell, who defines myth as the underlying archetypal “blueprint” of a culture—the wellspring of unseen values and deeply held world pictures that shape the behavior of the individual and the entire society. I propose to take the concept of my
th to an even deeper level: that the Rāmāyana transcends the scholarly and popular use of myth and is the fundamental structure of life itself. It is the concrete expression of abstract principles of knowledge (Veda), much like human physiology is the expression of its underlying DNA. The Rāmāyana is the living expression of the Veda.
Let us explore these nested Chinese boxes of meaning and structure that make up the Rāmāyana. The outer level of the story of the Rāmāyana reveals the field of changing mores and customs within a civilization. The virtuous Rāma and the other characters embody ideal levels of behavior that become guidelines for all to emulate. A deeper level of the Rāmāyana is the level of the heroic quest and heroic life, describing the transformation of the characters within the stages of their heroic journeys. It corresponds to the heroic action that the hero must undertake for the benefit of the society as a whole. This level is seen in Arthurian legends, the Grail myth, or in the Odyssey.
A still deeper level is that of the gods and goddesses, describing life as it was close to the beginning of creation. This level personifies the elemental forces of nature and is seen in the creation myths from various cultures or in Genesis. Deeper still is the fourth, almost transcendental level of myth—a level so powerful and all-encompassing that it could only be seen as an expression of the divine intelligence itself that has created nature in the first place. This level reveals the very mechanics of creation, which synthesize all the elemental forces of nature into a more all-encompassing wholeness. The Rāmāyana knits together all these levels in a profound, comprehensive structure.
But what enthralls us so much that we cannot resist moving through these various levels of meaning and depth as we journey through the Rāmāyana? Throughout his journey, Rāma encounters an extraordinary “līlā” (divine play) of opposing forces—apparently irreconcilable opposites—that must be overcome until his ultimate victory. This is the very essence of the myth-making process—the process whereby opposing forces are transcended to a deeper level of synthesis. A classic example of this is seen in the Rāmāyana’s companion epic, the Mahābhārata. The Mahābhārata portrays a great war in which Arjuna, the most respected archer of his time, is torn between his duty to oppose evil and his inability to kill members of his own family who oppose righteousness. Standing in that state of suspension, he must transcend to a deeper level of synthesis to encompass these irreconcilable values. The reader who identifies with Arjuna in this case must also transcend to a more comprehensive worldview and embrace these values within himself.
As our expanded sense of self unfolds in this process, we find a corresponding expansion in our sense of Dharma. Dharma is the force of evolution, the invincible force of life that flows through all created things. Dharma is also personal—as in, how do I create the smoothest, most evolutionary path for my own life? At every step of the way, the expansion of our individual consciousness yields a more comprehensive vision of what is most significant both for our evolution and for the evolution of life as a whole.
Now we can see how these themes extend throughout the Rāmāyana. Great epics such as the Rāmāyana and the Mahābhārata take us into this sacred world of archetypal depth where all these opposing values are magnified in the extreme. As we journey into the Rāmāyana, for example, we become Rāma’s father, King Dasharatha, who is torn between the love of his son and his duty to uphold his word. He wishes to crown his universally-loved eldest son as his heir apparent, but in the past he has promised Rāma’s stepmother Kaikeyī two boons, and she now demands that her son, Bharata, be crowned and Rāma be exiled to the forest for fourteen years.
As the saga continues, we are also Rāma, who has just fought a cataclysmic battle to recover his cherished wife, Sītā, who was abducted by the king of the demons, Rāvana. Even though he knows in his heart that Sītā is pure, he must banish his precious wife from the kingdom to satisfy the doubts of the people that their king has reunited with a woman who may have been corrupted by living in a demon’s household for almost a year. In both these situations, we feel a tremendous pull of emotion played out in the tug between our heart and mind. Herein lies the secret of the Rāmāyana. The story is so vast, profound, and multilayered, it contains virtually every expression of relationship in the play and display of life. As we follow its epic journey, we also explore every swing of emotion in this field—from the depths of despair to supreme ecstasy, and everything in between. Again and again we encounter its apparently irreconcilable values, and our consciousness expands in the process. Simultaneously, the Rāmāyana spurs us to follow this unfolding process—discriminating finer and finer values of Dharma until we ultimately experience the fullest expression of what Dharma can truly be.
What makes the Rāmāyana unique is this internal dynamic, which provides a pathway whose exploration appears to have no end to its depth. Other great epics display deepening values of Dharma through this play of opposites, so what makes the Rāmāyana so different? This may have to do with the expansive qualities that Rāma embodies. Rāma not only displays the exemplary virtues of many heroes, but his capacity for enlightenment moves the story toward much deeper waters. Rāma commands a sphere of influence that administers all of nature—his mission being to rid the entire world of ignorance. This breadth of scope appears unique among the heroic pantheon. Rāma is a divine being born as a man, fully integrated in heart and mind, and united with his Self. In Hindi there is a saying, Rām Brahm paramārath rūpā—“Rāma is Brahman, Totality.”
We now begin to glimpse the profound parallels within our own consciousness. The endpoint of Rāma’s journey is nothing less than the eternal story of All That Is (Totality) and its relationship with our Self. The great Vedic sage Maharishi Mahesh Yogi describes this relationship:
Rām is the embodiment of pure spirituality, of pure Being—Totality in its absolute unity. All activity in the universe is orderly because of that eternal law of life, the administration of Rām, which establishes and maintains harmony in all relationships; which harmonizes everything with every other thing in the universe.*
This selection underscores why the experience of the Rāmāyana should yield such profound results. If Rāma embodies all the diverse relationships in the universe, then the study of his story is essentially the study of our Self and our evolving relationship with creation. In this view, the impulses of the Rāmāyana are the structures of our own consciousness, our own Self. All the characters of the Rāmāyana are aspects of our own nature, playing out all its possibilities and tendencies. The vanquishing of ignorance and the reestablishment of Rāma’s realm, for example, are actually the “inner” drama within our own Self as we grow in enlightenment. The tapestry that the Rāmāyana weaves embraces both the entire fabric of nature and the dynamics of our own nature.
There is a scientific basis for this profound connection between Rāma’s journey and our own evolution. Dr. Tony Nader, a medical doctor and physiologist by training, conducted highly original research that found a stunning correlation between the form and function of our physiology and all these details of the story of the Rāmāyana (Rāmāyan in Human Physiology).* This may be hard to fathom, but this timeless saga appears to be a “script of our nature,” continually unfolding our brain and body, and acting as a template for the growth of our full potential as human beings.
Let us now return to resolve our earlier dilemma. We are now Rāma, who, after banishing Sītā, grieves deeply at his loss when Sītā asks Divine Mother to return home and is then swallowed up by the earth. Rāma is inconsolable, but then the Creator himself (Brahmā) reminds Rāma of his divine origins. Brahmā is able to shift Rāma’s whole perception by reminding him that his separation from Sītā is only a flicker in the vast span of eternity. Rāma transcends and realizes that he will be “momentarily” reunited with his consort Lakshmī (Sītā) when he returns to heaven. Are not we all like Rāma, forgetting our divine nature in grieving over our own “momentary losses”?
/> The reestablishment of the wholeness of life, inside and out, seems to be Rāma’s odyssey (or, shall we say, Rāmāyana) as well as our own. Rāma’s quest, and our identification with his journey, inevitably expands to cosmic dimensions, since the “ayana” of the Rāmāyana is a Sanskrit term that signifies a cosmic journey, like a planet revolving around the sun, or a solar system moving around the center of the galaxy. So our journey has also come full circle.
This introduction may have given a glimpse of the evolutionary potential for a dive into the deep well of the Rāmāyana. We have explored two movements in this process. First, the deep container of the Rāmāyana enables us to plumb vertically into its depths, inspiring and reinspiring us with its many layers of meaning. The display of great contrasting values and their seemingly irreconcilable opposites challenges us to expand our personal framework and shift to a deeper level of synthesis within ourselves to embrace this play of opposites. In the process, we have learned to align our individual nature (or Dharma) with all of nature. Thus the Rāmāyana serves as the ultimate dramatic vehicle by enlivening the deepest values of life. This is why audiences are eternally touched by it.
Simultaneously, the Rāmāyana expands horizontally, through cultures and societies, diversifying itself through its array of forms and styles of adaptation.
It spreads, ceaselessly, various,
one and many at once.
Thus when Kampan, a twelfth-century adapter of the Rāmāyana for South India, poetically described this quality of the Rāmāyana, he seemed to cognize the Sanskrit expression from the Bhagavad-Gītā: prakritim svām avashtabhya vishrijāmi punah punah—“Curving back on my own nature, I create again and again.” This expression has been used to describe the creative process of nature itself, as it generates the universe through its own internal dynamics. The Rāmāyana seems to hold a similar dynamic in its ability to also “curve back on itself to create again and again.”
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