Ramayan prayag - Aranya kanda -6

Courtesy:Smt.Dr.SarojaRamanujam

Ramayan prayag - Aranya kanda -6

Once when Rama was sitting alone Lakshmana approached him and asked him with humility to tell him the sure means of attaining mukthi and instruct him jnana and vijnana.Rama started to speak thus:

The Supreme being Paramathman is the object of quest for one who wants to aspire for mukthi. By knowing Him one is released from fear of birth and death which is the effect of identification with the body, mind and intellect and to imagine that one is the individual self comprising of body, mind and intellect is Maya and the samsara resulting from it is purely maya.

The maya has two aspects , namely aavaraNa and vikshepa. The reality that everything is the Supreme being is concealed by the aavarana sakthi of maya while the vikshepa sakthi projects the gross universe of names and forms.

The diversity experienced in the world is not real but an appearance like the snake in the rope. All that is seen , heard and experienced is like a dream and the body is the root of samsara. The connection with wife and children is due to the identification with the body only. Body- consciousness is due to the effect of the evolutes of moolaprakrthi or primordial nature

.Buddhi, ahankara, and thanmathras which give rise to the five elements and ten senses are all reflections of moolaprakrthi and all this together is denoted by kshethra. Jeeva or the individual self is different from these and identical with the Supreme Self, free from happiness and sorrow.

The means of attaining jnana:
Unidentificattion with the body, ahimsa towards all beings, tolerance, gurubhakthi, purity of mind, body and speech,sense control, steadfastness in performance of various rites,awareness of the evils of samsara, detachment,equanimity, constant devotion to Rama who is the supreme Brahman, avoiding all worldly thoughts and the company of the worldly,retiring to a secluded place in the quest of Self.

The jnana is the real knowledge of " I " being different from buddhi, ahamkara, prana, mind and body and identical with pure consciousness, eternal and wise.When this knowledge becomes a realization it is vijnana, enlightenment. Atman is oure consciousness and bliss.
He is indestructible,detached,equanimous immutable and endows the mind and body with consciousness while himself being and he is self-luminous. He is one without a second with truth, consciousness etc. as his characterisitics.

Mukthi is the state of liberation when the realization of the self with the SupremeSelf dawns due to the instruction of scripture nd the guru.

Rama concluded the discourse with saying that the concept of bondage and liberation is not actual because the Self is ever free but this jnana is not acquired without devotion to Him and enunciated the factors that create devotion.

mathbhakthasango mathsevaa madhbhakthaanaam 
nirantharam
ekaadhasyupavaasaadhi mamaparvaanumodhanam

mathkaThaa Sravane paaTe vyaakhyaane sarvadhaa rathiH
mathpoojaaparinishTaa cha mamanaamanukeerthanam

"Association with my devotees and service to me and to them alwaya,observing the vow of ekadasi etc.,always interested in hearing and reading about me, and discourse of it , adhering to my worship and singug my name."

Rama concluded saying that one who is devoted to Him attains knowledge, detachament and enlightenment and attains mukthi.

This knowledge , he said should not be imparted to anyone without faith and devotion even under compulsion but only to his devotees.

This passage closely resembles Gita and is fit to be called Ramagita but another discourse in Uttrakanda which is rather a reiteration of these in more elaborate is only termed as Ramagita.

Thus they lived in Panchavati for three years. Then in the month of Chaithra one day when Rama was with Lakshmana and Seetha a rakshasi came there accidentally. The word yadhrccchayaa, used in the sense of 'by chance' by Valmiki denotes that all important happenings are by accident only like that of the climbing on the place tower by Manthara which was a turning point of the story and hence it was not yadhrccha but eesvara icchaa, the will of the Lord. Similarly here the advent of Surpanakha is another turning point of the story, again by divine will, that would lead to the destruction of Ravana , which was the purpose of the incarnation.