For those who lived in early 1990’s, Sunday morning was most anticipated day of the week, as the whole family would sit together to watch the epic by Ramanand Sagar, probably earlier reason to sit together and watch the epic was more of that people had only one television set or for that matter of fact you can say, one television set among couple of neighbourhood. So one of the most important enlightenment what Ramayana brings to our notice is that it brought members of family together in one room, not family but the entire colony. TOGETHERNESS or could better quote it is bringing closer the family members, as compared to today where each one us in our room has one set of Idiot box and for city like Mumbai, people meet there family members living under same roof once in week, due to time constraint, communication gap etc. So the point to ponder is that watching the epic together itself brought family members close, such is the impact of the epic.
1.
My favourite character in the epic is of Ram, not because he was the king but because of the love, compassion he had for all, be it parents, wife, brothers, stepmother, animals, birds, plants, trees etc. Such was his selfless love towards all that he had to go on exile for 14 long years.
2.
Victory of good over evil is the main wisdom of the epic. In spite of wealth, strength, power and blessings from god Shiva, Ravana was killed by Lord ram, because for good to prevail in the society evil had to die.
3.
Dedication & devotion of Hanuman towards his Lord is not to be seen in anyone anywhere in this world. Such was the dedication toward his Lord that Hanuman faced all obstacles, be it burning the Lanka or bringing the Sanjeevani mountain to rescue Laxman (younger brother of Lord Ram) from death, he feared nothing and went ahead at his service. Honesty and standing headstrong at the service of your master, during tough times is something we all should learn from Ram bhakt Hanuman.
4.
Selfless brotherly love is very rare in today’s world. Laxman is the Quintessence of selfless love he had towards his Ram bhaiya, such was his love towards ram bhaiya that he accompanied him during his exile also, leaving all luxuries of life just out of love he had towards his elder brother.
5.
Another important lessons for spinster girls of today, is to choose their life partner not for wealth but for their valour, as did by Sitaji, where Swayamvar was arranged by Raja Janak , just to find the person who could take up the challenge of breaking the Dhanush, which could be done by only brave.
6.
Honesty in relationship is most important for survival of any relation, Sitaji had so much of love, respect and devotion towards her better half, such that riches, supremacy and fancies of life which she could get from Ravana did not entice her even a bit.
7.
Power of god,such was the power of RAM NAAM that all the stones which were thrown in the ocean were floating and a RAM SETU was built fortnight by the Vanar Sena, so we all can a get excellent edification in life that whenever in difficult times or situation, reciting and remembering lord’s name will itself solve all problems in life.
8.
Vibhishan, so called brother of Ravana. Why so called as he was blood relation brother of Ravana, but in terms of personality, character he was conflicting to him. Even though brother’s have grown up together and taught the same values from parents or guru, but it was for a person to allow what he should take up in his life the good or bad. Even the company of his demon brother could not rust him, as he stood by his values of goodness and that’s why he favoured Lord ram and helped him, as he did what was ethical, so another illumination for of us that even the camaraderie of the worst cannot blemish anyone, if we do not allow it to.
9.
Do not blindly follow what your elder’s say, I would quote this with example of Bharat, younger brother of Lord Ram, whereby if he had followed his mother’ (Rani Kaikey) advice, we would not have been celebrating the most awaited festival of the year”Diwali”. As greed of power of making her son Bharat, the king of Ayodhaya had let Lord Ram suffer the exile. So trust your values & instinct. Thumb Rule in Life is to always “Follow the right values, blindly.”
