Act Out Of Analysis; Not Emotion

 

[Message on Shri Rama Navami Day] Rama and Krishna were both complete Incarnations of God on earth. But the difference is that Rama said that He was only a human being and not God (Aatmaanam maanusham manye...) whereas Krishna said that He was God on several occasions in the Gita. These days, the situation of humanity is worse than during the times Rama and Krishna. Hence, Shirdi Sai Baba, the recent Incarnation, followed the path of Rama by always saying that He was a servant of God (Allah Malik). Even Krishna said that He was God only in the Gita when He was speaking to Arjuna alone. It means that the general policy of Human Incarnations of God is only to follow the way of Rama almost everywhere. They hide their true identity and only claim to be ordinary human beings and servants of God. Incarnations follow the way of Krishna only in special contexts when they reveal their true identities as Incarnations of God. But even while revealing their identity, following the way of Krishna, they may do so in a modified manner owing to these worst times during the present Kali age. So, even on those special occasions, when the Incarnation of God reveals His identity, the Incarnation might say that God is in Him instead of saying that He is God Himself. This modified claim does speak about the specialty of the Incarnation since God is present only in the Incarnation and not in every human being. But it also limits the specialty of the Incarnation. If the Incarnation directly claims to be God Himself, it is beyond the limit of what a human being can accept. Even though the Incarnation’s claim of being identical with God—being God Himself—is absolutely true, people will not be able to accept it and may react violently to it. This may put the Incarnation in danger as in the case of Jesus. Jesus’ claim that He was God (I am the truth...) was perfectly true; but people reacted violently to it, leading to a tragic outcome. The expression of the truth by the Incarnation is not as important as its acceptance by the public.

Three Perspectives of an Incarnation

When one special human being, upon becoming a Human Incarnation, says that He is God (“I am the Light”—Bible), it represents the true monism of Śaṅkara. Here, we should not forget that every human being is not God. The same Human Incarnation saying that He is only an ordinary human being and not God, is the dualism of Madhva. Statements such as “I am standing in the Light (God)” represent this philosophical view. Here, the Incarnation only claims to be like any other ordinary human being. Since the entire world is in God, every human being, including the Incarnation, can be said to be in God. What we need to understand from statements of this type is that although most human beings are not God, it does not mean that no human being can be God. In between these two extremities of monism and dualism, lies the golden middle path of special monism given by Ramanuja. It is a type of monism since God and the soul are not considered to be separate from each other. But an actual basic difference between God and the soul is accepted. As per this philosophy, the Human Incarnation says “The Light (God) is in Me”. Note how this path avoids the danger of leaning to either side by mixing monism and dualism in equal proportion.

Emotions Lead to Tragedy

 

Because of the policy followed by Rama, almost all devotees misunderstood Rama to be just a human being. When even Sita misunderstood Rama, what to speak of other devotees! Rama told Sita not to follow Him into the forest due to the danger of wild animals in the forest. But Sita retorted “Are You not man enough to protect me? You are actually a woman in the dress of a man! Without knowing this truth, my father gave me to You in marriage (striyam purusha vigraham...)!” Here, Sita appears to be the most ignorant soul. But the fact is that she was acting in the role of an ignorant soul who was unable to understand the future tragedy that awaited her in the forest. By this, she was preaching to ignorant souls, who will fall into difficulties if they neglect the words of the Human Incarnation, mistaking Him to be an ordinary human being.

Rama also acted like an ignorant human being in order to preach about the tragic result of blind fascination. On seeing the golden deer, Sita asked Rama to capture it for her. Rama acted like a man fascinated by his sweet wife. He ran after the deer even though His younger brother Lakshmana warned Him seriously against it. The incident teaches us that we should carefully consider even the advice of people who are younger than us and not just neglect them. The result of Rama’s fascination for His wife was a big tragedy, which is well-known. Lakshmana had stayed behind to protect Sita when Rama went after the golden deer. But when Rama’s cries for help were heard, Sita urged Lakshmana to rush for His help. Lakshmana refused to leave Sita and rush for his brother’s rescue since he was confident that Rama could not possibly be in any danger. But Sita, who was extremely anxious about the safety of Rama, scolded Lakshmana in unimaginable words. She said that Lakshmana had followed her and Rama into the forest with the hidden intention of marrying Sita after the demise of Rama!

This again preaches to us that we are always swept away by extreme emotion which makes us see only one side of the situation. The emotion prevents us from analyzing from the other side. As a result, the situation ends up in a terrible tragedy. We should learn the lessons that the Ramayana teaches us and make use of them in our practical life. Otherwise, simply enjoying the story of Rama is just like watching a movie for entertainment! When even great people like Rama and Sita slipped up, under the influence of strong emotions, what to speak of ordinary human beings? This is the message here. It means that no matter how great one may be, it is very difficult to avoid mistakes when overpowered by emotion. So, one must always replace emotions with analysis.

Vali used vulgar language against Rama, after Rama, hiding behind a tree, shot Vali with an arrow. Vali asked Rama how a person like Him could be born to a pious soul like Dasharatha (katham Dasharathena tvam jaatah?). Vali too was overpowered by emotion and so, he could not analyze his own sin. Vali thought that Rama had killed him out of selfish interest. Vali’s brother, Sugriva had promised to help Rama in searching for Sita if Rama could help him kill the invincible Vali. This again was a Vali’s misunderstanding due to the influence of his strong emotions. He had mistaken Rama to be an ordinary human politician who can do anything for his own selfish benefit! The reality was very different. Vali had been punished by Rama for his sins. Vali had unjustly taken the wife of his brother Sugriva by force and banished (expelled) Sugriva out of the kingdom. Rama explained this clearly. He said that it was His duty to punish any sinner on this earth since His Central Government (Saarvabhauma) extended all over the earth. In fact, He was God and could punish every soul in this world for its sins. But He did not reveal this truth in His answer.

Bhartruhari has explained the secret of why people quarrel with others (Paragunaparamaanuun Parvatiikrutya...). Your own hill-sized defect appears to you as a mere trace, while a trace of defect in others appears to you as big as a hill. Conversely, a trace of goodness in you appears to you as a hill and a hill of goodness in others appears to you as a trace. If you want to avoid quarrels, you must reverse your mentality. You should see a trace of your own defect as hill and a hill of defect in others as trace. Similarly, you should see your hill of goodness as a trace and a trace of goodness in others as a hill.

The enmity between Vali and Sugriva, the brothers of the monkey tribe, began when Vali’s thinking was overpowered with emotion. Vali, the king of the monkey tribe, was pursuing a demon. The demon entered into a dark cave. Vali entered into the cave behind the demon to kill it. He told his brother, Sugriva, to stand on guard outside the cave. After a long time, Sugriva saw blood flowing out from the cave. The blood smelt like the blood of a monkey. Sugriva thought that Vali had been killed by the demon. He was afraid that the demon would come out and kill him too. So, he closed the mouth of the cave with a big stone and returned to his kingdom. He became king after Vali and married Tara, the wife of Vali, as per their law at that time. The law was that the wife of a dead brother becomes the wife of the surviving brother. Little did Sugriva know that Vali was not dead. He had succeeded in killing the demon. He came out of the cave and was furious with Sugriva. Overpowered by emotion, Vali thought that his brother, Sugriva, had closed the cave to grab his kingdom and wife. Vali did not analyze the truth patiently. In his fury, he banished (expelled) Sugriva out of his kingdom and married Ruma, the wife of Sugriva, by force. Vali, who was driven by extreme emotion, did not even listen to the words of Sugriva, who was trying to explain what had really happened. As a result, he committed sins and had to be punished by God Rama. Emotion kills wisdom and raises the ego to such a high level that the soul refuses to accept its sin because the acceptance hurts the ego. The soul does not change only due to this high ego. God does not immediately punish the soul because the kindest Divine Father gives some time to His children to change. If there is no change in the soul, divine punishment is inevitable.

We misunderstand Rama for sending Sita to the forest based on a false allegation made by a washerman. We criticize Rama that He gave more importance to His position as an impartial king than to the truth of Sita. Actually, it is not so. We have to understand Rama as God and not as a mere king. Rama only claimed that He had left Sita for the sake of the administration of His kingdom. He said this because He always hid His divinity. Actually, Rama had punished Sita for her terrible allegations against Lakshmana in the forest. Lakshmana was such a pure soul that he had not even looked at Sita properly. Out of respect, he would only look at her feet. He could not identify any of the jewelry of Sita except her anklets, which alone he would see every day while respectfully saluting to her feet (Nityam paadaabhivandanaat)! One cannot even imagine that such a Lakshmana could have any impure intentions about Sita. Sita’s bitter allegations on Lakshmana were a great sin.

God will tolerate a person scolding Him. But He will never tolerate anyone scolding His devotee. So, God punished Sita by creating an exactly similar allegation against her. Since Sita’s sin was intense, its punishment had to be delivered on earth itself and not after death, in hell. But Sita’s stay in the forest, in separation from Rama, was supposed to be only temporary. Some years later, when they met again, Rama asked her to prove her chastity before the people of Ayodhya by passing through fire, just as she had proved it in Lanka. But Sita reacted emotionally to this suggestion and entered into the earth, bringing her life to an end. Had she proved her chastity as Rama had suggested, she would have lived with her husband and children for a long time. In all these incidents, Sita acted like an ignorant and emotional lady to preach to us that emotion without analysis is very dangerous in life.

On seeing even a divine personality like Sita overcome by emotion, every great person will become very careful about his or her own emotions. Ravana also got emotional on seeing that his sister’s nose had been cut off. He did not analyze what had actually happened. When Rama and Lakshmana refused the illegitimate love of Ravana’s lustful sister, she angrily rushed towards Sita to kill her. It was then that Lakshmana had cut off her nose. In fact, he should have killed her for her atrocity; but he did not.  

The emotions displayed by Rama and Sita were only apparent and they were meant to warn human beings to avoid emotion. The emotions showed by Vali and Ravana were inherent and they led the two to their destruction. Emotion leads to hasty action whereas patient analysis leads to correct action. This is the truth taught by the story of Rama to society.

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