Ramayana vignettes: Seeing ‘Man in God’ can be a refreshing cultural experience

Every land has influences of the great heroes who once lived & left their footprints in the culture of those places. We have Hercules & Alexander the Great who has left deep impression upon the Greek & Roman Civilization. History of that land has lot of undercurrents with 'his story', myths, legends about them. Ram & Ramayana are such enduring cultural figures who have got reflections over entire Asian continent.

Kerala is celebrating Ramayana Festival in this Malayalam month of Karkidakam. It would be interesting to know about Ramayana Festival in Indonesia, far away from India. A Malayali may found it rather amusing to know that even International Ramayana festival in which nine nations participate is held in Indonesia. (Indonesia, India, Cambodia, Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, Laos, the Philippines and Thailand)

All the major cultural symbols of Indonesia are from Ramayana, starting with their national symbol Garuda, Airlines being Garuda Indonesia, Bank Ganesha is one of the largest banks, Ganesha & Garuda printed in currency notes, the icons & names of Ram & Sita being one of the most common there.

Beyond any religious or sectarian thought, Ram is considered a 'Maryada Purushottaman', an icon of family life & a role model. India is a land where we are always in a hurry to deify people. If we remember that there is a human element to all the Gods & Avatars, maybe we can learn & assimilate more from them. Seeing 'God in Man' may be spirituality but seeing 'Man in God' can also be a refreshing cultural experience.

We should also ponder about the central message of Ramayana. In essence Ramayana is the pictorial representation of Dharma & Family system. Family is the basic unit of society & a Nation. We should build strong foundation in family for a prosperous Nation. Ramayana highlights this. When we contrast Ramayana with Bhagavad Gita, the other important literature of India, we can see that one is a Poetic exposition, story & the other is a philosophical explanation & theory.

We can contrast Ram & Krishna to see this too. Ram being the family man, ideal king, strongly rooted in monogamy and Krishna being the philosopher & mystic. India's cultural foundations were enormously enriched by these two fountain heads of culture.  It is very curious to note that the Father of the Nation loved the ideal of Ram & the text of Bhagavad Gita.  Ram's life is a journey we all undertake. We go through pain, "Vanvas" or leaving many things that are dear to us and going into be-wilderness of life for our loved ones. The central theme recurrent through Ramayana is the attitude of sacrifice one has to take for our family.

The story of an individual or family has many commonalities across the world. Perhaps that is the reason why Ramayana is still hugely popular across many nations in the world. Whether consciously or unconsciously, there is always a search for an ideal man & ideal woman across all culture. When we go into our history & mythology, we find such a person in Ram & Sita. What are the benefits of reading Ramayana? Well it is a source of inspiration & introspection. We may have our own faults & drawbacks, Ramayana inspires us to do soul searching & persist through the difficult phases one faces in family & life.