Adhyatma Ramayana
Encyclopedia
Adhyatma Ramayana also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...
: अध्यात्म रामायण, literally "Spiritual Ramayana") is an ancient Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
work extolling the spiritual virtues of the story of Ramayana
Ramayana
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...
. It comprises around 4200 double verses embedded in the latter portion of Brahmānda Purana
Brahmanda Purana
The Brahmanda Purana is one of the eighteen Mahapuranas, a genre of eighteen Hindu religious texts and has been assigned the eighteenth place in almost all the lists of the Puranas.Brahma in Sanskrit means "the biggest", anda/andam means globe...
and is traditionally believed to be authored by Vyasa
Vyasa
Vyasa is a central and revered figure in most Hindu traditions. He is also sometimes called Veda Vyasa , or Krishna Dvaipayana...
. Taking the form of a dialogue between Shiva
Shiva
Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...
and Parvati
Parvati
Parvati is a Hindu goddess. Parvati is Shakti, the wife of Shiva and the gentle aspect of Mahadevi, the Great Goddess...
, it contains the ideal characteristics of Lord Rama
Rama
Rama or full name Ramachandra is considered to be the seventh avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism, and a king of Ayodhya in ancient Indian...
and the precepts related to devotion, knowledge, dispassion, adoration and good conduct. It is also considered a treatise of Vedantic philosophy. It is supposed to have inspired several later versions of the Ramayana story in languages like Awadhi (Ramcharitmanas by Tulsidas
Tulsidas
Tulsidas , was a Hindu poet-saint, reformer and philosopher renowned for his devotion for the god Rama...
), Oriya, Bengali and Malayalam.
Significance
Adhyatma Ramayana represents the story of RamaRama
Rama or full name Ramachandra is considered to be the seventh avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism, and a king of Ayodhya in ancient Indian...
in a spiritual context, in this version everything is preordained, and Rama being the Brahman
Brahman
In Hinduism, Brahman is the one supreme, universal Spirit that is the origin and support of the phenomenal universe. Brahman is sometimes referred to as the Absolute or Godhead which is the Divine Ground of all being...
himself, doesn't kill or destroy, rather offers salvation to those he kills, thus this act is called, Uddhar. http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft6870073m&chunk.id=d0e947&toc.id=d0e792&brand=eschol
It also provides several valuable insights into the various seeming anomalies in the popular versions of Ramayana, like :-
The provocation of the Queen Kaikeyi
Kaikeyi
Kaikeyi , in the Hindu epic Rāmāyaṇa, was the second of King Daśaratha's three wives and a queen of Ayodhyā. She was the mother of Bharata...
by her maid Manthara
Manthara
Manthara , in the Hindu epic Ramayana, is a servant who convinced Kaikeyi that the throne of Ayodhya belonged to her son Bharata and that Rama should be exiled from the kingdom....
, was not an evil act of her choice as presented in the Valmiki's version Ramayana, but mastered by the goddess of knowledge, Saraswati
Saraswati
In Hinduism Saraswati , is the goddess of knowledge, music, arts, science and technology. She is the consort of Brahma, also revered as His Shakti....
, thus Manthara appears only to be playing her character in the larger drama of destiny, which lead to the killing of Ravana, the sole reason Lord Vishnu had incarnated as Rama.
Similarly, according to this text, real Sita
SITA
SITA is a multinational information technology company specialising in providing IT and telecommunication services to the air transport industry...
was never really abducted by Ravana
Ravana
' is the primary antagonist character of the Hindu legend, the Ramayana; who is the great king of Lanka. In the classic text, he is mainly depicted negatively, kidnapping Rama's wife Sita, to claim vengeance on Rama and his brother Lakshmana for having cut off the nose of his sister...
. Rama being the all-knower in this version, has premonition about the abduction, and thus instructs Sita to invoke Agni
Agni
Agni is a Hindu deity, one of the most important of the Vedic gods. He is the god of fire and the acceptor of sacrifices. The sacrifices made to Agni go to the deities because Agni is a messenger from and to the other gods...
, the God of Fire and creates an illusionary self, or Maya Sita, thus when Ravana finally appears, Sita plays along the character, and illusionary Sita is abducted, and is regained after the fire ordeal, once Ravana is killed. http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft6870073m&chunk.id=d0e947&toc.id=d0e792&brand=eschol
It makes us aware of the larger than life aspects of Lord Ram and the fact he being the Brahman
Brahman
In Hinduism, Brahman is the one supreme, universal Spirit that is the origin and support of the phenomenal universe. Brahman is sometimes referred to as the Absolute or Godhead which is the Divine Ground of all being...
(Supreme Creator) incarnate, acts to instruct. Adhyatma Ramayana raises every mundane activity of Rama, to a spiritual or transcendent level, thus instructing the seeker to view his own life through the symbolic vision for his soul, where the external life is but a metaphor for eternal journey of the soul.
The book is aimed to be used as guide and ready source of instruction for a spiritual seeker as it presents Ramayana as a divine allegory, where an exiled king, a man out of his elements, gets beguiled by the lure of maya or the illusions, - maya mrigya, hence loses his Beloved - Sita, to the demon or dark forces - Ravana. Later when he repents and asks for divine grace, he is given the strength and friends (Hanuman
Hanuman
Hanuman , is a Hindu deity, who is an ardent devotee of Rama, a central character in the Indian epic Ramayana and one of the dearest devotees of lord Rama. A general among the vanaras, an ape-like race of forest-dwellers, Hanuman is an incarnation of the divine and a disciple of Lord Rama in the...
) to help him reclaim his divinity - (his Beloved).
Overview
Adhyatma Ramayana are divided according to following themes:1. Bal Kand - This opening part begins with the description of Brahmaswarup, that is, the cosmic and celestial appearance of Lord Rama, his avatar as a human being to remove the asuras (demons) like Ravana; Rama’s childhood; story of emancipation of Ahilya by Rama.
2. Ayodhya Kand - the episode at Ayodhya, describes, among other things, exile of Rama; death of his father, Dasarath.
3. Aranya Kand - the episode at the forest (Aranya), including the kidnapping of Sita by Ravana.
4. Kishkindha Kand, the episode of Kishkindha. This part describes killing of Bali, and initiation of active search for Sita.
5. Sundar Kand, it details entry of Hanuman in Lanka.
6. Lanka Kand, the episode of Lanka, it has details of the battles between the armies of Rama and Ravana, killing of Ravana, and coronation of Rama upon his return to Ayodhya from Lanka.
7. Uttar Kand - Epilogue - It has description of banishment of Sita, birth of Luva and Kusha, sons of Rama and Sita, and Rama’s departure from the earth to Vaikunth, the abode of Lord Vishnu. The fifth adhyaya of the Uttar Kanda, describes a conversation between Lord Rama and his brother, Lakshmana, and is usually referred to as the Rama Gita, it is essentially an Advaitic philosophical work.
Translations
- Swami Tapasyananda, Adhyatma Ramayana, Original Sanskrit, with English Translation, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Madras. 1985.
- Baij Nath PuriBaij Nath PuriBaij Nath Puri is a historian from India. He is vice-president and member of the International Board of Editors for the history of Civilizations in Central Asia at the UNESCO.He has also been Professor and Head of the Department of Ancient Indian History nad Culture at the National Academy of...
, Lala Baij Nath. The Adhyatma Ramayana, Cosmo Publications, 2005. ISBN 8177558951. - Beladakere Suryanarayana Shastri, "Adhyatma Ramayana", Kannada translation with Sanskrit original, Shri Jayachamaraja Granthamala, Series 47, Mysore, 1948.
See also
- AdhyathmaramayanamAdhyathmaramayanamAdhyathmaramayanam is the Malayalam version of Ramayana written by Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan in the early 17th Century. It is considered to be a classic of Malayalam literature...
- RamayanaRamayanaThe Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...
- Ramcharitmanas by Tulsidas