Gurudev Talk 20.4.2013

Rama was the embodiment of Dharma. He was very righteous. The question arises why he did not accept His wife Sita back after she was kidnapped by the demon king Ravana. At that time, a woman was not allowed to be alone in a room with a man other than her father. Otherwise she was not even allowed to enter her house again. So when Rama came back home after many years of exile, people accused Him for taking Sita back. He had to act according to His role as a king in order to appease His people. 

What the people did not know was that it was only a shadow of Sita Devi who was captured by Ravana. The real Sita has been guarded by Agni Dev. There is a close connection between Rama and Agni Dev. Dasharatha, Rama's father, was not able to have children. One day Narad Muni, the Divine messenger, came to Dasharatha to tell him that the Lord had decided to incarnate into his Yadava dynasty. He told him to do a yagna in order to conceive a child. 

During this yagna Agni Dev appeared and gave two mangos to Dasharath. They were meant for two wives of Dasharatha so that they might conceive. One mango was for the incarnation of Narayana and the other one for the incarnation of Adishesh, the serpent. But Dasharatha had three wives. So the two wives shared the two mangos among one another and this is how it came that two wives conceived one child and the third conceived two children as she got a share of each of the two mangos. Narayana incarnated as Rama, Adishesh became Lakshmana, then there was the shanka and the chakra incarnating in Sathurnath (also spelled Shathugna) and Bharath.

The reason why the Lord had to incarnate at that time was the presence of Ravana on Earth. Ravana was one of the two gate keepers of Vaikuntha (the abode of Vishnu), Jaya and Vijaya who had to incarnate as a demon. But this is another beautiful story.

Whenever the Lord has the intention to incarnate, he asks all the Devas for their assistance on Earth. So all come with him to Earth. When the Lord incarnates, the Devas are already all waiting for Him. And all know their mission. This is what we celebrate with Ram Navami.

The reason why Rama refused to take Sita back was because of His people. Sita always stayed pure, She is Maha Lakshmi, but this the people did not know. They were unhappy that their King took Her back after She was with Ravana, as they thought. So Rama had to act on His dharma as a king. This is a beautiful example how the Lord surrenders to the Devotees, He puts Himself always last.

Why is the Lord, Narayana wearing a tilak? The tilak symbolizes the lotus feet of the Lord. The meaning of Narayana wearing a tilak is to always remind himself of the love of the bhakta.

The same way Ram was doing His dharma, each one of us should do their dharma. It is not in our hand to decide about this; life will guide us towards this. There is of course the universal dharma of realizing oneself, but God has put us also to our individual dharma and we have to learn to love it, no matter what our task is. And if we learn to accept it and realize that the Divine has given it to us, it will lead us to our aim. And this is what it means to live spiritually. How can we live a spiritual way if we cannot accept what God has given us? When we finish our dharma which God has given us in the outside, He will reveal to us the inner dharma. But how will we handle the inner dharma, when we do not learn to handle the outer dharma?

So that is the Dharma. That is what Rama stands for, that is what He is showing. Each one has their own dharma, each one is very important in that. The role of a priest is a priest, the role of a banker is a banker. You can't put the priest into a bank. If somebody is searching for God and you put him in a bank I am sure the bank will be ruined completely and together with him all the people. If you realize that where God has put you, that is your dharma. Try ro enjoy it even if you don't agree with it.

Sri Swami Vishwananda Premavatar singing
Atma Rama during Darshan in Mauritius His Birthplace

Rama Sita Lakshmana