1.

Contemperory of Relevant of Ramayana

Embodiments of Love! Life is like a game of chess; not merely that, it is like a
battlefield. The story of Rama teaches us the threefold Dharma (code of
conduct) pertaining to the individual, the family and the society. You have to
make every effort to understand the duties of the individual, the family and the
society. Rama is the ocean of compassion. He is love per- sonified. It is possible
to understand His divinity only through the path of love. Love is the
undercurrent of human life. Man will be able to manifest his innate divinity only
when he develops love within.

Modern society needs to follow the dharma that is con- tained in the epic
Ramayana. Why? Today, the son is not paying heed to his father's advice, and
the parents are not concerned about the future of the son. Devotion to the guru
should be the aim of the students. But students are not having regard for their
teachers and the teachers are not imparting anything
good to them. In such a situation, everyone needs to follow the ideals of the
Ramayana. The Ramayana speaks of the true identity of the individual, the real
significance of the family, and the sanctity of the society. The Ramayana teaches
the importance of human values. Today, corruption is rampant in all fields such
as business, education, and politics. Under these circumstances, the principles of
the Ramayana are very important. It explains in detail the relationship that
should exist between brothers, the father and the son, the preceptor and the
disciple.

2. Relationship between Lord Krishna & Arjuna

Although Lord Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, out of His

causeless mercy He was engaged in the service of His friend Arjuna. He never
fails in His affection for His devotees, and thus He is addressed herein as
infallible(perfect).

As charioteer, Krishna had to carry out the orders of Arjuna, and since He did
not hesitate to do so, He is addressed as infallible.

Although Krishna had accepted the position of a charioteer for His devotee
Arjuna, His supreme position was not challenged.

In all circumstances, Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hrsikesa,

the Lord of the total senses.

The relationship between the Krishna and His servitor is very sweet and
transcendental. The servitor is always ready to render a service to the Lord,
and, similarly, the Lord is always seeking an opportunity to render some service
to the devotee.

Krishna takes greater pleasure in His pure devotee's assuming the advantageous
position of ordering Him than He does in being the giver of orders.
As master, everyone is under Krishna's orders, and no one is above Him to order
Him. But when Krishna finds that a pure devotee is ordering Him, He obtains
transcendental pleasure, although He is the infallible master of all
circumstances.

3. Relationship between Lord Rama and Lord Hanuman

The relationship between Rama and Hanuman demonstrates the perfection of

devotion in the mood of service (dasya-rasa). In an almost classical manner
Hanuman demonstrated the symptoms of pure devotional service. Everything
that he did was only for the pleasure of Lord Rama, whether it was building
bridges, fighting rakshasas or flying across the country to fetch life saving herbs,
his constant meditation was how to best serve Rama. When he sought out Sita
in Ravana's Lanka, he was not merely satisfied at delivering to her the message
of Lord Rama. He also destroyed the forest, killed many rakshasas and burnt
down half of Lanka. That is the mood of a pure devotee. To consciously cultivate
everything that is positive to the service of the Lord and reject everything that is
not. Even though Lord Rama reciprocated very sweetly with gratitude, praise or
benedictions for Hanuman, he never had any expectation for them. Hanuman
often presented himself as a simple ignorant monkey in front of Rama. When
Hanuman returned from Lanka with news of Sita, an overjoyed Rama embraced
him tightly. However a clearly uncomfortable Hanuman stated that his position
could only be at the feet of his Lord. The highest reward for him was to serve
Lord Rama. Service to Rama was the most exalted destination for Hanuman,
and he constantly endeavored to perfect himself in this respect.

4. Philosophy of Srimad Bhagawad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita , the "Song of God" is one of the most important Hindu
scriptures. It is revered as a sacred scripture of Hinduism, and considered as
one of the most important philosophical classics of the world.The Bhagavad Gita
comprises 700 verses, and is a part of the Mahabharata The teacher of the
Bhagavad Gita is Krishna Who is revered by Hindus as a manifestation of the
Lord Himself,and is referred to within as the Bhagavan—the Divine One. The
Bhagavad Gita is commonly referred to as the Gita for short.

The content of the Gita is the conversation between Krishna and Arjuna taking
place on the battlefield before the start of the Kurukshetra War. Responding to
Arjuna's confusion and moral dilemma about fighting his own cousins, Krishna
explains to Arjuna his duties as a warrior and prince and elaborates on different
Yogic and Vedantiic philosophies, with examples and analogies. This has led to
the Gita often being described as a concise guide to Hindu theology and also as
a practical, self-contained guide to life. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi describes it as a
lighthouse of eternal wisdom that has the ability to inspire any man or woman to
supreme accomplishment and enlightenment. During the discourse, Krishna
reveals His identity as the Supreme Being Himself (Svayam Bhagavan), blessing
Arjuna with an awe-inspiring vision of His divine universal form.

The basic teachings can be summarized as under:

• Why do you worry without cause? Whom do you fear without reason?
Who can kill you? The soul is neither born, nor does it die.
• Whatever happened, happened for the good; whatever is happening, is
happening for the good; whatever will happen, will also happen for the
good only. You need not have any regrets for the past. You need not
worry for the future. The present is happening...
• What did you lose that you cry about? What did you bring with you, which
you think you have lost? What did you produce, which you think got
destroyed? You did not bring anything - whatever you have, you received
from here. Whatever you have given, you have given only here. Whatever
you took, you took from God. Whatever you gave, you gave to him. You
came empty handed, you will leave empty handed. What is yours today,
belonged to someone else yesterday, and will belong to someone else the
day after tomorrow. You are mistakenly enjoying the thought that this is
yours. It is this false happiness that is the cause of your sorrows.
• Change is the law of the universe. What you think of as death, is indeed
life. In one instance you can be a millionaire, and in the other instance
you can be steeped in poverty. Yours and mine, big and small - erase
these ideas from your mind. Then everything is yours and you belong to
everyone.
• This body is not yours, neither are you of the body. The body is made of
fire, water, air, earth and ether, and will disappear into these elements.
But the soul is permanent - so who are you?
• Dedicate your being to God. He is the one to be ultimately relied upon.
Those who know of his support are forever free from fear, worry and
sorrow.
• Whatever you do, do it as a dedication to God. This will bring you the
tremendous experience of joy and life-freedom forever.

Some Quotes from famous personalities across the world on the Bhagavad Gita:

Albert Einstein

"When I read the Bhagavad Gita and reflect about how God created this
universe everything else seems so superfluous."

Mahatma Gandhi

"When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and I see
not one ray of hope on the horizon, I turn to Bhagavad Gita and find a verse to
comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming
sorrow. Those who meditate on the Gita will derive fresh joy and new meanings
from it every day."
5. Comparative Study of Ramayana and Mahabharatha

THESE TWO are the undisputed pride of Hinduism. They have set many
examples to follow in our day to day life. But if we analyse them in little more
detail, we find that they have few similarities. They are as different as chalk and
cheese. In most of the cases we will see they are quite opposite to each other.

Now let us do the detailed comparisons about the following points:

Relationships

If Ramayana has harmonic, beautiful relationships then Mahabharata has ugly,

awful relationships. In family whenever there is warm relationship, then a
comparison with Ramayana is made and whenever there is cold relationship
between the family members, it is said Mahabharata is occurring in that family.

Characteristics of God

Lord Vishnu came to the world as Ram in ‘Ramayana’ and Krishna in

‘Mahabharata’. But like the two epics, they both were poles apart. Lord Ram was
an idealistic person in every aspect. He was exemplary in every way; he was an
ideal son, ideal husband, and ideal brother. In one term he was Purushottam. In
contrast, Lord Krishna has a different nature. He was very mischievous in his
childhood stealing butter and troubling all the village girls. Then he started his
‘leela’ with Radha. Afterwards, he married so many women like Rukmini,
Satyabhama, Jambavati to name a few while Lord Ram had only one wife and
did not think of any other woman. However, in some areas Lord Krishna was
ahead of Lord Ram. Lord Krishna was the complete incarnation of the Lord.
Hence, he had many magical powers like lifting the mountain on his little finger
etc. So if Lord Ram was idealistic then Lord Krishna was realistic. In today’s
world following Lord Krishna’s views or Bhagavad Gita will be the perfect guide
for us.

Laxman vs Balaram

Laxman was a truly devoted brother. He always followed Lord Ram everywhere
and anywhere. In contrast, Balaram didn’t follow Lord Krishna so devotedly. For
example, Balaram was more inclined towards Duryodhana than to any Pandava.
Balaram wanted his

Subhadra to be married to Duryodhana instead of Arjuna. Laxman was never

inclined towards any evil person.

Central women

Now consider the two women, Sita and Draupadi. Sita was pativrata, being
completely devoted to her husband, while Draupadi had five husbands. Sita was
very soft spoken and always ready to follow the instructions of her husband
even if it was agnipariksha. But Draupadi was quite different. She had a loose
tongue. For example, when Duryodhana was fooled by the illusion of the
Pandavas’ palace in Indraprastha, Draupadi mocked him calling him blind. Also
given Draupadi’s characteristics, she would have never given agnipariksha. Also
Sita, the incarnation of Goddess Laxmi, did more memorable works than her
Dwapad Yuga’s counterpart, Rukmini.

Villains

The villains of both the epics were also different. Ravana was son of a Brahmin
and hence, he was devoted to God. He was a great devotee of Lord Shiva.
However, his ego got the better of him and he took the wrong path. This was
not the case of Duryodhana. He hardly had any faith on any kind in God. Also
unlike Ravana he did not have a boon from any God. However, both of them
made the sin of hurting women which ultimately resulted in wars.

The great wars

If we see the battle of Ram vs Ravan and Pandavas vs Kauravas, you will find
many differences. In ‘Ramayana’ the war took place between demons and man
(along with monkeys). In contrast, the Kurukshetra war took place between the
relatives which is more difficult to understand. Also the war in ‘Ramayana’ was
fair while in ‘Mahabharata’ many codes of the war were violated.

In ‘Ramayana’, the Lord himself fought the war directly. But in ‘Mahabharata’ he
was only a guide showing the Pandavas the right path rather than fighting on
their behalf.

So from the differences it was clear that the two epics were poles apart.
However, they have some similarities also. Both gave us the message of
following dharma and to remove adharma. So we can conclude they were two
individuals following different paths but had the same goal i.e dharma.