Ramayana: An original, honest and individualistic interpretation and expression of sacred tale of Ramayana

Credits

TO MY LOVING MOTHER, Nirmala Anant Telang, my loving wife, Preeti and in memories of my beloved late brother Jayant Anant Telang and late father Anant Govind Telang.

-Abhijit Anant Telang

Ramayana: An original, honest and individualistic interpretation and expression of sacred tale based on the text of Ramayana as described in Ram Charit Manas authored by Shri Tulasi Das.

The verses are referred to by their numbers as per the Ram Charit Manas book published by Geeta Press, Gorakhpur. They should be referred to for context and to build an understanding of the original text as it is and this humble interpretation by Author should be just considered an individualistic imagination and effort to understand and feel the devotion towards Lord Ram.

Author has tried to explain the verses as they are, wherever possible, and then expanded with creative freedom on what could be the symbolism and analogies the verses that can be derived from. Whatever is derived, or expressed in parallel symbolism or analogies, thus express the Author’s individual opinion and imagination. Author has also tried to interpret the tale in an original manner ( in context of the deriving the parallelism, using the parallelisms, symbolisms and analogies and in providing examples) in addition to what has already been written by Shri Tulasi Das as elucidated in Hindi commentary provided by Shri Hanuman Prasad Poddar for each verse.

Author has leveraged the verses, and their sequence and corresponding chapters or Kand as they are referred to by Shri Tulasi Das to structure his own interpretations of symbolisms that may exist or can be derived, however they should be taken as creative liberties to expand on, while preserving the original intention of the sacred tale.

Abhijit Telang

Prologue

IF ONE CAN ATTAIN THE patience, perseverance, and constancy to perceive beyond the spheres of ignorance, chaos, confusion, and cacophony, of mania, depression, and delirium, rising above the darkness of cruelty, anger, jealousy, greed, lust, brutality, complete lack of empathy, insensitivity, in satiety, deception, delusion, and denial, would appear the patiently waiting form of the divine.

After carefully envisioning the various forms of delusion, after gauging the depths and breadths of darkness and the egomaniacal perceptive and sensual linkages with false, hallucinatory rewards for those who chose to get entangled and remain there, Ram stood above and beyond the contours of delusion and solemnly pledged to pierce in totality and at once with a determined and succinct arrow of perception.

The anecdote about Rama’s ability to send an arrow piercing through multiple trees at once, to kill Vali can perhaps be understood as Rama’s divine ability to see through years and years of continuously built maze of attitudes, sentiments, emotions that were built with thoughts about encouraging vices and not virtues, those that discouraged enlightenment and encouraged darkness of sensory titillation as a reward to embracing vices, and bestiality. As this continues to happen, the sensory satiety in itself becomes the goal for those entangled in such mazes and replaces the guilt or remorse that otherwise would have been felt owing to sense of discretion between the right and the wrong.

Development of thoughts can be symbolically understood as how trees grow, branch out repeatedly in innumerous ways, as long as they are nourished by the water, soil and light. Similarly, the thought trees are nourished by the attentive cognition of mind, as it is applied while the attention lasts to build and develop the stem and the branches are formed as the attention shifts to form corollaries from previous thoughts. The crystallization of perception occurs when the attentive mind reaches identical conclusions about things and events associated with them. The nourishing and cathartic heat of realization gradually can give way to frigidity of belief, which often can be stirred or shaken by winds of events and experiences as time progresses.

The symbolism of Kalpa -Vriksha or the inverted tree can be considered as the reverse journey of realization currents that is the process in which the sensations from sensory organs gradually become less influencing to forming perception, and give way to generation and continuity of self and cosmic realization. The inverted tree signifies that the roots of perception and thoughts are not the physical senses but rather something that is superior and prenatal to senses and sensory realizations. The sensory realizations themselves are more automated, pre-programmed, predictable and serve as cognitive aids for survival. They are meant to help save and sustain the physical body forms within the inherent biological constraints. They can detect, conduct or transmit (electrically, chemically, optically or through other such means) stimuli and aid in cognition of existence of physical stimuli (whether natural or man-made). But however, sophisticated such signaling mechanisms can be, such remain at the somatic level and can never themselves generate perceptions that go beyond bodily levels. Even with advances in Artificial Intelligence, the perception itself cannot yet be synthesized; it can only serve as a cognitive aid to humans and perhaps to plants and animals one day.

Anything that needs to exist needs to be imagined first in cognition and hence unless the body, organs and senses are imagined, they cannot be realized. What is observed is merely the replication of what has been brought into existence, in the sense that now the existence can be perceived through senses.

The roots of higher cognition hence reside not at the bodily level but in the mind of the beholder. The desire to survive and thrive in the material world, and corresponding material thoughts then become the sap of nourishment which propels the body, hence the downward movement from ideological to material planes or spheres from ideological roots to material compulsions can further strengthen the symbolism of inverted life tree. The branching out then not only symbolizes replication and reproduction to preserve the species from generation to generation but also the alliances and groups that are formed in the societies around individuals.

The roots at the top, however, are intended to be photosynthetic; the light here is symbolically referring to the Sun of realization. Realization itself can be both spiritual and material owing to the flexibility of the free will granted by the divine.  Realization is aided by inspiration from divine and from others. Just as the roots of trees are searching for and have affinity for water, the roots of higher cognition are looking for inspiration.

The formation of perceptions and resulting beliefs occurs successively and must be bootstrapped to build further on whatever is built and held steady already. The beliefs then, serve as grooves or knots which the building perception has to rely on and come back to when shelter is needed from storms of uncertainty.  Coming back to beliefs can be a methodical cognitive process or done automatically through imbibed habits.

The beliefs and habits themselves though cannot be relied upon completely. Beliefs can be virtuous or not. Habits can be good or bad. Hence repetitive behaviors must be guarded and checked against by discernment that relies on virtues rather than vices. The virtues then are the real grooves to rely on and not mere habits or beliefs. 

The demons, that is the individuals who deliberately choose to betray and go against the natural and eventual progress of the consciousnessness to realize and move away from the sensory addictions, resulting stupor and myriad other forms of cognitive delusions , would rather like to reverse this progression of consciousness, and rather rebel against God/ They would rather encourage a downward journey where welding into the senses and the asphyxiating euphoria of rebellion from God and good deeds is celebrated demonically. The expression of joy in demons can be quite misleading to normal individuals. Similarly, the expression of sorrow among demons can be misleading as well.

The grooves and knots of demonic thinking then serve exactly opposite purposes as they rely on practicing and encouraging vices rather than virtues, in their rebellion from spirituality and God.

At the same time, it must be remembered that demonization of anyone is a demonic act in itself and hence must not be practiced. The discussion here is restricted to an abstract form of intention rather than physical entities.

Thought systems, when such are built towards encouraging vices rather than virtues, are typically designed to be immediately gratifying to the senses, to induce compulsion to embrace and seek constancy, which in turns welds the perceiver to his or her senses, feeling the numbing gratification rather than working to build the discernment. This could have been symbolically referred to as the Dandkaranya or the psychological jungle that was designed to maintain the darkness of the vices through a complex, seemingly never ending maze that rewards the wicked and punishes the innocent.

The demons could have been the architects of retrograde psycho-systems with the objective to keep the enticed captivated in a sensory delusion with their minds titillated by ephemeral rewards of the senses irrespective of the sin of their deeds, while severely punishing any thought of emancipation from such systems.

Senses and stimuli unless directed by brain towards a particular cognitive goal, would be left with a passivity to react to the stimuli and feel the sensory effect.

For instance, imagine looking at a picture, without any specific cognitive goal. The picture may appear pleasing to sight, owing to the vibrancy of colors, contrasts, shades, and so on. If someone is just conditioned into enjoying the stimulation of affected senses, then it would be wasteful of cognitive resources as simply enjoying the stimulation takes no discretion, or application of right or wrong to examine the reason for stimulation and whether it should continue, and whether the cognitive resources are utilized in generating virtuous thoughts or not.

The ephemeral reward of sensory titillation and stimulation that tends to condition mind into seeking constancy which in turn is perceived as promised through continued embracing of wickedly designed thought systems, without the checks of introspection and reflection, is the desired mental state in which the danavas(demons) would like to keep their conquered and captured beings into. This allows them to rule the subjects in a totalitarian way.

The depiction of Lord Vishnu dreaming while resting, while the Brahman keeps blooming into innumerable forms that in turn tend to self replicate in order to preserve their respective unique patterns, represents the consciousness and physical manifestations in Universe.

This perpetuation of Brahman and its vastness can easily be mistaken as being Creator less and devoid of His oversight, and hence megalomaniacal tendencies to seize, control, manipulate, thwart, and reverse manifestation and progression of it, and hide its manipulation by snapping the umbilical cord of consciousness from the God to create a deliberate perceptual chasm, are easy to form in the consciousness of those who begin to understand Bramhan. (But would rather choose to manipulate it rather than to seek liberation).

Ram motivated and instilled confidence in humans and other animal forms who were rejected and ridiculed as lesser mortals or monkeys by then seemingly invincible demons in their bloated pride. He recreated the perception bridge that danavas (demons) had snapped from the innocent and conquered ones, once the demons had reached certain depths of learning, to prevent humans and any other forms of life, from developing an understanding of their systems, psyche, motivations, and ultimate goals. The demons knew that their victory by delusion and deception, over the mortal children of divinity would never be permanent. They wanted to physically overpower and kill the mortals as long as they could before the mortal children of divine developed the ability to scale the perception and bring correction for good.

Demons or Danavas as they are referred to in ancient Indian language: Sanskrit, could be seen as a degeneration of human free will into first surreptitious and then blatant evil expressed as their desire to rebel from the bionic, mortal bodies, and the neural mind (which is capable of feeling empathy, live and let live with an inclination towards sublime, understanding the limitations of body, ephemeral nature of sensual joys and excitement, and the search of divine constancy).

Rather, demons saw their physical bodies as a limitation to fulfill unending desires of their minds which they had let loose to rather focus on sensory enjoyment, which came easily without any discernment of consciousness. The desire to learn and conquer the science behind laws of nature were only seen by them as necessary to break out of those rules, for they feared the existence of divine which was yet beyond their cognitive and perceptual reach.

Demons chose (and continue to do so) to misuse their free will to rather degenerate consciousness back into the bestiality, where the purpose of senses now becomes solely for enjoyment, and the free will is aligned constantly towards acts or deeds that would result in such enjoyment.

The naturally upward evolution of consciousness that seeks liberation from sense induced entanglements (which perhaps is a side effect of sensory functions: touch, smell, sight, hearing and taste), and which could be either pleasing or painful and hence addictive or aversive, is vehemently opposed by Danavas, in their rebellion against the concept of body, mind and the spirit.  This tendency also can explain their desire to demolish, and destroy such natural progression of consciousness and rather inculcate quite the opposite, which relies on deconstruction of entities to explore possibilities that are not subject to principles of the divine.

Demons as the tyrannical rulers of their times, hence will tend to align or shape social consciousness so that the natural curiosity to know is converted into tendency to deconstruct other entities, rather than to empathize, live and let live.

Similarly, the subjects are conditioned to forgo divine virtues that would otherwise keep a discernment check on acts and deeds, and rather acquire gratification focused behaviors that are linked with sensory satiety. (resulting in a degenerative progression of consciousness).

The deconstruction of entities to learn everything possible about them, rather than living with them amicably is encouraged by demons, so as to move beyond the perception of those, and then shape the perception of the conquered in such a way that the induced perception becomes the version of truth for the conquered and the real truth that the individual is a son/daughter of divine expressed in the form of Spirit, Mind and Body on this earth is forgotten. This also allowed demonical rulers to command their conquered subjects into a completely autocratic, subservient alignment. The snapped links between manufactured consciousness that is now devoid of and also opposed to the enlightenment, but perhaps also has a deep understanding of the mortal children of the divine, humans, animals and plants included, and such knowledge is then used to create sensual, cognitive and perceptual illusory impediments.

The perception bridge or setu as it is known in Sanskrit, hence was needed to be built to cross the delusional impediments in the form of sensory storms that were designed (by demons) to overpower, corrupt and invert the spiritually inquiring, discerning and determined minds of the humans and other animals, who wished to question and see through the delusion.

The logs of wood inscribed with the God’s name Rama, symbolically represent the pieces of thoughts dedicated to the divine with a resolve to cross the chasm in cognition and perception in order to understand the deception and cognitive advancement of demons, and counter their entrapment of the species.

The floating of the wood logs represents the divine promise that Rama gave to his devotees that his guidance will ensure that the minds of devotees would not be sunk in to the delusional, illusory, and carnal storms induced systematically by demons who were adept in doing so.

The setu in way also represents the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom without falling into delusive hell of hedonism and somatic, carnal joys that eventually corrupts and inverts consciousness.

The eventual slaying of the delusive demons and the enslaving systems reverse engineered by them, which come in way of this path traversed by determined minds guided by the divine, is a natural outcome that paves way for emancipation of minds to ignite and sustain consciousness rather than either be adrift or submerged in egotistic or sensory storms in the ocean of neuronic minds.

Thus, this sacred tale can also be considered as the progressive journey of a meditating mind (of Maharshi Valmiki and all of us and our forthcoming generations, should there is a will to pursue this path) with a coherent free will (built through functioning of countless neuronic structures), derogatively termed as Monkeys by the dark, drifting, sense welded, indulgent and hence wasted mental tendencies: collectively referred to as the Danavas, so as to discourage a nascent, innocently benevolent, and coherent free will, from crossing the perceptual chasm) held together with bonds of devotion towards God, and resolve to cross the delusional mental ocean of fleeting, sensory attractions, desires, and cravings (that otherwise would have provided a false sense of gratification to fallible and sinking ones), to win a war of elimination that ultimately unites the Ego (Aham in Sanskrit), that had behaved like an all knowing, all controlling and misdirected consciousness that commanded body and its awareness to preservation and perpetuation of itself, rather than trying to sincerely worship God, with light of realization that comes from within as per the Supreme Will of God. The culmination of the Holy War is in this unification between free will of consciousness of the meditating mind and that between the Supreme Will of God.

There is a difference between realization and perception. Realization is guided by virtues and principles only. Structured thoughts without such guidance serve the ego. Realization serves the divine.

Perception, on the other hand, is egotistical.  Perception can drive individuals or groups into actions that would seem to fulfill their desires which in turn can be constructive or destructive, the actions can be deliberately thought about, or impulsive, but ultimately rewarding the actors, whether rightfully or wrongfully.

Note: This however, does not mean that ego must be crushed completely before accomplishing anything. Ego perhaps is an extension of consciousness that is useful in advancing, for without the engine, without the horses and their charioteer, no real progress can be made.

Consciousness without ego, is perhaps like a warrior without a charioteer who can guide the horses which represent the capabilities of mind and its imagination. If the charioteer is killed before advancing the chariot, then the consciousness is stalled and wasted. One should be wary of those who advise just crushing the ego without providing any guidance towards or without letting the individual consciousness make any tangible progress in spiritual advancement. Ego is a tool that should be used judiciously and with precision and like a booster it should be let go as the consciousness is able to perpetuate on its own.

Ego should be used to work against the gravity of wastage and decline.

A crushed ego without knowing and being able to advance on its own, consciousness is vulnerable to enslavement, wastage, and may make the shocked consciousness vulnerable to craving for instant gratifications that may further guide consciousness into delirium, hallucination and thus precipitate ruin.

Similarly, there is a difference between perception forming cognition and automated or habitual compulsions that seem to fulfill or short circuit feeling of rewards.

The realization is an outcome of organized thoughts, which are solely based on virtues and principles. The thoughts themselves are produced by the mind, coherence of which depends on the attention and intellectual capacity of the mind, which itself is a self-aware existence which depends in turn on the existence of brain as a bodily organ.

These are separate entities with unique characteristics that express or define their existence.

A simple example would be that of an oil lamp.

The light that emanates out of the flame, the flame which itself is sustained by heating and burning of the cotton beads and oil are all different entities.

It is essentially a conversion of chemical energy stored in hydrocarbons into light.  hydrocarbons can be seen as functionally equivalent to the neurobiological effort that brain vests in generating and sustaining thoughts, whether they are about satisfying senses or going beyond them.

The flame itself seems independent in character and at the same time, its existence will last as long as the hydrocarbons fueling it. The flame is about a collective ability of its constituents to rise together, stay together and emit luminance as long as it lasts. The light that emanates from the flame is further independent in characteristics than the flame itself. It represents liberation (from the material bonds and affinities), it represents a travel, and it represents an achievement of realization and its propagation.

Similarly, the electricity that is generated from either the heating or the movement of water, the one generated due to wind or that generated through the energy released from nuclear fission, or directly from the rays of the Sun, is altogether different in its existence from the materials or processes that generated it.

The electric current that emanates is altogether different from the materials and the processes that led to its generation; however it will last as long as those materials and processes last. The current represents a collective and organized will to flow, and to complete a journey.

Similarly, the neuronal consciousness will last as long as the brain lasts and not only last but also preserve the neuronal formations and patterns of neurons that were formed throughout the life. While the passages themselves do not become the consciousness, they are important to be preserved for the consciousness to reside in and travel through. The characteristics or tendencies of consciousness are altogether different that the bodily manifestation it rises from.

Thus, the tendencies are abstract and  are expressed and palpable through manifestation of materials, processes and also of consciousness who beholds such manifestations as they are expressed by Mother Nature or artificially manifested by the consciousness itself.

The realizations whether divine or ordinary, hence must need to be passed from generation to generation and recited, perhaps celebrated from time to time to carry the light of realization forward.

This is typically reflected in the lighting of lamps and setting them afloat in rivers or other water bodies, which here symbolize the enormity of fluidity and plasticity of mind to flow as per the available passage of temperament and resolve, and thus carry the realizations as long as the latter remain afloat on the surface.

The illumination among those who carry the realizations, is symbolically represented by the ignited lamps which last as long as the oil of devotion and belief last, and as long as the enormous fluidity of mind with its tendency to get swayed and excited by the winds of fickleness, remains calm and does not raise sensory, ego driven waves of unsettlement.

The ignited lamps may be tiny and may be ephemeral in their existence considering the passage of time, but their journey staying afloat throughout the unsettling ego driven thought waves and thus illuminating the environment around them marks the journey of consciousness serving its intended purpose of illumination. This journey may be short lived, or long lived but the igniting and rejoicing the victory of good over evil is eternal and must continue.

Hence this effort to recite and rejoice the story of Ramayana.

Part I: Bala Kand

Shloka 1:

THE GODDESS SARASVATI is mentioned in reverence as she is perceived to catalytically bring out the artistic, creative and linguistic (both written and verbal) expression of original thoughts and insights as the latter are formed in mind and held together with embrace of belief and devotion.

Lord Ganapati is mentioned in reverence as he is perceived to be the custodian of all knowledge and wisdom that was to be learnt by those who were willing to realize, and invest their cognitive resources in learning about the divine purpose behind their lives.

Shloka 2:

RIGHTEOUS BELIEF AND devotion should lead to solemnity and introspection through which only, understanding of both the purpose and limitations of the material world that is to be sensed through the body, in truly understanding the divinity and its manifestations is possible. Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati, are mentioned in reverence.

Shloka 3:

THE GURU OR THE SUBLIME teacher is mentioned in reverence who is credited with mending the fickleness of learner’s mind. Fickleness arises from the random generation and feeling of unfulfilled desires that either existed before or were generated in that instance of time. The mind tends to pursue pleasure while it thinks its pursuing happiness or joy. The pursuit of pleasure and its promise to occupy the feeler with however mild or intense sensations, thus tends to drag away mind from its current focus or attention. The feeling of pleasure unfortunately is not conditional on virtuous conduct and hence such feeling is devoid of consciousness of thought. This is the wrong side of thoughtlessness. Enjoyment of the senses hence can never lead to building of the consciousness, rather would result in thoughtless dwelling in the peaks and valleys of sensations. The waxing and waning of the moon is mentioned here symbolically as the attention span that waxes and wanes with the sensory and ego driven fickleness of learner’s mind.

The fickleness of the attention then needs to be curbed with the wisdom that needs to be earned.

Hence the analogy of Guru, the wisdom giver to Chandra (the moon), that is the mind of the devotee.

Shloka 4:

THE REFERENCE TO SACRED forest in this shloka, is perhaps in reference to the purity, and sanctity of the divine mindset and thoughts as expressed by Lord Shri Ram and Goddess Seeta which the great sage Valmiki is thought to have understood. Reverence to Lord Hanuman is made in reference to his becoming a divine leader himself through his relentless devotion and purity of thoughts. It needs to be mentioned that typical depiction of Lord Hanuman as Monkey God is crude to say the least and indicates lack of any understanding of the symbolism but rather reliance on popular, visual depictions and narratives. The reference to monkey as an animal or mammal perhaps reflects more on the cultural insensitivities of the wicked individuals or groups in society, who choose to denigrate others who, they perceive to be cognitively or intellectually inferior. The divine aspirations of Hanuman are perhaps, popularly described symbolically as his aspiration to travel to the Sun, the source of light on mother Earth. Lord Hanuman, is believed to be son of the wind. Wind again is perhaps symbolically mentioned for inspiration to cross the chasm of perceptions once the sensual, pleasure centric, titillatory, distracting perceptual impediments are crossed through intelligence aided by devotion and resolve to discover. The path to cross-chasms in perceptions needs to be discovered, and the cognitive journey through such paths, would tend to be treacherous, delusive, hallucinatory, and deadly. The chasms grow with time, as the enforced delusion persists over so called lesser mortals or monkeys as they were referred to by demons and their sympathizers.

Lord Hanuman is believed to have taken a high flight through his immense imagination with intelligence to propel forward, and with the wisdom and devotion to stay sky high above the fickle, enticing yet delusive sensory and sensation driven mind, without letting his discernment getting clouded through condensed evaporation of random desires and thus steer away from such delusive and deadly hurdles that came in way.

Demons obviously must have treated Lord Hanuman with derision to belittle his sublime devotion towards divinity (Lord Shriram), resolve and ultimately success towards crossing the perceptual chasm to see what is going on in its truest form. The derision was also to mask their nervousness about other so called lesser mortals being able to achieve similar feats eventually. The monkey remark was perhaps an attempt to divide the unity of devotees in fighting with evil and also to hint towards relative inferiority that the left behind organisms and life forms had compared to the cognitive and perceptual enhancements achieved by demons.

The Sanskrit word Anuman means to guess or to estimate. The character H, when pronounced owing to its low frequency affects the heart. The accompanied exhaling when pronouncing, then further symbolizes sincere (from the heart) efforts to apply the power of imagination propelled with one’s own intelligence, guided by virtues and principles, with the determination and resolve not to be deluded by the sensualities and random thought impediments in order to witness the truth.

The guidance by virtues and principles provides a crucial difference between good and evil. Even demon king Ravana, had an imagination and capability that was vast and could soar through the skies of possibilities (symbolized by the imaginary plane Pushpaka), but it was not guided by virtues and principles, it lacked compassion and hence had to be grounded to contain and destroy evil.

Thus, the feat of Hanuman’s guided imagination can be thought of as cognitive assistance that was much needed to discerning humans and other organisms so that they can align their free will in a righteous, virtuous way alongside the incarnation of God. The virtuous imagination and intelligence of Lord Hanuman, one that is not corrupted by the delusive forces can be seen as a sublime, living example of how free will can be put to use by devotees and believers in a war between Devas (Gods) to prevent the Danavas (Demons) from continuing to occupy the minds of the conquered and attain immortality through the enticed, captured, and captivated minds of the conquered from generation to generation.

Similarly, the meditating mind’s virtuously guided imagination can allow it to leap beyond the ignorance, delusion and other perceptual limitations to develop and improve perceptions about what needs to be done for salvation and liberation. The free will then guides the conscious meditation towards that cathartic objective. The resistance to such imagination and application of consciousness comes from the inner demons that arise out of habitual desires and cravings that are so used to carnal gratification.  

Shloka 5

THE REVERENCE TO GODDESS Sita is mentioned in this shloka. Creation, nurturing, growth and stability, and finally destruction are considered the cyclical phases of life, through which every form as a manifestation of Prana (the consciousness) has to undergo. Goddess Sita, as the daughter of mother earth, and as the divine companion of Lord Shri Ram, symbolically represents the Prakruti or the Mother Nature, who faithfully follows and bears on herself both the hardships and fruits of procreation, and eventual decline and destruction of life processes and forms on the planet.

Shloka 6

THIS SHLOKA PAYS REVERENCE to the Lord Shri Ram himself who is capable of destroying the cosmic delusion that life forms and their consciousness are subjected to, in believing the physical sense induced awareness and feelings and physical materialism as the ultimate truth. The reference to multi headed, multi tongued, cosmic serpent could be a symbolism for the venomous and toxic nature of sinful desires, misuse of free will, and tendencies that engulf the sanctity of consciousness as it is expressed in the life forms and appear to rise from the back and surround even the Almighty Lord as a side effect of cosmic, eternal, and continuous process of creation, nurturing, and destruction.

The serpent (Nag in Sanskrit) is depicted to be a multi-headed and multi-tongued to represent the enormous varieties in the types of desires and their justifications as expressed by the ego driven consciousness of life forms. They also represent variety of perspectives, paradoxes and fallacies that may exist in justifying such desires. The venom represents the viciousness with which the desires are justified as the deluded individual or groups seek to self-preserve by threatening to kill any opposition or resistance to fulfillment of such desires. The venom of Naga (a particular species of snake in India) is known to attack nervous system of its prey.

This could have been the symbolism about attacking the thought process or thoughts that seem to counter fulfillment of desires as they are seen necessary for self-preservation.  

Another possibility in symbolism of depicting serpent to represent the immense reptilian side of neuronic assemblies of life forms, which represent almost automated, pre-ordained set of responses to stimuli.

Some of such reactions are for protection of body, which perhaps can explain popular depiction of serpent heads holding up like an umbrella above the lord’s head. But it can also mean the pre-ordained nature of stimulations and responses that life forms are programmed with and hence fallible to sensual desires, becoming complacent in limited understanding of the sense induced perceptions and continuity of sensual experiences (referred to as the Bhav Sagara) (unless lifted upwards through development of will and virtuous application of so in achieving self-realization.

The serpent is again used as a concept, which is a possible derivation from the actual body design of a real life reptilian snake and it has nothing to do with the physical snake as an animal or reptilian being what is depicted in analogies or symbolisms. For instance, the symbolism of offering milk to snake could stand for seeking to satisfy unfulfilled desires of an unfortunate life form. However, the snake does not have any particular penchant for milk and perhaps is oblivious to this strange cultural gesture of human beings.

Shloka 7

THIS SHLOKA REFERS and cites briefly the sources of Ramayana, as the various Puranas, Vedas and other available sources of information which the Author Shri Tulasi Das seeks to present.

The Beginning

Shloka 1

THIS SHLOKA PAYS REVERENCE to Lord Ganesha, who is the custodian of divine knowledge and wisdom.  The symbolism of Lord Ganesha is the giver of knowledge only to those worthy of receiving so, (that is those who would not misuse knowledge to raise evil but rather use it for constructive purposes, in spreading wisdom, peace, and harmony, in encouraging virtues and discouraging vices among the learners and disciples). The free will granted by the divine could go either way, just as the queen on a chessboard. The neuronal consciousness hence can be constructed with rewards that either encourage or discourage good or bad conduct, virtuous or dastardly behavior.

Hence strict adherence to virtues, noble principles such as fairness, equality, truthful nature, empathy, kindness and shunning of whichever that lacks so, (Vidhi- Adopt versus Nishedh- Shun) must be observed in order to guide consciousness along the simple, straightforward yet arduous route, versus complex, treacherous yet easy free-falling route. While the moral and ethical evaluation of individual tasks, actions, or thoughts could be manifold, the decision process to finally guide consciousness is a binary process (either one takes the virtuous route or not), similar to the alternate white and black squares that appear on a chessboard and similar to the two sides of seemingly identical yet exactly opposite armies that stand against each other. The choice here again, like in the war between Devas and Danavas, is stark binary.

Lord Ganesha thus is the custodian and facilitator of divine knowledge and wisdom, provided strict adherence to rules (Niyama in Sanskrit) is observed by the disciple of divine, to ensure that attained knowledge is used to advance the progress of consciousness towards realizing the divinity and not for practicing evil.

The razor pronged ankush wielded by Lord Ganesha, thus can be thought to contain or destroy if needed, any attempts that seek to divert free will towards misuse of knowledge to commit acts of atrocities, and injustices towards the innocent. The maze wielded by Lord Ganesh is to hunt, entrap and contain the demonic nature which has committed a transgression of the divine laws.

Shloka 2

THIS SHLOKA PRAISES God and asks for forgiveness from Him. The 5 senses namely: sense of sight, sense of sound, sense of touch, sense of taste and sense of smell are meant to aid in cognition of surroundings, while the capabilities of expression through again voice, motion, facial expression or mudras are meant to facilitate a physically tangible, and cognizable communication of intention as can be received , understood and felt by the recipient or observer, as the frigid ice of ideational plane warms up to express itself through the springs of liquidity.

Any hindrance or blockages in ideation or expression in the mental plane, or manifestation of intention on the physical plane can be removed (for the true believers) when the intention is pure, benevolent and in devotion to the Almighty God and His wishes.

Shloka 3

REVERENCE IS PAID TO Lord Shri Vishnu (Whose incarnation is known as Lord Shri Ram on earth in human form.)

The paradox of a sleeping God and awake cosmic serpent covering the deity, on the surface of an ocean (of conscious sentiments) can perhaps be understood by the symbolism of the state of human consciousness that typically dwells on the materialism and egotistic pursuits, which cause waves of sentiments (Kshobh as the disturbed mental state, or Kshubdha as the actor with such disturbed state of mind, as it is termed in Sanskrit), in the mental ocean of organisms and living forms. 

Irrespective of whether they are gifted with the free will or not, God is thought to reside in all organisms irrespective of their form and function.

Even those who might be able to rise above the sensory, automated sensing and responsive systems to develop and float in self-awareness may still not have the awareness of the divine that resides in all and hence such state of ego less or ego driven consciousness depicted as the sleeping one. (One that lacks the knowledge or perception of God, while the sensuous desires wide awake and expressive along with their venom.)

So, the depiction of sleeping Lord is not that of the Lord Himself in abstraction, but the dormant, asleep image of Lord that resides in every consciousness.

Shloka 4

REVERENCE IS PAID TO Lord Shiva as the container and destroyer of Kama or the vice of lust.

Note: The sensuous desires that titillate or appease the minds of those with free will, and also the automated, compulsive reproductive instincts of those without it, pose a delusional hindrance in the realization of divine in its true form.

Shloka 5

REVERENCE IS PAID TO the Guru (the teacher) who is credited with the benevolence of illuminating the disciple (or the shishya in Sanskrit).

Note: The illumination displaces ignorance just like the light which displaces darkness.  The sensual, sensory titillations, resulting desires that rise from time to time, serve as the cognitive or neuronal short circuit to achievement and fulfillment. Those whose consciousness is consumed by the repetitive, cyclic stimuli and thoughts about those stimuli and then the thoughts about reacting to stimuli that either pretend or even actually reward temporarily for responding so, make consciousness of individual or collectively as groups, fall into a deceptive trap in which the ego hallucinates about easy or instant , automated and hence predictable rewards of achievements or fulfillment through and seems oblivious to the short circuits that the mind had hooped through, and also oblivious to the cyclical nothingness or emptiness of experiencing such sensory stimuli and responding to them time and again, just like the waves rise and fall, occupy and recede in response to the stimulus from wind.

Consciousness has to be spared from the habitual, repetitive, predictable patterns of conduct, behaviors and judgments in order to save it and rise above and beyond, for which guidance and discipline need to be provided and observed respectively by the disciple. Guru (or the teacher) is revered and paid obeisance to acknowledge the benevolent guidance and aid that is provided to the disciple to walk along a righteous, uplifting path towards illumination.

Bal Kand 

Verse 9-10

THE ANALOGY OF INCENSE stick is provided by Shri Tulasi Das to describe how good intentions are of utmost importance. If the incense’s inherent characteristic is to emit fragrance, it will do so, even when it is burned as the resulting smoke would contain the incense in gaseous form. Smoke when perceived by only sight, might carry an association of bitterness or unwantedness, in the mind of preceptor, however when also perceived through the olfactory plane of reference, the smoke is perceived as the pleasing incense itself (dominant effect) and suppresses the recessive association of bitterness.

Similarly, in his humility and lack of conceit, Shri Tulasi Das states that while his composition may not be perfect in its prose and poetry, what it really intends to express is the glory of God (Lord Shri Ram) and the tale that is for the betterment of the world and hence it will be regarded as benevolent and good intentioned.

Shri Tulasi Das refers to the sacred Ganges (Vichar Ganga) as similar in character to the wayward travel of his own elucidation. In his humility, he compares the eventual acceptance of his creation (sonnet) to the adornment and unification of ashes left after cremation with Lord Shiva. The message conveyed is that what is told and why it is told will be understood, celebrated and conveyed rather than the perfection in the mere elaboration. (and same is the prayer by Shri Tulasi Das in writing this interpretation as it came to him).

The tale of Lord Rama was created by Lord Shiva and told to Goddess Parvati. Lord Shiva then sang the same to Kakabhushundi who in turn told it to Sage Yadnyavalka.

The listener and story teller are described to be of the same character and vision and are known to know the Maya. The reference to the sages ( the listener and the teller) being able to know across the times is a possible hint at  story being timeless and eternal in nature. It is ever present and told, heard and understood.

Verse 18-1

IN PRAISING LORD RAM and Goddess Sita as the saviors of the needy, reference is made to potential difference that may exist between the tone of utterance and that between its meanings just the way a wave on water surface may appear to be different than the water body itself but ultimately both are one and the same.

The expectation from the Divine when using the communication abilities such as language, voice, tone, and their intended meaning, is honesty and lack of deceit. However, the free will, in its ignorance of such expectations and lack of regard for implications thereof, may deviate from this to create deceptive variations.

For instance, the simple analogy of unification (water body and waves on surface) may not be able to catch when:

Someone might decide to sing words of hatred with melody.

Someone may offer words that lead to delusion, but deliver them dipped in empathy.

Someone may say a lie or remark sardonically or indicate towards committing an act of atrocity or oppression such as isolation, ostracizing, deprivation or killing albeit in a soft, melodious tone in an outwardly pleasing mannerism.

Such innumerable deceptive variations, rather unholy welding or alloying of possibilities, would be a sinful disservice to divine expectations from free will of its creations and hence must be watched for, and rejected outright.

When forming perceptions about a deed or act (whether initiated by self or by others), elegance, elaboration, outwardly perception of beauty, apparent perfection, bewildering details, and almost automatic appeal to senses and desires should be discerned and separated from the intention of the act or expression, to understand whether such is done with honesty, earnestness, and truthfulness. Discernment will ultimately guide the path of consciousness and deeds it will either, perform and approve of (when done by others).

The devotion and commune with others, self and divinity should be intellectually honest and lack of deceit, just the way it is expressed in this verse by Shri Tulasi Das in praising the Lord and Goddess. Then, the unification aspect of devotion, (given the intentions are honest, noble and filled with love for God) becomes all encompassing.

Verse 18-2

THE MEANING OF LORD’S name in this incarnation (Lord Ram) is explained phonetically. The pronunciation R indicates Fire (Agni in Sanskrit),   A indicates Sun and M indicates the Moon.

Commentary: The combined pronunciation RAM thus indicates resplendence, coherence, and resonance of eternal Divine Consciousness manifested in physical form and mental consciousness.  

Verse 18-3: The reference to Maharshi Valmiki, chanting RAM in reverse M followed by RA, perhaps is possibly the reverse path his bodily form and consciousness ( and all other creations of God, that have a form ,consciousness and desire to know about divine), had to traverse , starting from introspection of the mind within, to gradually ascend to know the divine.  

Verse 21

SHRI TULASI DAS’S INSTRUCTION to chant name of Lord Ram needs to be understood in greater context. Cognition is the light of consciousness. However, to move towards forming right perceptions from cognition, an enormous amount of cleansing is needed. The light can show the path only if the beholder of light sees the light as it is and without any preconceived notions, biases, inclinations, favoritism, and ill will. Hence the instruments of senses that consciousness uses must be cleansed and they should be used not as instruments or objects themselves ( of enjoyments or pleasures) but to develop clarity of thought, to help guide the attention to focus on Lord and  thus not waste it on random objectifications of enjoyments and thrills.

Shri Tulasi Das categorizes devotees of Lord Ram into 4 different kinds. The first one is about those knowledge seekers who wish to know the divine riddle, the mystery about Lord and His Will and corresponding Maya. Second category is that of those who wish to undertake devotion as a path to know Lord. Third one comprises of those who chant Lord’s name to save themselves from impending troubles. Fourth one comprises of those who seek material wealth and gains.

Verse 22-25

OUT OF THESE 4, NATURE of those who undertake the path of devotion is elucidated here. Those who are on the sublime path are devoid of any attachment, they have moved beyond the lure of enjoyments. Rather they create a devotional pond of their attention where their consciousness resides and the fickleness of mind is treated with constant engrossment in nectar of devotion. 

(i.e. mind that generally becomes desirous and drags energy of attention to such wanton desires, now drinks from its own nectar of devotion towards Lord, and remains satiated from within).

Irrespective of the path chosen for realization, what to focus on, what to meditate on has been wondered about and discussed by consciousness since ancient times. The consciousness first becomes aware of itself, about its bodily manifestation. Then, it realizes about similarities and differences between various bodies and objects. Should these be the objects to meditate on? Or should be something else? Should it focus on the seemingly limitlessness or infinity of the sky that encompasses all of the bodies and objects that can be sensed?  Or should be something beyond skies? Or should it focus its attention on something that is completely abstract, or bodiless, and hence really infinite in theory, to escape from the limitations imposed on the body? Such type of wondering has existed and documented in ancient Indian scriptures such as the Vedas and Upanishads. Thus the concept of the something that is at the root of everything, that is contained in everything that existed before and existing now is captured in a term called Bramhan.

Bramhan, thus, can be of both Abstract and objectified natures. The objectification can be myriad ways, and hence while it can be sensed and perceived there can be no limit to what can exist and in which ways. Abstract Bramhan is difficult to perceive, imagine, and describe. For human consciousness that is aware of the linguistics and phonetics, chanting of Lord’s name can be an easier and powerful way to limit its distractions and fully focus the energy of attention to Lord and nothing else.

Tulasi Das compares the two types of Bramhan to nature of flame. One that emanates from the burning of materials can be considered equivalent to objectified Bramhan. If a flame emanates after burning various types of materials, then that can be considered as the commonality among all such materials. The flame that is visible and the one that is not are thus the objectified and abstract forms of Bramhan.

However, it is author’s opinion that the comparison of feats achieved by Lord Ram as an Incarnation of Lord Vishnu, should not have been done to show it as somewhat limited in comparison to an abstract name chanting.

The Incarnation’s life is to exemplify and assert application of sublime virtues and principles in one’s own life, because the Incarnation achieved such objectives in a life form identical to the consciousness that grows enough to wonder about it. Lord Ram for instance, in His physical form suffered from betrayal, cruel conduct of others, misguidance, delusion and lies from opponents, bestiality and atrocities as well. He had to remain in exile for years. He had to fight a gory war to decimate demons and their King. The sufferings of Lord Ram, are to show that even God’s Incarnation has to endure the sorrows, losses, delusion, deceit, and sins of others. The victory of Incarnation over guiltless lies, betrayals, hoarding and looting tendencies among demons, is to motivate and support future generations that such behaviors can be countered and won over through virtuous conduct and by adherence to truth.

The name chanting (Japa in Sanskrit) is merely a technique to direct and align consciousness. It is not be construed as bigger or superior to the Incarnation’s achievements as such. It is an intellectual mistake to compare a technique of meditation with Incarnation itself.

A better way to express would be that for those who wish to renounce their attachments to materialism, desires, those who wish to withstand the joys and sorrows with equanimity, and rather focus on upliftment of their consciousness can resort to a simple technique of Japa, which is most simply a remembrance of the Lord. When consciousness does Rama Japa, it basically is recalling, celebrating, and tracing the Incarnation’s objectives, and pleading to take this ignorant consciousness to the same path the Incarnation came from. (The Sun of enlightenment, its projection in mind as the light emanating from the moon, and its further projection in the form of an earthly body that this consciousness resides in, as it applies the analogue of solar system to imagine and understand the path that was taken by the Incarnation from its source to its physical manifestation.)

The reference to polar star is another example of how solar system based, and beyond that the visible celestial equivalents are applied to imagine the Lord, His Incarnations and His Will.

The unshakable, stable, enshrined attention of a sublime devotee who has been successful in maintaining his or her attention on the object or subject of worship, the Lord, is imagined as unshakable and as stable as the Mother Earth’s alignment towards the polar star. 

She gazes at the star as faithfully and affectionately through her rotation about herself, as much as her reverence and faithfulness towards the Sun through her celestial journey around the Sun.

Mother Earth’s motion around the Sun can be considered the inevitable course of life the consciousness undergoes and her orientation towards the distant (relative to the solar system) can be considered analogous to the attention, devotee provides to the object or subject of his or her meditation.

Verse 25-28

THE REFERENCE TO LORD Shiva enshrining the Rama nama (Name of Incarnation) in His heart is about the myriad possibilities that may exist through which the Lord will make Himself known to consciouses. The upholding and chanting of Lord’s name by Lord Shiva is thus an acknowledgement of the Incarnation that has taken place and has the power to mend, to change for good, to realign, to reorient, to enlighten, to show the right path, away from ignorance and delusion to consciousness.

Shri Tulasi Das further discusses the tendencies and decline among consciousness as time progresses through namely Sat Yuga (Age of truth), Treta Yug, Dwapar Yug and Kali Yug. The consciousness degenerates progressively from inwardly focused meditation to gain realization ( Dnyana in Sanskrit) in Sat Yuga to external, material focused outgrowth of consciousness that would rather engage in following hymn based ritualistic procedures (Yadnya in Sanskrit: Creating and sustaining the flame that consumes various types of materials) in Treta Yug, to further spread of ritualistic procedures to seek material and sense related gains rather than commune with divine in Dvapara Yuga, to further distancing from God, and resulting darkness of ignorance and ruin in consciousness in Kali Yuga ( the Age of Darkness), where addiction to sin becomes acceptable and orientation towards  worship of God and meditation on God becomes extremely difficult for indulgent consciouses who are so habituated towards sinful enjoyments.

The reference to ultimate liberation caused due to chanting of Lord’s name whether in devotion or in hatred or in anger or in slumber is about Lord’s sublime fairness about every consciousness for it emanated from Him. As every water stream runs towards the river it pours into, and every river pours into the sea, no matter how and with what intention Lord is remembered such chanting becomes part of the cosmic stream that ultimately merges with Lord.

Verse 29-30

IT IS TOLD THAT SACRED tale of Lord Ram was described by Sage Yadnyavalka to Sage Bharadhwaj. The characterization of Lord Ram is thought to have been conceived by Lord Shiva, and then described to Goddess Parvati. He then further inducted the characterization and tale to Kaka Bhusundi. The significance of the latter act, is about emphasizing the role of Jeeva (Bodily Consciousness) in becoming aligned towards devotion towards Lord. The liberation or realization of any bodily being has to be through the body as the instrument of worship. The consciousness cannot just disconnect from the body that supports it, nourishes it, protects it, and also attaches it, to engage in abstract rationalism and logical cognitive discoveries in order to find the final truth. The journey for upliftment of consciousness from bodily state, must be traced back to where it came from and that is from consciousness that resides in body, arises from body, gets nourished by body, to realizing its attachment to body, to understanding the strengths and weaknesses of mind, to fathoming its potential and learning to apply it in a directed pursuit like a ship navigates through the ocean, to rising above the ocean and the ship, in realizing the separation of consciousness from the powers and weaknesses of mind, its attachment to mind as an instrument to fulfill random, innumerable, both frivolous and terrible desires, its fickleness to pursue random pursuits by maneuvering the ship of mind, to finally, becoming stiller, stable, calmer, deeper, and embarking on the pursuit towards the source of the inner light ( aka the journey or mission towards the moon in search of moonlight) and then finally seeing the true source of the inner light of realization, not being the moon, but the Sun.

Thus, Rama Nama symbolizes, verbalizes and represents this journey from the body to the light. Hence, worshipping the abstract Lord Shiva, without realizing the present state and limitations will only give rise to ego, argumentation in the name of rationality and logic and excessive emotionalism that is misdirected to attack others, criticize others, in feeling for one self as that further feeds the ego and ignorance that comes with it.

The ego, by its nature has to understand its limitations, its limited applicability. It is a booster, a propellant (the urge to do something and escape from the gravity of senses, fickle desires and slumber) but not the thing that carries itself to the moon. It is the highest part of consciousness that carries itself into vast space of possibility guided by the light that is reflected from the surface of the moon. (The inner voice, inner light).

Human kind’s desire for space exploration has perhaps risen from the same characteristic of consciousness, of ego, of body and of gravity (of Mother Earth).

Until this is possible, trials and re-trials for launches have to be done.

In a similar way, the consciousness has to take and retake birth and learn to understand the difference between the mind, body, ego, consciousness and the reason why they exist, and the reason for a journey to be taken (rather than mere stagnating and disintegrating), and if so, what kind of , in which direction, for how long and how. 

The touching or pricking by crow to in Hindu rituals to the rice cake ( made in the form of Lord Shiva’s dome or Pindi in Sanskrit) is thus a symbolism of the end of one journey of Jeeva and perhaps beginning of new until the final realization. The pricking by crow is thus indicative of the chime of a cookoo (as it pops out of a clock) in the relative time scale of a given Jeeva.

Thus, this journey of realization of Jeeva is perhaps referred to in this verse, in the symbolism of Sage Yadnya Valka receiving this knowledge from Kaka Bhushundi. (Above interpretation is a humble attempt by the Author to know what it could have been).

Sage Yadnya Valka, then further is said to have sung this characterization to Sage Bharadwaj. Thus, they are thought to have become Samadarshi ( in Sanskrit), that is equi-sighted once they realize the significance of tale.

However, Sage Bharadwaj, expresses a wish to understand the mystery again. The takeaway is that knowledge and comprehension is relative to the receiver’s consciousness. The comprehension may be incomplete, may be twisted, may be a result of different way of application. Moreover, such limitations in