CONTENTS:
- Who is Lord Ramachandra?;
- Srila Prabhupada's Appreciation;
- Guru Maharaja’s Instructions;
1. Who is Lord Ramachandra?
Who is Lord Ramachandra? Lord Ramachandra is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He appears and descends in different incarnations and Lord Ramachandra is one of His incarnations. Incarnations like Lord Ramachandra are the expansion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Lord has two types of expansions svamsa and vibhinnamsa and vibhinnamsa means expansions of His parts and parcels like we are also expansions of the Lord but we are His minute parts and parcels, but His incarnations have been exemplified. Just consider we see one sun in the sky and the one sun becomes two suns and three suns, twenty and hundred suns maintaining sun itself in totality. The sun itself expanding so incarnations are like that. The Lord expands Himself and the rays are coming out from the sun, the rays are very minute parts of the sun and we are like those rays and the incarnations are like the expansions of the sun.
The Lord and His devotees derive pleasure out of that exchange
In this aspect Prabhupada is saying to punish the miscreants Krishna does not have to come, material nature herself can take of this but He comes to have a loving exchange with them and that is the real purpose of Krishna coming. Those who are devotees Krishna gives them an opportunity to directly associate with Him and by doing that Krishna Himself derives pleasure and those devotees also derive pleasure out of that exchange. Lord Ramachandra appeared and also instructed them to appear as monkeys and as monkeys they had the association of the Lord. As monkeys they got the opportunity to serve the Lord in a most wonderful way and also Lord descends in the family of His devotees.
Lord Ramachandra is also known as Raghuveer, the hero of the Raghu dynasty
Lord Ramachandra appeared in the Iksaku dynasty and their capital was Ayodhya and that city is still there today. The land is known as Kaushal and the capital is Ayodhya and that Ayodhya was established by Vaivasvata Manu for his son Iksaku and he became the ruler of the entire earth planet. In this line there are very illustrious personalities like Aja, Raghu and Raghu’s son was Dasaratha. Lord Ramachandra is also known as Raghuveer, the hero of the Raghu dynasty. Dasaratha also ruled the entire earth planet. In those days one king ruled the entire planet, one head, one king, one ruler and he had his subordinate rulers, there were many kings but above all there was only one and he was considered as the ruler of the entire earth planet including the ocean and that system was prevalent until 5000 years ago. As Kaliyuga started the whole structure became divided, the earth planet became divided and now there is no ruler and we have democracy, demon crazy democracy. This is how by the influence of Kali it became degenerated.
Lord Ramachandra and His brothers appeared
Dasaratha went to his ministers and Vashist one of the greatest sages the world has ever seen, advised him to perform a sacrifice for the sake of getting a child so the yagna was performed and from the sacrificial fire the Lord appeared and, in this way, assured them and then came a personality with a pot of sweet rice and he announced that he was the representative of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, an agent of the Lord, Vishnudutta and gave the pot. King Dasaratha had three wives so he gave one half to the first wife Kausalya, one forth to his second wife Kaikeye and gave one eighth to his third wife Sumitra and as a result of that Kausalya gave birth to Lord Ramachandra, Sumitra gave birth to Laksman and Kaikeye gave birth to Bharata and Satrugan. Vasudeva appeared as Lord Ramachandra, Sankarshan appeared as Laksman, Bharat and Satrugan were Pradyumna and Anirudha.
King Dasaratha wanted to coronate Lord Ramachandra as the crown prince but…
In course of time King Dasaratha wanted to coronate Lord Ramachandra as the crown prince, the successor to the throne so the entire city was in ecstasy except only one person Kaikeye’s maidservant Manthara. She was not only crooked in her mind but she was also crooked in her body, she had a hunch-back. Kaikeye was excited, she was very happy that Rama was coronated because she treated Rama as her own son but Manthara came and started to chastise her, “you are feeling happy do you know what will happen to you?” In this way she started to vitiate her mind and said actually Bharat should be king not Rama.
Dasaratha had no children from the first and second wife he didn’t get the child so then he got married to the third wife Kaikeye and one of her conditions was that her son become King because there was no other son so naturally her son would become king but she didn’t take that so seriously after she got her son Bharata but because her mind became vitiated her mind started to wonder how can she have Bharata as a king because Rama as the eldest brother is the natural successor to the throne. Kaikeye was reminded that when Dasaratha was fighting the demons on behalf of the demi-gods then he got fatally injured and she treated and cured him so he became very pleased and gave her two boons whatever she wanted. Dasaratha at the time told her if ever you want something from me please let me know I will fulfill it and she said this is the time to get those two boons. What are those two boons? First boon is that Bharata should become the King and the second one is Rama will be banished to the forest for fourteen years. That is what happened and it was totally unexpected and as a result of that when Rama was leaving for the forest Dasaratha left his body due to the intense separation from Lord Rama. He was running after Rama’s chariot and finally Rama requested him to go back and when he went back then the next morning, they found out that he had left his body. He died from intense separation from Lord Rama. Then for fourteen years Rama stayed in the forest.
Who is Ravana?
Who is Ravana? The Lord had to gate keepers Jaya and Vijaya and they desired to give the mellow of chivalry to the Supreme Personality of Godhead because in Vaikuntha this mellow the Lord cannot experience. In reality who can fight with the Lord? But because they desired that, that desire was fulfilled in the form of a curse and the curse was that they will take birth in the earth planet in three yugas as three demons and the Lord would appear to kill them. These two gatekeepers Jaya and Vijaya became Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyakash in Satyayuga; in Tretrayuga and Ravana and Kumbakaran and in Dwaparyuga Sisupal and Dantabakra. These two devotees of the Lord being cursed appeared as Ravana and Kumbakaran. Ravana became invincible due to the blessings of Lord Shiva, when he was asking for a boon, he thought a human being is so insignificant he decided not to mention human being, he mentioned everything except human being. This is how the Lord plays His pastimes in such a wonderful arrangement and therefore the Lord appeared as a human form. What did Ravana do? On the thirteenth year, the last year, he stole Sitadevi Lord Ramachandra’s eternal consort and took her to his capital to Sri Lanka, a city of gold. It was one hundred yogenas away from the Southern tip of India. One yogena is 800 miles so it was 800 miles away. There was a celestial bird called Sampati and he could see 800 miles away and could see that Sita was in captivity. Lord Ramachandra wanted to confirm that Sita was really there and in order to confirm that Hanuman jumped 800 miles away and then he found out Sita was there. Not only had he found out Sita, single handedly he plundered the capital of Ravana. He killed three generals including Ravana’s son and these three sections of the army was destroyed just by Hanuman.
This is what happens when the devotee becomes empowered by the Lord
This is what happens when the devotee becomes empowered by the Lord. Apparently, it seems to be impossible but when the Lord empowers somebody then it becomes possible. He even burnt the city of Lanka. It was a golden city and the city burnt so there was a river of gold flowing because when the city was burning the gold was melting. Hanuman brought the news of Sita and he proposed that I will take you back but Sita refused for two reasons one is that I can’t touch any other man besides my husband and the second reason is that if I leave like that this will be a disgrace for Ramachandra that He could not save His wife someone else had to do it. We can see how noble these personalities were.
An 800-mile bridge was built
It was now confirmed that Sita was in Lanka 800 miles away so the consideration was how to cross the ocean and then it was decided that they would build a bridge, mind you an 800-mile-long bridge. You know how long it took them to build the bridge? Only five days. The first day they built 14 miles, the second day 20 miles, third day 21 miles, fourth day 22 miles and the fifth day 23 miles and the bridge was built. Let’s add it 100 and so the bridge was built and they went across it and the battle ensued. Ravana had the most sophisticated army with such sophisticated weapons that they could fight with the demi-gods. The monkeys were fighting with sticks and stones and there were only 7 human beings fighting on behalf Lord Ramachandra which was Ramachandra, Laksman, Vibhishan (Ravana’s brother who joined Ramachandra), and Vibishan had four associates who were Raksasas who assumed the form of human beings and the rest were monkeys. Who are these monkeys? They were demi-gods empowered by the Lord Himself and you know what happened at the end of the day? They naturally won. When the Lord is with His associates, the devotee’s victory is bound to be there. They won but many monkeys died and after the battle was over, they were celebrating Vibhishan who was coroneted on the throne and Indra the demi-god the King of the demi-gods also came to take part along with the other demi-gods. Indra very humbly proposed to the Lord, “My Lord what can I do for you?” Lord Ramachandra said, “If you really want to do something for Me just revive all the monkeys those who are dead.” Indra replied, “That is not within my ability but if you empower me I can do that because by Your mercy anything is possible.” And so, all the monkeys were brought back to life. This is another thing when you fight for the Lord and lose your life don’t worry, the Lord will revive you and give you the eternal.
Lord’s pastimes are like a drama
This is how the Lord performed His pastimes. You see pastimes are like a drama it’s not really real. Lord Ramachandra is playing the pastimes like a drama played on a stage, different actors and actresses those roles. So here that is the case the Lord assumes a certain role and His associates play I the same drama assuming different roles. The drama has two purposes one purpose of the drama is entertainment and the other is a message. A good drama must have a message. Drama has a conflict, the more the conflict the better the drama. The conflict is between the hero and the villain, the Lord is the hero and the demons are the villains. See what a wonderful drama the Lord has made, whatever He has made is perfect and did you get entertainment? Did you learn something? This is the purpose of the Lords pastimes.
2. SRILA PRABHUPADA'S APPRECIATION
We the members of The International Society for Krishna Consciousness must realise that the real success of ISKCON lies in recognising and establishing the unique position of Srila Prabhupada as the founder-acarya of ISKCON.
3. GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
When you fight for the Lord and lose your life don’t worry, the Lord will revive you and give you the eternal. So, this is how the Lord performed His pastimes. You see pastimes are like a drama it’s not really real. Lord Ramachandra is playing the pastimes like a drama played on a stage, different actors and actresses those roles. So here that is the case the Lord assumes a certain role and His associates play I the same drama assuming different roles. The drama has two purposes one purpose of the drama is entertainment and the other is a message. A good drama must have a message. Drama has a conflict, the more the conflict the better the drama. The conflict is between the hero and the villain, the Lord is the hero and the demons are the villains. See what a wonderful drama the Lord has made, whatever He has made is perfect and did you get entertainment? Did you learn something? This is the purpose of the Lords pastimes.
(The content of this E-magazine is based on a lecture given by His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami in ISKCON New Jersey on 28th March 2015)
(Compiled and Edited by Hemavati Radhika Dasi)