It is an increasingly common trend today, to put down and belittle our ancient texts such as the Ramayana. Many WhatsApp messages circulate to this effect. Since most people these days have never actually read the Ramayana, they easily succumb to these false narratives, 2 of which are:
- Ravana was the virtuous one instead of Rama! Ravana was good, Rama was bad!
- Ramayana is of no value today, it is just a mythological tale crafted by a less intelligent, superstitious ancient society.
But the enclosed stories from the Ramayana totally exposes the falsehood of these ideas, by revealing the Ramayana as a scripture which set up lofty ideals for society to follow. In ancient times when there was no TV, no magazines and few books, the Ramayana served as a important medium to civilize society and to prevent it from descending into barbarianism.
This is quite unlike the movies, TV serials, books and other media of today which glorify violence, greed for money, sexual perversion, pornography and other base instincts and thus help increase corruption, molestation, rape and other crimes in society.
Even though human society has made technological progress today, the same cannot be said of its moral and spiritual stature, and so human society today is still precariously positioned, dangling only a step away from descending into goonda-raj (might is right hooliganism), barbarianism and totalitarianism.
Therefore the Ramayana and even the Mahabharata, with their high moral and spiritual ideals, expressed through various stories and the lives of their characters, are both just as relevant today as they were in historical times. Technological progress does not equate to moral progress. The latter comes only through spirituality (being in touch with the inner spirit, our soul).
- Moral Ideals and Inspiration from the Ramayana
- Speaking Truth to Power | Vibhishan Risks His Life To Stand Up To Ravana: Story from the Ramayana illustrating Vibhishan’s courage to stand up to Ravana’s deplorable abduction of Sita & make him listen to the voice of truth.
- Prudence | Dasaratha’s Rashness and Death of Shravankumar: Mother Mirra explains the spiritual quality of prudence (thinking of the consequences before acting) using a tale from the Ramayana
- When a Sincere Person Like Rama Spoke His Words Destroyed Falsehood & Hypocrisy: Mother Mirra relates a story from the Ramayana that explains why a sincere person is able to destroy propaganda & expose the truth.
- Ramayana Summary | A Concise Retelling by Swami Vivekananda: An engaging retelling of the Ramayana by Swami Vivekananda. This Ramayana summary has been enhanced with beautiful paintings from the 17th century.
- Mahabharata Summary | A Concise Retelling by Swami Vivekananda: An engaging retelling of the Indian epic the Mahabharata by Swami Vivekananda. This Mahabharata summary is enhanced with beautiful illustrations.
- VIDEO: Mahabharata & Karma | Some Stories Imply Karma “IS” Eye for Eye? Can You Explain?: This video debunks the Gandhari & Insect Eggs folklore related to the Mahabharata, which implies the law of karma is an eye-for-eye type of barbarism.
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