In the previous episode, we had witnessed Bhagawan Krishna mentioning to Arjuna that no “Karma” can touch Him during any of His divine incarnation, and even if He had undergone sufferings seemingly during the course, it was merely due to compassion and a divine “Sankalpa” that He undertakes to put all the suffering on His head completely! If Bhagawan has to voluntarily come down to this world, take an incarnation, undergo all the suffering that He had to undergo, why is He doing all this? It is for two reasons – Firstly, establishing the “Dharma” in this world, and secondly, by undergoing all the suffering Himself, Bhagawan is illustrating to the world that as a normal human being, one has to undergo the cycle of “Sukham” and “Dukham” and there’s no escape out of it.
In similar lines, we may wonder why Bhagawan Rama had to undergo all whatever He had underwent – Losing his father to Kaikeyi’s greed, going to the forest on exile for fourteen years, losing Mother Sita to Ravana, walking all the way to meet Sugriva and Hanuman, searching Mother Sita through Hanuman and the others and finally going all the way by walk to Lanka and bring back Mother Sita again to Ayodhya – Why should Bhagawan Rama undergo all these? As discussed yesterday, apart from the point of establishing “Dharma” in this world, Bhagawan Rama has illustrated to mankind that if we are confronted with problems like these in our lives, this is the way we’ve to walk through them. At any point in time, we should not deviate from the path of “Dharma” even though problems might force us to do so. In fact, if Bhagawan Rama would have thought, He would have used Vaali to kill Ravana instantaneously to retrieve Mother Sita, couldn’t he? All of us know who Vaali was and what was his strength. Vaali, being Sugriva’s elder brother, had complete control over Ravana. If Bhagawan Rama would have informed Vaali that Mother Sita is missing, Ravana himself would have brought back Mother Sita owing to the fear that he had for Vaali. But Bhagawan Rama did not take that route and instead, He allied with Sugriva to conduct a massive search operation and then went personally to Lanka to kill Ravana.
Now this might seem to be a very circuitous route to bring back Mother Sita, isn’t it? Yet, why did Bhagawan Rama opt for this circuitous route, if He had an easy option in the form of Vaali? The answer is very simple – Vaali was an epitome of “Adharma”! All of us know that Vaali had abducted Sugriva’s wife and this is one of the greatest form of “Adharma” one can do in life! Had Bhagawan Rama allied with an “Adharmic” person, He might have obtained Mother Sita easily, but what would the world say tomorrow? The world would say, “Oh! Bhagawan Rama was so opportunistic in nature that He allied with the wicked Vaali to bring back Mother Sita! Hence, since Bhagawan Rama Himself did such an act, we also can ally with “Adharma” and get our things done!” Now, isn’t this a dangerous trend that Bhagawan Rama would be setting, had He aligned with Vaali?
This is where Bhagawan Rama was extremely careful in whatever He did – He allied with Sugriva to illustrate to the world that even though the path of “Dharma” might be tough, one should be steadfast to follow it, so that the entire world benefits out of it! Hence, we can also see here that Bhagawan Rama stood as an epitome of how “Dharma” should be followed in life, isn’t it? Thus, more than just establishing the “Dharma”, Bhagawan’s role is also to illustrate how “Dharma” should be followed in every walk of life. This is why Bhagawan Rama took over all the suffering upon Himself and illustrated to the world as to how a king should behave during such tough times! Even when Kaikeyi wanted Bhagawan Rama to go to the forest for fourteen years for no fault of His, Bhagawan Rama could have easily denied her, isn’t it? But why did He proceed to the forest without talking a single word back to Kaikeyi? It is to illustrate to the world that a son should not back-answer a mother! A son should obey his mother’s words verbatim without a second thought in his mind! Thus, this is the kind of illustration of the “Dharma” that Bhagawan does, and this is exactly what Bhagawan Krishna means, when He talks about the purpose of His divine incarnations! Of course, we’ve seen these examples purely from the Ramayana, but this remains as a common thread and a factor in every incarnation of Bhagawan.
So for today, let us understand this important pointer very clearly and we shall wait till the next episode to continue this discussion further! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 