Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

Rama is the Indweller in every body. He is the Atma-Rama, the Rama (Source of Bliss) in every individual.

His blessings upsurging from that inner spring can confer peace and bliss. He is the very embodiment of dharma, of all the codes of morality that hold mankind together in love and unity. The Ramayana, the Rama story, teaches two lessons: the value of detachment and the need to become aware of the Divine in every being. Faith in God and detachment from objective pursuits are the keys for human liberation. Give up sense objects, and you gain Rama.

Sita gave up the luxuries of Ayodhya so she could be with Rama, in the period of “exile”. When she cast longing eyes on the golden deer and craved for it, she lost the presence of Rama. Renunciation leads to joy; attachment brings about grief. Be in the world, but not of it.

Each brother, comrade, companion, and collaborator of Rama is an example of a person saturated with dharma. Dasaratha is the representative of the merely physical, with the ten senses.

The three qualities (gunas) - serenity, activity, and ignorance (sathwa, rajas, thamas) - are the three queens.

The four goals of life, the purusharthas - i.e. righteousness, riches, fulfilment, and liberation - are the four sons. Lakshmana is the intellect; Sugriva is discrimination (viveka); Vali is despair; and Hanuman is the embodiment of courage.

The bridge is built over the ocean of delusion. The three Rakshasa chiefs, Ravana, Kumbhakarna, and Vibhishana, are personifications of the active (rajasic), ignorant (thamasic), and pure (sathwic) qualities.

Sita is the Awareness of the Universal Divinity (Brahma-jnana), which the individual must acquire and regain while undergoing travails in the crucible of life.

Make your heart pure and strong, contemplating the grandeur of the Ramayana. Be established in the faith that Rama is the Reality of your existence.