Om Sri Sai Ram - Saibaba.WS

Om Sri Sai Ram
RAMAKATHA RASAVAHINI - PART - I
The Rama Story, Stream of Sacred Sweetness As told by the Divine Lord Himself in the present Avathar as
Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
Contents:
This book - Forward by N. Kasturi The Inner Meaning by Sathya Sai Baba Chapter 1: Rama - Prince and Principle Chapter 2: The Imperial Line
Chapter 3: No Progeny from His Loins Chapter 4: The Sons Chapter 5: The Guru and the Pupils
Chapter 6a: The Call and the First Victory
Chapter 6b: The Call and the First Victory
Chapter 7a: Winning Sita
Chapter 7b: Winning Sita
Chapter 7c: Winning Sita
Chapter 7d: Winning Sita
Chapter 8: Another Challenge
Chapter 9: Preparations for the Coronation
Chapter 10a: The Two Boons
Chapter 10b: The Two Boons
Chapter 11a: Lakshmana - Too
Chapter 11b: Lakshmana - Too
Chapter 12: Sita Insists and Wins
Chapter 13: Entering into Exile
Chapter 14: Into the Forest
Chapter 15: Among Hermitages
Chapter 16a: Gloom over Ayodhya
Chapter 16b: Gloom over Ayodhya
Chapter 17a: The Brothers Meet
Chapter 17b: The Brothers Meet
Chapter 17c: The Brothers Meet
Chapter 18: Sandals Enthroned Foreword by N. Kasturi
This Book! The Rama Story, Stream of Sacred Sweetness, has been for millions of men,
women and children, for many centuries the perennial source of solace
during sorrow, vitality when floored by vacillation, illumination while
confounded, inspiration in moments of dejection and guidance while caught
in quandaries. It is an intensely human drama, where God impersonates as
man and gathers around Him, on the vast world-stage, the perfect and the
imperfect, the human and the sub-human, the beast and the demon, to confer
on us, by precept and example, the boon of Supreme Wisdom. It is a Story
that plays its tender fingers on the heart-strings of man, evoking lithe,
limpid responses of pathos, pity, exultation, adoration, ecstasy and
surrender, rendering us transformed, from the animal and the human, into
the Divine which is our core. No other story in human history has had such profound impact on the mind of
man. It transcends the milestones of history and the boundaries of
geography. It has shaped and sublimated the habits and attitudes of
generations. The Ramayana, the Story of Rama, has become a curative
corpuscle in the blood stream of mankind, over vast areas of the globe. It
has struck root in the conscience of peoples, prodding and prompting them
along the paths of Truth, Righteousness, Peace and Love. Through legends and lullabies, myths and tales, dance and drama, through
sculpture, music and painting, through ritual, poetry and symbol, Rama has
become the Breath, the Bliss, the Treasure of countless Seekers and
Sadhakas. The characters in the Rama Story have invited them to emulation
and to be elevated themselves. They have provided shining examples of
achievement and adventure; they have warned the wavering against vice and
violence, pride and pettiness; they have encouraged them by their fidelity
and fortitude. To every language and dialect that the tongue of man has
devised for the expression of his higher desires, the Story of Rama has
added a unique, sustaining sweetness. Sai (Isa, God), whose Thought is the Universe, whose Will is Its History,
is the Author, Director, Actor, Witness and Appraiser of the Drama that is
ever unfolding in Time and Space. He has now deigned to tell us Himself the
story of this one epic Act in that Drama, wherein He took on the Rama role.
As Rama, Sai instructed, inspired and invigorated, corrected, consoled and
comforted His contemporaries in the Treta Age. As Sai Rama, He is now
engaged in the same task. Therefore, most of what the readers of Sanathana
Sarathi perused, month after month, (during these years) with ardor and
pleasure, as installments of this narrative -- The Ramakatharasavahini --
must have appeared to them "contemporary events and experiences", and
"direct counsel to them in the context of contemporary problems and
difficulties". While reading these pages, readers will often be pleasantly
struck by the identity of the Rama of this Story and the Sai Rama they are
witnessing. "Science" has moulded this earth into the compactness and capsularity of a
space ship in which mankind has to live out its destiny. "Sai-ence" is, we
know, fast moulding this space ship into a happy home of Love. This book
must have been willed by Sai as a paramount panacea for the removal of the
ills that obstruct that Universal Love - the morbid itch for sensual
pleasure, the mounting irreverence towards parents, teachers, elders,
spiritual leaders and guides, the disastrous frivolity and flippancy in
social, marital, and familial relationships, the demonic reliance on
violence as a means of achieving immoral ends, the all-to-ready adoption of
terror and torture as means of gaining personal and group gains, and many
more evils besides. Sai Rama has recapitulated herein, in His own simple, sweet and sustaining
style, His own Divine Career, as Rama! What great good fortune, this, to
have in our hands, to inscribe on our minds, to imprint on our hearts, this
Divine narrative! May we be processes by the study of this Book into
efficient and enthusiastic tools for consummating His Mission of moulding
mankind into One Family, of making each one of us realise Sai Rama as the
Reality, the only Reality that IS. Sai has declared that He is the same Rama come again, and that He is
searching for His erstwhile associates and workers (bantu, as He referred
to them in Telugu) in order to allot them roles in His present Mission of
resuscitating Righteousness and leading man into the Haven of Peace. Let us
pray, while ruminating over the first half of this Story, that we too be
allotted roles and may He grant us, as reward, the Vision of that Haven. Rendered into English by N. Kasturi.
Prashanthi Nilayam, India. The Inner Meaning 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; you gain Rama. Sita gave up the luxuries of Ayodhya and
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. The brothers, comrades, companions and collaborators of Rama
are each of them examples of persons saturated with Dharma. Dasaratha is
the representative of the merely physical, with the ten senses. The three
Gunas - Satwa, Rajas and Tamas - are the three Queens. The Four Goals of
Life - the Purusharthas - are the four Sons. Lakshmana is the Intellect;
Sugriva is Viveka or Discrimination. Vali is Despair. Hanuman is the
embodiment of Courage. The Bridge is built over the Ocean of Delusion. The
three Rakshasas chiefs are personifications of the Rajasic (Ravana),
Tamasic (Kumbhakarna) and the Satwic qualities (Vibhishana). Sita is
Brahmajnana or the Awareness of the Universal Absolute, which the
Individual must acquire and regain 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. - BABA Prashanthi Nilayam, India. Chapter 1
Rama - Prince and Principle The name 'Rama' is the essence of the Vedas; the Story of Rama is an ocean
of Milk, pure and potent. It can be asserted that no poem of equal grandeur
and beauty has emerged from other languages or from other countries until
this very day; but it has provided inspiration to the poetic imagination of
every language and country. It is the greatest treasure inherited by his
good fortune by every Indian. Rama is the guardian deity of the Hindus; the Name is borne by the bodies
in which they dwell and the buildings in which those bodies dwell. It can
safely be said that there is no Indian who has not imbibed the nectar of
Ramakatha, the story of Rama. The Ramayana, the epic that deals with the story of the Rama Incarnation,
is a sacred text that is reverently recited by people with all varieties of
equipment, the scholar as well as the ignoramus, the millionaire as well as
the pauper. The Name that the Ramayana glorifies cleanses all evil; it
transforms the sinner; it reveals the Form that the Name represents, the
Form that is as charming as the Name itself. As the sea is the source of all the waters on earth, all beings are born
from 'Rama'. A sea