Valmiki Ramayana-1: Meet the REAL GOD

2 pm EST, September 2, 2021, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA

Background:

I had a very tough time with my family in India while preparing for my marriage and selecting the bride. Several tensions and fight broke out day by day over phone, no mental peace and was completely drained out.

Around 2 pm EST after having lunch, an enormous fight broke out between me and my mom over the same topic, on marriage proposal based on caste, status, horoscope and relatives opinion stuff. We disgreed on several factors and this fight was like never before.

Felt disgusted and arrived to the car, pulled the car driver seat all the way back and with closed eyes and thought "is there an end to human ordeal on this planet, anyone suffering more than me now? why am I living?"

Astral voice:

Then an astral voice was heard inside my head saying:

"When Rama was asked to go to the forest; Rama with a smile, just touched his father's feet and left"

Astral unheard remaining message was: "Rama made no qualms about it, just went a SMILE".

That's was all heard.

Valmiki Ramayana Astral Energy in Psyche:

These were the First thoughts came to my mind after the astral message:

How can someone just leave everything and go to forest that too with a smile on his face.
That's Inhuman. A layman cannot do it, leave everything and go without shouting or even give a stare.
I could not even tolerate such minor thing and I would talkback and fight.
How beautiful, it would be if I also had the same demeanor of Rama. I am the cause of all my anguish now.

The message was enough, the seed to read Ramayana was planted in psyche.

Back in the day, I was one of the slowest and uninterested readers, I would take 5 months to read 500 pages and not even complete it many times.

I finished the Ramayana in 6 days exactly, a 566 page book. For me, that's like seeing a snail running like a squirrel.

After Effect of Valmiki Ramayana:

In Mahabharata, when Yudhishthira goes to forest, he sees Markendaya rishi (oldest living person in this cosmos) and asks him "is there a more unfortunate person than me in this planet, who lost everything and roaming like a pauper".

Markendaya Rishi says, Yes, there is and narrates the Rama's story.

Yudhishthira feels better, gains strength and moves on.

Same is the effect on me.

After listening to Ramayana, you will gather knowledge

Mental Strength and endurance
Equanimity (Equipoise nature)
How Dharma is demonstrated, not just taught
Relationship towards family, rishi, friends, allies and towards people

Your burden will not be lifted, but will feel much lighter when compared to Rama's and will gain strength to move on.

Rama, The God himself has suffered in family, forest and everywhere.

Who am I? A tiny bloke?

Why make a mountain out of an ant hill.

Valmiki Ramayana for Indians:

As saying goes: "Learned is the illusion of learning".

Every Indian thru radio, TV, media or nap time stories, they would have learned bits and pieces of Ramayana here and there. But they would have never heard of Valmiki Ramayana.

At least officially, there are 20-25 Ramayanas in 20 different languages, most took the structure of Valmiki Ramayana, distorted it, censored the raw contents and authors just unleashed their literary, musical, dramatical flamboyance in language like Tamil, Telugu, Awadhi, Hindi, Assameese, etc. You don't get to see the real Ram, Sita, Lakshmana instead the poet's flamboyance.

Originally Ramayana was written by Valmiki and Brahma (supernatural deity) asks him to compose it. Original script is in Sanskrit, when they took it to several local languages to reach the masses, it got distorted and corrupted. Like any commercialization eventually leads to corruption in quality, even Ramayana was not an exception.

First Time ever reading/ hearing Valmiki Ramayana:

First time reader's have a big advantage here, because they get the reference right the very first time. The brain doesn't have to go back and forth to compare, unlearn and relearn the content. Lot of mental energy is saved. Unlearning is twice as difficult as learning.

Indian readers or other who heard other version's of Ramayana will have a very tough time digesting Valmiki Ramayana, which in fact is only Original Ramayana.

Funny isn't it?? We cant digest the Original Valmiki Ramayana instead other diluted or distorted rendition are digestible.

I personally had a tough time facing the real Valmiki Ramayana to the one I heard/ read from media or others.

Madhva's words to me: "Meet the REAL GOD" when I begin to read Ramayana.

For Indians, it can take few reading to come in terms with harsh truths stated. Tulsidas was the biggest influencer of Rama tradition in Recent India.

Astral Backlash:

In Astral world, when I was reading Ramayana and discussing with Madhva about the the distortions of Tulsidas, I had several backlashes and resentment from Pandits, Priests in Astral world who were following Tulsidas literature and traditions, especially when discussing about Hanuman and Hanuman chalisa stuff.

One such Astral instance:

One pandit took me astrally to top of an Himalayan peak and asked me to burn down the peak with a flame thrower?

I said I wont do it, it would create a snow avalanche and be dangerous for downstream people.

The pandit said that's what I am doing by reading Valmiki and discussing about Hanuman and challenging Tulsidas version.

So, you can imagine the resentment level. Nevertheless, we should move on to meet the Real God, not hold back.

Links to Books:

Abridged Version: https://www.amazon.com/Valmikis-Ramayana-Arshia-Sattar/dp/1538113686

After discussing with Madhva, he recommended me Arshia Sattar's Valmiki Ramayana (1996). It is an abridged version, she made complete justice in this translation, an extraordinary work.

Full version: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/24869/24869-pdf.pdf

There are several authors on market, but these are the best translations, and were approved by Madhva to me.

Post script:

These are previous posts on Ramayana by Maddhva:

They give a good background on why Valmiki Ramayana is so important when compared to other authors.

Replies (1)

· Michael Beloved

· 2022-03-05T23:36:47+0000
great assessment of an important text for yogis