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Exemplar for mankind

CHENNAI : The Ramayana has been singled out in the scriptural tradition for many reasons, the most important being its authentic delineation of all that happened in the lives of Rama and Sita during their lifetime by Valmiki. This was made possible by the creator, Brahma's benediction which enabled him to intuit whatever happened in their lives when he set out to write the epic after listening to Sage Narada's narration. After composing the epic, Valmiki taught it to Rama's sons Lava and Kusa who were in his care since their birth and instructed them to sing it before Rama in His assembly when preparations were afoot for the performance of the Aswamedha sacrifice by Him.

In his discourse, Sri Sankararama Dikshitar said even though Valmiki had related all that happened in the lives of the Divine couple, the sage had observed with all humility that only Rama and Sita knew what transpired in each other's hearts. The tradition of listening to the narration of this epic is thus traced to Rama Himself. Even He was captivated by its cadence and by the young boys who chanted it, not to mention all those assembled there. Hanuman turned down the privilege of accompanying Rama to His divine abode in order to listen to the epic wherever it is narrated in the world.

The Ramayana thus has the seal of approval of Rama, the hero of the epic who was the Lord incarnate though that it is relegated to the background to highlight Him as an archetype for human conduct in day-to-day life. Valmiki delineates his objective right at the outset by positing Rama as the personification of all excellences and the storyline helps to foreground the rationale of the Lord's manifestation.

The arrival of Sage Viswamitra at Dasaratha's palace set the stage for the divine plan to unfold as under the pretext of asking the king to send Rama to guard his sacrifice, the sage became instrumental in bringing about the marriage of the Divine couple. The meeting of Parasurama and Rama during the return journey to Ayodhya was also ordained as it resulted in the transference of Parasurama's divine power to Rama. Dasaratha's desire to crown Rama after he realised he was getting old proved to be the turning point in the epic which set off a chain of events ending in the extermination of Ravana.

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