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Authentic depiction

CHENNAI: Only the Vedas can capture the expansive and subtle nature of God’s glory. But it is very difficult to comprehend the Vedas. So the Lord chooses to unfold the essence of the Vedas to humanity in a variety of ways. For instance, His incarnations serve to highlight the teachings of the Vedas and it is believed that whenever the Lord incarnates, the Vedas are also born along with Him as the Itihasas, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, pointed out Velukkudi Sri Krishnan in a lecture. The Puranas relate the events that had happened at an earlier era, but the Itihasas are contemporaneous records chronicling the events during the lifetime of the Lord’s incarnations.

Sage Valmiki composed the Ramayana as a result of Brahma’s boon by which he was authorised to gain access to all the intricate and detailed happenings during the period of the Lord’s incarnation. He did not create any fictional character. He wrote with no motive except to make the enriching experience of Lord Rama available to all. Not a single event, thought wave or emotion escaped his notice and the massive work is the most genuine portrayal of all that happened during the period Lord Rama lived. Lord Rama listened to his own story through the retelling of it by His sons Kusa and Lava, who grew up in Sage Valmiki’s hermitage.

Sage Valmiki describes with meticulous detail the time and effort taken for building the bridge across the ocean. Lord Rama initially thought he could seek the ocean’s help to cross over to Lanka with the monkey army and this is indicative of the extent to which the Lord adhered to the role of a human being during this incarnation. The Lord undertook a vow for three days to command the ocean to give way. When there was no response, He rose in anger and drew an arrow against the ocean who now bowed down in humility and pointed out that the properties of nature could not be altered at any cost. But the ocean suggested the idea of constructing a bridge across the deep ocean with the help of Nala the monkey, the son of Viswakarma, the celestial architect and one who could devise one with expertise.

Hence a beautiful bridge was painstakingly constructed.

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