By Bal Ram Singh, PhD
One wonders why great souls, be themselves as in Vishnu, Buddha, or Tirthankaras, Son as in Jesus, prophets as in Adam or others get incarnated on Earth?
Of the tridevas – Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh, Bhagvan Vishnu seems to more frequently incarnate, nine already in this yuga, waiting for the 10th. Ram and Krishna in human form being the most prominent ones.
It seems their presence on earth is meant to help remove human misery. But that can perhaps be accomplished by mere their signals or hints can remove the evils. Thus, there is always the question as to why such powers, supreme or otherwise, ever need to incarnate, that too in human form, to tackle human misery. They could easily appear as superhumans 10 miles tall and 2 miles wide, there would not be any question raised on their divinity.
I personally had raised this question to my uncle, who had a bad habit of playing with truth, usually for no obvious reasons, at the same time was a staunch Ram bhakt. Once I pointed out that as a Ram bhakt he should always be truthful, as Ram had the principle of Pran Jaya Par Vachan Na Jai (keeping one’s word even if one has to give up one’s life. With a deep pause, he said, “but he was Ishvara”. When I gave my logic that he could have come not in the form of a human but an Ishvara of 2×10 miles, giving a message that we humans must follow his example. My uncle’s ramvan answer was that it is a sin for humans to even think of becoming Ishvara.
And, there lies the paradox of human relationship with Ram, necessitating the incarnation as a human to show them how one can stick to principles with utmost sincerity in most excruciating circumstances.
Look at how he treated Jatayu when the latter passed away succumbing to the injuries he incurred in his fight with Ravan to get Sita released. After Jatayu passed away, Ram took time to perform his last rites, observe morning period, and conduct all the rituals a son carries out for a father. He in fact treated Jatayu like his father, as King Dasaratha and Jatayu were friends, and had participated in wars together against asuras.
Additionally, when he was led to meet with Sugriva to ask for his help in organizing search parties for Sita, and for preparing to confront Ravan, Sugriva lamented that his own wife was forcefully taken by his brother, Bali. Rather than a typical, “well, you please take care of your own problem, and I will go elsewhere to seek help,” Ram decides to get Sugriva’s wife released first, before they go to the mission of Sita search.
Both these instances indicate that Ram cared a great deal about the pain and problems of others, and was readily willing to do everything under the most testing time of his life to alleviate problems of others.
There is nothing more virtuous in this universe than to care about others. All our deeds should be targeted to alleviate pain and problems of others.
परहित सरिस धरम नहीं भाई, पर पीड़ा सम नहीं अधमाई
Para hita sarisa dharma nahiU bhai, para piRa sama nahin adhamai.
(Uttarkand 40.1)
Its corollary is that to help others one has to be strong and capable, something that is of interest to all of us. Such a trait automatically brings admiration of not only those who need help, but also of those who are creative and self-reliant, and thus independent. For governing such people, one has to earn their respect with one’s own standards of conduct of the highest order.
Managing people for governance or otherwise, one should heed to the counsel of people who are self-reliant, independent, and free, a set of qualities found in the word Praja or people with skill who can sustain their own living, irrespective of the rulers. In scientific parlance, this is called objective practice, and is enforced with people evaluating grant proposals and manuscripts to have no conflicts of interest of any kind.
These features were integral to Ram’s character in Ramayana, which are simple to understand, and can be practiced by any and all without the entire paraphernalia of governance and management we currently have in the world. Science is also heavily affected by biasedness, even the genuine ones, just like business or political interests. Thus are the reasons for failures in science and technology, health issues and environmental exploitation, if nothing else.
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Balram Singh is a Professor and the President of the Institute of Advanced Sciences, Dartmouth, Massachusetts, researching Ayurveda, Yoga, Vedic education, and Vedic social and political traditions. He is also an adjunct faculty at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.
