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Perspective
Rama: A Study in
Self-Mastery
by
Satya Chaitanya
[This
study is based exclusively on the Valmiki Ramayana. Other narrations
of Rama’s story, which frequently differ from Valmiki’s narration,
have not been taken into consideration.]
 It was the Greek Historian Xenophon, I believe, who said, “A king should
not only prove himself better than those he rules, he should cast a
spell on them.” That is, cast a spell on them by the excellence of his
thought and action, by the totality of his commitment to his vision and
mission, and by the quality of his living and being. A close look at
Rama’s life shows us that he, a man from a period much earlier than that
of Xenophon, fully believed in this. That is one of the reasons why his
life gives us so many invaluable lessons even for our age separated from
his from a few millennia.
One of the most important lessons Rama’s life gives us is in
self-mastery, at which he frequently falters, as all human beings do,
but invariably triumphs. To look at how Rama falters again and again and
eventually masters himself every time is as fascinating to do as it is
rewarding. Rama’s failures and triumphs are invaluable lessons for all
human beings, and particularly so for men and women in leadership
positions who are expected to lead by example and set role models for
others to follow.
The most beautiful example for this could be found in the Ayodhya Kanda
of the Ramayana.
On that fateful Pushya morning when he was supposed to be installed as
the crown prince of Ayodhya, the first major crisis of his life takes
place. The previous evening he had been called twice to his father, King
Dasharatha, the first time to be informed that he would be crowned the
next day and the next time, to give advice regarding his role as a crown
prince of the Ikshwakus, who have been kings for generations and have
produced several legendary kings. The first meeting is very formal and
takes place in the assembly. The second one is informal and intimate,
and takes place in the antahpura [inner palace apartments].
On the day his coronation was supposed to take place, early in the
morning Sumantra, the minister, comes and informs him that he is wanted
at Queen Kaikeyi’s palace, where the king is waiting for him along with
the queen. Rama believes it is with regard to something in connection
with the coronation – perhaps Kaikeyi is not able to contain her joy at
the news. He goes there, accompanied by his brother Lakshmana and
several friends. He leaves his friends behind as he goes to the queen’s
chamber – we are not sure whether he takes Lakshmana with him or not.
There is no reason for him to leave Lakshmana outside: the two brothers
are inseparable and he is going to meet his father and step-mother, who
has all along been as loving and close to him as his own mother.
However, the text perhaps implies that he went in alone into Kaikeyi’s
chamber.
The sight that meets him there is disturbing. Both the king and the
queen are seated together, but Dasharatha’s face is marked by deep
sorrow. He utters just one word – Rama, his beloved son’s name – and
becomes silent. The king in his grief is terrible to look at. Rama
wonders what could be the reason for his father’s misery and we see Rama
upset for the first time in the Ramayana. Describing him the Ramayana
says he was agitated as an ocean on the full moon night – babhūva
samrabdhatarah samudra iva parvani. [2-18-7]
He asks Kaikeyi what has happened – his main suspicion is that he has
done something that has made his father unhappy with him. Or maybe, the
king is now well. Kaikeyi assures him he has done nothing wrong, nor is
the king suffering from any ailment. The king’s problem is, she tells
Rama, that he made a promise to her a long time ago and now he does not
want to fulfil that promise. She also adds she would tell Rama about it
all if he promises to do whatever the king wants, whether it is good or
bad.
The very idea that he would not fulfill a wish in Dasharatha’s mind is
shocking to Rama and he tells Kaikeyi as much. He tells her he shall
jump into fire at one word from Dasharatha; he shall eat deadly poison,
if that is what he wanted, or drown in an ocean. He vows that he would
do whatever the king wants. He assures her “Rama does not speak two
things.” He would stand by whatever he says once.
Kaikeyi now tells Rama that Dasharatha had long ago given her two boons
and using them she has demanded that Bharata should be crowned as the
crown prince in Rama’s place and Rama should go on an exile to the
Dandaka forest for fourteen years. She asks Rama to now fulfil the
king’s promise and save Dasharatha’s truth. She wants Rama to leave for
the forest that very day.
Hearing those harsh words of Kaikeyi, the Ramayana tells us, Rama did
not become unhappy: na caiva ramah praviveśa śokam [2-18-41].
This is in the last verse of chapter 18 of the Ayodhyakanda. Again in
the first verse of the next chapter, the epic repeats: hearing those
words unpleasant like death, Rama did not become distressed. [Tad
apriyam amitraghnah vacanam maranopamam, śrutvā na vivyathe ramah.
2-19-1] Instead, he tells Kaikeyi, “All right, let it be so. Obeying the
king’s orders, I shall go from here to live in the forest, clad in a
piece of bark and wearing matted hair.” In the next verse, he asks
Kaikeyi” “But why doesn’t father talk to me happily as he always does?”
In spite of the Ramayana repeatedly telling us Rama was not upset by
what he was told, we see that Rama is deeply distressed. Those are the
words of a deeply upset mind, for his father has no reason that morning
to talk to him happily as he always does.
However, the epic again assures us Rama did not lose the equanimity of
his mind. As he made up his mind to go to the jungle, giving up the
earth, according to the Ramayana, there was no disturbance in his mind,
as in the mind of a man who has gone beyond all worldly things. [Na
vanam gantukāmasya tyajatah ca vasumdharām sarvalokātigasya iva laksyate
cittavikriya 2-19-33]
According to Valmiki Ramayana, was Rama then affected by the news or
not? Did he lose mastery over himself when he received the news or not?
These two are really two different questions and not one question put in
different words.
As to the first question we can categorically say yes, he was. He was
definitely affected by what Kaikeyi had told him. He was even a little
unsettled, as the question he asks about why Dasharatha was not happily
talking to him shows. If that is not enough, here is confirmation from
the Sanskrit epic itself. In verse 2.19.33, we saw how the Ramayana
tells us there was no disturbance in Rama’s mind. But in verse 2.19.35,
the poet-sage clarifies the position when he describes in what mental
state Rama entered his mother Kausalya’s palace after leaving Kaikeyi’s
palace as he went there to give her the bad news: The Ramayana tells us,
“Holding his sorrow in his mind, keeping his senses under control, a
master of himself, he entered his mother’s palace, to give her the
unpleasant news.“ [Dhārayan manasā duhkham indriyāni nigrhya ca,
praviveśa ātmavān veśma māturapriya śamsivān. 2-19-35]
This verse makes the answers to the two questions above very clear. Was
he affected by the news or not? The answer is, yes, he was, to the
extent that he became sad and there was at least the threat of his
losing control over his senses, if he did not actually lose it. [In
Sanskrit literature, the senses are usually ten: the five sense organs
like the eyes and ears, and the five organs of action, like the hands
and legs. Sometimes the mind is counted as an eleventh sense organ]. But
did he lose control over himself? Not really, and if he did, it was only
very temporarily. For when he enters his mother’s mansion, we find he is
able to hold his sorrow in his mind, his senses are in full control and
he is a master of himself.
Self-mastery is not never losing control over oneself. It is not never
being affected by bad news or sad events, or good news, for that matter.
True self-mastery is when you are able to hold yourself together in
spite of being affected by these. And that is exactly what Rama shows.
Rama is a very deeply emotional individual. I think of all our epic
heroes, he is the most emotional. And people with emotional depth are
easily affected by the events around them. Rama is repeatedly affected
by the events around him, by all major events in his life. But every
time he gives in to his emotionality, he controls himself and becomes a
self-master again.
That is exactly what he does before his mother Kausalya. Kausalya in
Valmiki’s Ramayana is like Dasharatha – extremely sentimental and weak,
unable to take stress, and prone to faint under strain. Besides, she has
suffered much in life because of the king’s affection for his younger
and clearly more talented and attractive wife, Kaikeyi.
When Rama enters his mother’s palace, Valmiki tells us, he is a master
of himself, in spite of being deeply distressed. On the way to the inner
chambers of Kausalya’s palace, Rama meets in the outer sections of the
palace “a very elderly, revered man, seated at the door” [probably the
kanchuki, officer in-charge of the women’s quarters], numerous other men
around him, groups of honored Vedic scholars, and several young and old
female guards. None of them suspects either from Rama’s face or his
manners that anything dreadful has happened.
When Rama sees Kausalya, she is engaged in a ritual worship for his
welfare. Such is Rama’s mastery over himself by now that his mother sees
nothing amiss in spite of the fact that Rama’s coronation has been
cancelled, he has been ordered to go on an exile into the dreadful
Dandaka forest for fourteen years, it has been decided the crown of
Ayodhya would go to Bharata instead of him and Rama is deeply distressed
[bhrśam ayastah] about all this. Rama greets her, she gathers him
in her arms and speaks words of blessings. She then invites him to take
a seat and offers him food. She still has no clue about Rama’s inner
condition because of his supreme control over himself – she gets to know
of what has happened only he himself tells her of it.
The news devastates Kausalya when she hears it. She swoons and
collapses. Rama gathers her from the floor and raises her up. Kausalya
laments that she has never known joy in her life, has never once known
the joy an eldest queen should know. She tells him she was living under
the hope that once Rama became the ruler, she would be able to know the
joys she was denied during the day’s of her husband’s power. She says
the other wives of the king have constantly been insulting and
humiliating, even when he, Rama, was around, and if he went away she
would certainly die. In the palace, she wails, her status has been that
of the servants of Kaikeyi, or even worse.
Rama loves his mother deeply. He sees her misery and it powerfully moves
his heart. But that does not make him lose his control over himself – he
knows it is not weakness that would give his mother the strength she now
needs more than at any other time in her life. It is Lakshmana who loses
his hold over himself and gets into a violent fury.
In his fury Lakshmana says many unforgivable things. He wants Rama to
capture power by force and says if anyone stood in his way, he would
make the entire Ayodhya devoid of people [nirmanu'yām ayodhyām
kari'yāmi. [2.21.20] He says he would slay anyone who took Bharata’s
side or desired his welfare. As for his father, Lakshmana says if he
turns an enemy goaded by Kaikeyi, then he should be either imprisoned or
if necessary, killed. He swears his loyalty to Rama and tells Kausalya
that he will kill Dasharatha who has become obsessed with Kaikeyi and
has turned stupid in his old age. Kausalya tells Rama he has heard what
Lakshmana has said and if it appeals to him, he should act on it.
Rama is now a master of himself, unlike Lakshmana and Kausalya, however
devastated he is deep within himself. He tells his mother he would
follow the path followed by other great men in the past, who have obeyed
their father even when what had to be done was great evil, like Sage
Kandu who killed a cow [one of the gravest sins in Rama’s society] in
obedience to the wish of his father; even when some of them met with
great calamities in obeying their father, as happened to the sons of his
ancestor King Sagara. He admonishes Lakshmana and asks him to forget the
ideas suggested to him by the evil kshatra greed for power, and follow
the path of dharma as he himself was doing. As for himself, he wouldn’t
give up dharma for the sake of something as small as a throne. He blames
all that has happened on daiva, Divine will. Or else why should Kaikeyi
who has never once in the past made any distinction between him and
Bharata, now do what she has done, he asks.
Eventually, after a lot more arguments among them, Kausalya gives Rama
her blessings to go to the forest and agrees to stay back in Ayodhya
awaiting his return, giving up her demand that he take her with him.
The strain of keeping himself in control, however, takes its toll on
Rama soon. The imperviousness that he maintained before Kausalya deserts
him as soon as he leaves her apartment. He would be very different when
he enters his wife’s chamber.
Rama is a dreadful sight when Sita first sees him after he had left
early that morning. She has no idea of the new turns events have taken.
But one look at him, Sita starts shivering. The Ramayana tells us here
that at the sight of Sita, Rama could no more retain his control over
his sorrow and his grief came out in spite of himself. His face loses
all luster, he is perspiring all over. This is a man who has failed in
keeping his sorrow in check, who is no more in control of himself.
We see something of tremendous beauty here. Before his father, who is
deeply sentimental and psychologically weak, Rama keeps his mastery in
spite of being deeply affected. In front of his friends, who look up to
him as their leader, he maintains self-mastery. He maintains
self-mastery again in front of his mother, to whom it is his duty to
give strength in her moment of crisis – for the crown being withheld
from Rama is a greater tragedy to her than to Rama himself; she has been
all her later years with the single hope that one day he would become
king and she would reclaim the position she had lost when Kaikeyi became
the king’s favorite wife. But in the presence of Sita, his wife, who is
emotionally as strong as he is, if not more, he allows his emotions to
overpower him for the first time.
During this breakdown, he would tell Sita a lot of things that would
never occur to him if he were a master of himself. After informing her
about what happened in Kaikeyi’s chamber, he tells her he is going on
exile and she should stay back at the palace. He then gives Sita
instructions about how she should conduct herself from then on. He tells
her she should never talk of Rama in Bharata’s presence! Because men in
power do not endure other people’s praise, she should never extol Rama’s
virtues in Bharata’s presence, particularly so while talking to her
[girl] friends! Now that Bharata is in power, Sita should always try to
please him!
After this breakdown in Sita’s chamber, he would once again regain
command over himself. This time he would maintain his mastery over
himself until after he has left Ayodhya, crossed several rivers, and has
finally crossed the Ganga and is in the forests beyond it. There, for
the first time alone since he received the order of exile from Kaikeyi,
with just Sita and Lakshmana with him, in the loneliness of the jungle,
with night cutting him off from the rest of the world, he would again
let go of himself and breaking down, wail aloud, filling the forest with
his grief and sorrow.
But before going to that, let us see how he maintains, with a supreme
effort of will, mastery over himself throughout the rest of the
agonizing day and the following days and nights until he reaches the
forest across the Ganga.
In Sita’s chamber, Rama has to give in to Sita’s demand to be taken with
him to the jungle. All his arguments against it prove futile. Sita
proves here she is a woman of iron will and gets her way. Sita has no
grief over the loss of the kingdom, but that she would have to live
separated from Rama is intolerable to her. In her agony at the thought
of being forced to live in Ayodhya, of being denied Rama’s company and
the opportunity to serve him as his wife, she momentarily loses control
over herself and insults Rama, questioning his masculinity itself, but
Rama himself never loses his hold over himself. Later he agrees to take
Lakshmana too with him.
It is as a master of himself that Rama does the many things he has to do
before he leaves for the jungle on the same day as desired by Kaikeyi.
He distributes wealth among brahmanas; gives diamonds and ornaments to
Guru Vasishtha’s son Suyajna and his wife and to lots of brahmacharis,
friends and servants. He also distributes his remaining wealth among the
poor, the old and children.
And in the middle of sorrow that is engulfing all of Ayodhya, Rama
amazingly becomes light-hearted and has some innocent fun at the cost of
a brahmana. The brahmana lives in the jungles near Ayodhya. He is old,
yet such is his lifestyle that he glows with spiritual power. The man
has a young wife and several children and, unable to find food for them
and for himself, he used to always roam around jungles with digging
tools in his hand searching for roots and gathering fruits from trees
and bushes. His wife very reluctantly addresses him asking him to go to
Rama seeking some cows. Rama smiles amused at the wiry old man’s sight
and shows him a huge herd of several thousand cows. He gives him a staff
and asks him to hurl it as far as he can and tells him that all the cows
within the fall of staff will be his. The brahmana tightens his dhoti
and hurls the staff with all his strength. Such is the brahmana’s
strength that the stick falls on the other bank of the Sarayu. Rama
happily gives him all the cows that stood within the fall of the staff.
Still smiling, he apologizes for asking the brahmana to do what he did.
He says he did what he did to see how much spiritual energy that wiry
body of his contained. He tells him that all his wealth belongs to
brahmanas and the needy and asks him to ask for anything else he needed.
This is a young man who has just lost his kingdom, snatched away from
him moments before his crowning, and has been given an order of exile
for fourteen years.
Rama now goes once again to Dasharatha – to take leave of him.
Dasharatha begs him to stay for one more night – but Rama knows that is
no solution to his father’s problem. By staying back he would only
increase Dasharatha’s agony. He refuses.
There are moments when, during this meeting of the father and son, in
spite of his self-mastery Rama’s pain and despair show through his
words. For instance, while telling his father that the only desire in
his mind is to see that his, Dasharatha’s, words [to Kaikeyi] are not
broken, Rama says: “I have no desire for the kingdom, nor for the earth,
nor happiness; I do not desire any of these pleasures, or heaven. I do
not even want to live.” This is not what he will say two days later,
when he is away from Ayodhya and alone with his wife and brother in the
jungles beyond the Ganga. Rama’s pain and sense of loss come through in
his other words here too – for instance, when he repeatedly says how
happy he would be surrounded by quiet animals and listening to the
chirping of birds in the jungle; how contented he would be eating the
fruits and roots of the jungle and seeing the mountains, lakes and
rivers.
Of course, it is possible that Rama is, reversing roles, trying to
console his father, rather than Dasharatha doing so to his son. Even in
this moment of crisis, he knows fully well his duty as a son: be the old
father’s strength in his moment of debilitating weakness. He not only
shows strength and courage, thus imparting to Dasharatha these, but also
reminds his father it is his duty in this moment of crisis to give
strength to those around him.
In spite of Rama’s brave words, the father senses his son’s feelings and
faints.
Rama’s self-mastery is clearly visible again during the scene when the
princes give up royal clothes and change into ascetic clothes in
preparation to going on exile to the Dandaka forest. In a touching scene
Sita too tries to wear ascetic clothes following Rama and Lakshmana,
fails and stands confused and embarrassed. Rama comes forward and helps
Sita wear the clothes. This is a scene that would break anyone’s heart –
while Rama has been ordered to live in jungles for fourteen years as an
ascetic, there are no such compulsions on Sita. She is doing what she is
doing out of her love for Rama. The whole royal family watching it
breaks down but there is one man totally unshaken by it: Rama. The women
of the antahpura beg Rama not to take Sita with him, but to leave her in
the palace, but Rama without paying any heed keeps helping his wife wear
her new clothes.
Such is the poignancy of the scene that old Sage Vasishtha, a man of
full self mastery, too loses his control over himself and, tears flowing
down from his eyes, shouts in rage at Kaikeyi, calling the queen evil
and wicked. He tells her they [that is, he and others] would put Sita on
the throne, for that is where she belongs as Rama’s ‘half’, since a wife
is a husband’s half. He tells Kaikeyi that if Sita goes to the jungle
with Rama, then the whole city of Ayodhya too would go with them to the
jungle. He warns Kaikeyi that even Bharata and Shatrughna would leave
Ayodhya and go and serve Rama in the jungle. It is Sita who now speaks
and insists that she too would dress like her husband and continues
wearing ascetic clothes. During this poignant scene, Rama never loses
his self-mastery once.
Dasharatha now insists that Sita would not wear ascetic clothes and
would go in clothes of silk. Kaikeyi does not object.
Eventually the scene of actual leave taking comes. Rama, Lakshmana and
Sita board the chariot. As Sumantra, the minister, driving the chariot
urges the horses forward, a sense of loss spreads over the populace
watching it. The whole city goes into a swoon. When they recover, the
entire populace of Ayodhya run after the chariot like people tormented
by thirst runs towards water. They beg Sumantra to drive slowly so that
they could have another look at Rama’s face. Women wail aloud filling
the whole place with their anguish. Tears falling down from the eyes of
weeping women so drench the earth that the dust raised by the chariot
and thousands of men and women immediately settles down. Dasharatha
comes out of the palace gates and seeing the disappearing chariot, falls
down on the earth like a felled tree. When he comes to, he and Kausalya
both begin running after the chariot. Dasharatha shouts at Sumantra
asking him to slow down the chariot, to stop it.
Again the one man still in control of himself is Rama. He turns around
and looks back. He sees his mother and father and the masses of people
running after him, and he knows the sooner this scene ends, the better
it will be for all. While thousands of voices from behind ask Sumantra
to slow down the chariot, Rama asks the minister to drive faster and
faster. He tells Sumantra moving slow will not only increase everyone’s
sorrow, but might even have disastrous consequences.
Amazingly, even in his great sorrow, he thinks about Sumantra! What
reason will the minister give the king when he comes back for not
obeying his order to slow down, to stop. Rama tells him, “If the king
questions you when you come back, tell him you did not hear him.”
That is how Rama leaves Ayodhya. He would maintain tight control over
himself for the rest of the day and two more days and nights. And then,
when he is for the first time alone after he takes his orders from
Kaikeyi, with just Sita and Lakshana with him, he would let himself go.
So devastating is his grief now, held under check for three days and two
nights, that when it comes out it is shocking not only in its power, but
also in its nature. He now accuses his father of being a slave to
Kaikeyi, who would do the meanest thing to please her. He accuses
Kaikeyi of being an evil woman who can do anything for power, including
poisoning Dasharatha to get rid of him to make her son Bharata’s path
easier for him. He speaks of the possibility of Kaikeyi poisoning both
Kausalya and Lakshmana’s mother Sumitra. He feels that Bharata would now
enjoy all the pleasures all alone. He then wails aloud piteously in the
solitude of the jungle, tears streaming down from his eyes. It is only
after this that he eventually becomes calm like a fire without flames,
like an ocean without waves.
Self-mastery does not mean being untouched by emotions.
A World War II movie shows us a shocking scene. Inside a moving train
are several passengers, including an ex-soldier. Next to him is seated a
young mother, with her baby in her lap. As the train makes its lonely
journey through a dull, monotonous afternoon, the passengers fall
asleep, including the mother. The baby slips down from her lap and
slowly crawls dangerously towards the open door of the compartment. The
ex-soldier, awake, watches it without a muscle on his face moving.
Watching the scene on the screen, the entire audience holds its breath.
But the soldier feels nothing and he does nothing to stop the baby or
wake up the mother.
This is no self-mastery by any standards. This is being dead. The
ex-soldier hasn’t risen to any spiritual height. What has happened is
that he has become sub-human. What was human in him has died. What Rama
shows through those three agonizing days is self-mastery of the highest
kind. And it does cast a spell – not only on the people of his time, but
also over us, across a distance of a few millennia.
February 8, 2009
Illustration by Ashok Dongre
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