Valmiki  Ramayana

RECONSIDERED

 DR.RAMESH CHANDRA MUKHOPADHYAYA

Valmiki Ramayana Reconsidered judges the ancient Indian classic from the emergent stand points of psychological criticism, structuralism, aesthetics and so on and opens up fresh and new meanings of the Valmiki Ramayana.It is a pathfinder in this realm of studies in Indian classics.

Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya (b.1947), the author of this book is the great grandson of Mahamahopadhyaya Haraprasad Shastri. He is the grandson of Dr. Benoytosh Bhattacharyya, a pioneer in Buddhist iconography. Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya, a triple M.A. was an Associate Professor of English, B.B. College Asansol. He did his M.Phil. in Comparative Literature and Ph.D. in Pali Literature. He has more than one hundred books and numerous articles to his credit. And he is one of the soldiers of the avant guard underground literature movement in Bengali literature.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

Introduction

Chapters:

      I.        Psychology & Literature

    II.       The Story of Valmiki-Creative Process

   III.       Birth of ego- Rama is born: Balakanda

  IV.        Ego meets Beneficial Superego-adolescence of Rama: Balakanda

   V.         Ego in youth—Rama in youth:Ayordhyakanda

  VI.       Id wounds the ego- Rama in youth: Aranyakanda

 VII.      Ego in search of the Id that has stolen its stay-Rama in youth: Kiskindhyakanda

VIII.     Ego in quest of the Id- Rama in youth: Sundarakanda

  IX.       Ego fights Id-Rama in youth: Yuddhakanda

   X.        Ego faces death foursquare-Rama in manhood:Uttarakanda

  XI.      The story of Valmiki

 XII.     The world view of the Ramayana

PREFACE

Any Work of art and literature is no doubt deeply rooted into the time, when it is written. It gives a tongue to the hopes and fears of the age when it is written. Every age has its own hopes and fears. The next age finds it hollow and sets new goals for itself. So the standpoint from which we judge a work of art shifts from age to age. When a piece of literature satisfies the emergent aesthetic criteria of every age, it is deemed as a classic. In the twenty first century fresh grounds in the field of criticism have been opened up. The purpose of this present book is to judge the Valmiki Ramayana from such emergent aesthetic standpoints the psychological criticism, structuralism, readers’ aesthetics etc. We fondly hope that ancient Indian classics will be read from fresh literary standpoints in the likely fashion and their merits will be assessed once again in the light of postmodern context. Here is a tentative attempt in that direction.

Hari Om

Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

Introduction

The great popularity of the Rama story among Indians is beyond all description. It is manifest in numerous festivals. During Dussehra the people of North India celebrate the victory of Rama, the prince of Ayodhya over Ravana, the wicked king of Lanka. Ravana had stolen Sita, the wife of Rama. There are fire-works, shouts of joy and processions. Large crowds gather to witness the open air of performances that enact the adventures of Rama. All over India people celebrate the victory of Rama over Ravana. Rama was a great warrior. But he was more than that. They look upon him as a perfect man. The love between Rama and Sita is the prototype of love and marriage relationship. The Rama story portrays as leading motifs such emotions as friendship, brotherly love, and above all the love of father for his son. The Hindu culture enjoins upon everyone to try to relive the myth in his or her own life. Every Hindu bride is called Sita and as a part of marriage ceremony she acts out certain episodes of the myth. Hindu girls pray that they should get a husband like Rama and they should themselves be as chaste as Sita. If a Bengali child feels scared of ghosts and spirits ,he at once cries out that Rama and Lakshmana are seated in his heart and so he has got nothing to be afraid of .When they carry dead-body to the funeral pyre, they chant :’Ramanam Sat hai’ i.e. the name of Rama is deathless. If we go through the rituals as delineated by Valmiki and compare them with the rites and rituals among the Hindus to-day we release how identical they are even though a great passage of time intervenes between the composition of the Valmiki Ramayana and the present. The signs in such rituals and festivities have, therefore, their origin in the ancient Indian literature, Valmiki Ramayana being one of them. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru recollects how an unlettered Indian would know the hundreds of verses of the Rama story retold in their mother tongue, they would refer to them off-hand, giving a literary turn to a simple talk about present day affairs. Pandit Nehru observes:

The old epics of India the Ramayana and Mahabharata and the other books in popular translations and paraphrases, were  widely known among the masses and every story and the moral in them was engraved in the popular mind and gave a richness and content to it.

Thus the Ramayana is the common fund of wisdom of the people of India.

 If conversations with an Indian,t he popular festivals and family rituals among them are the index of popularity of Rama story today , the vast Rama literature that flourished all over India in Sanskrit, Prakrit and the many vernaculars in the country are sufficient testimony of its never waning popularity in the country since time immemorial. The Valmiki Ramayana is their fountain head.

Those who have been retelling the story of Valmiki Ramayana in prose and verse and drama, are poets of no mean calibre. Bhasa, Kalidasa, Bhavabhuti ,Bhatti, to name a few from Sanskrit literature, SurdasaTulsidas in Hindi ,Kamban in Tamil, Krittivasa in Bengali. . . to name a few from the vast array of poets in the modern Indian languages are all very great. But that has not impaired the freshness and popularity of the Valmiki Ramayana in the least. Valmiki has been all hailed as Adikavi or first of the poets and his work has still the freshness and glory of the morning sun drawing to itself new generations of poets for inspiration. This shows that the truly beautiful never wanes, even when other works of art derive their material from it. It reiterates the peace  recitation of the Isha –Upanishada : “OM. Complete in itself is that yonder& complete in itself is that which is here & the complete ariseth from the complete, but when thou takest the complete from its fullness, that which remaineth is also complete. OM. Peace ! Peace! Peace! “

Thus the one Valmiki Ramayana giving rise to many Ramayanas has created among the Indians what Durkheim calls organic social solidarity. Each of the Ramayanas based on Valmiki has its own way of narration resulting in creative treason. Thus the collective conscience as represented by the Valmiki Ramayana leaves open a part of individual conscience in order that special functions may be established there, functions which it cannot regulate. The vernacular Ramayana cater to the masses, the Valmiki Ramayana being in Sanskrit is not accessible to everyone.

Thus the landscape of Indian mind is being watered by the numerous rivers and riveriness emerging from the Ganga of Valmiki Ramayana. The world of Rama has naturally a corresponding structure in the mind of every Indian.

In a fit of introspection Nehru finds that the story of Ramayana along with other such stories of ancient India have sunk so deep in his mind that despite his exposure to myriads of pictures from world literature ,always there is the background of Indian mythology which he had imbibed in his earliest years.

It is apt to question here how far back in time the Valmiki Ramayana was composed and sung for the first time .Tradition claims that it was written in the Treta Yuga (Circa 867,102B.C.)The modern historians on the other hand take a very short-term view of history. They are not unanimous on the date of composition of the Valmiki Ramayana. Most of the scholars believe that the Ramayana was composed during or before 2^nd Century B.C. In short, there is no date to go by in order to determine even approximately the time when the Ramayana was composed . The distance of time to which the Ramayana belongs as per tradition is so huge  that it is beyond man’s knowledge. There is a limit beyond which time passes into timelessness. For an Indian in any case the date of Ramayana is not so important. The narrative is all that he is concerned with, he takes all the seven books of the Ramayana as a unique whole. The scholars on the contrary opine that Book-I and Book-VII are interpolations into the Valmiki Ramayana since they harmonise but ill with the rest of the poem. We shall, however, take the Valmiki Ramayana in its present form consisting of seven books for our perusal.

We propose to study the Ramayana from psychological standpoint. Reading the Ramayana is like listening to the voices from timeless past. At the same time it is like hearing one’s own inner voice and the voice of the racial mind since the Ramayana serves as one of those sub-structures, on which the conceptual  knowledge of the world we Indians live in and the system of beliefs we Indian have, rest. The super-ego in the father might be threatening to a child. But when the child becomes the father, he puts on the very wrinkles of his father’s forehead. His super-ego is not like that of his fathers. It is identical with his fathers. The child turned father behaves in the self-same way to his youngs as his father did. That is how most ancient sets of beliefs are being transferred through the generations, let changes do what it can. To illustrate it from the Valmiki Ramayana itself the Ramayana   tells us that there was a king named Sagara. His sixty- thousand children were lost .As long as the King lived he mediated on how to rid his children of sin ; their souls must be liberated. The same pursuit was followed by the son of Sagara, Angshuman. When Angshuman died his son King Dilip was also plunged in meditating how he could bring salvation to his forefathers. Finally it was Bhagiratha who accomplished the task by bringing down the Ganga from the heaven (1. 38-44).One does not know how long it will take for the Indians to accomplish the quest started by Ramchndra to bring about millennium upon earth. Be it what it may since the Rama story is deeply engraved in the mind, an Indian author is in a typical predicament when he seems to study the Ramayana. The observer himself becomes a part of the object of observation. It is of course not merely unique with studies of literature, that the study is biased by the reader’s standpoint. It is characteristic with the observations of science as well; in order to know the velocity and momentum of a particle such as an electron the scientists illuminates it with radiation .The illumination disturbs the path of the electron. As the scientist decreases the uncertainty of its position, the uncertainty of the momentum increases. Thus the scientists also become a part of his observation.

Note

1. The quotation from Jawaharlal Nehru refers to p.63 of the Discovery of India, of the Signet Press, Calcutta.

2. The quotation from the Upanishad refers to Shri Aurabindo’s Peace Recitation in The Upanishads page 439.

                          

Chapter-I

PSYCHOLOGY & LITERATURE

When a work of art, be it literature or painting is accomplished, it belongs to the objective world. Valmiki Ramayana is thus no longer Valmiki’s own, it belongs to the objective world. It could be compared with the Sun, the Moon, or anything like that which gives sweetness &light. But are they really, what they seem to be? Is the surface meaning of a piece of literature all that what it is? Where is the text? We could seek to answer the question from philosophical perspective and we could invoke the many theories of reality put forward by all the philosophers since Kapila& Thales to modern times. Let us, consider Plato in this context.

With Plato the world of sights & sound are but distorted copies of Ideas that constitute the substance. Plato situates those archetypal Ideas in heaven, beyond space & time. Thus the Valmiki Ramayana is a poor reflection of the Idea of perfection which exists beyond time and space. The Lord Visnu in heaven, might be read as Plato’s Idea of which Rama is a replica. Valmiki or the poet then functions like Plato’s God in Timacus who impresses the Idea on the plastic material of words. The scholastic philosophers after Plato pointed out that though a universal called beauty might be there, but what we perceive is a particular beautiful thing. They gradually lost the sight of the universal.

With the advent of Kant the tendency began to situate the archetypes in the mind of man. Kant posits that the thing –in- itself is unknown and unknowable. This is a world which we half create and half perceive. Because we add to the external world, a priori forms of intuition in time & space. Taking cue from Kant we could posit that the true Ramayana could never be known. Because the reader reads the text in the light of his own set of belief. The text makes him read. The reader however reads his own mind in the text. Of course, the reading is controlled by the text.

Freud narrows his observation to mind itself. Like Kant he points out that mind is not what it seems to be. There is a mind below the mind of which we know very little. It is unknown and unknowable. Freud calls it Unconscious. Curiously enough while Kant posits that time & space are a priori forms of intuition added to the external world by mind, Freud argues that the Unconscious mind has no time sense. Precisely the noumenon of the external world is internalised by Freud. Freud imagines a preconscious mind intervening between the conscious mind we are aware of and the unconscious mind of which we know nothing. Preconscious mind betrays itself in dream. While super-ego functions in the Conscious mind, Id functions in the Unconscious mind. It has no value-judgment. It tries to raise its head to overwhelm conscious mind. But Super-ego stands in its way. Super-ego is the value-judgment that we inherit from the society. The conscious mind therefore knows the consequences of following pleasure principle. Since it does not fit in with the society always, Ego that covers the Preconscious has contact with both Unconscious & Conscious. Freud seeks to show it with a diagram even though he admits that mind cannot be described in spatial terms.

Ego satisfies the repressed Id through substitutes. Dream is a substitute for the object of desire that the Id cannot attain, due to repressions by the super- ego. Similarly literature could serve as a substitute for the unfulfilled desire of a person. Literature could be an imaginary world created by Ego, under the impact of Id and Super-ego, to get unconscious wishes fulfilled. Thus Freud admits that man can create his own universe out of imagination. But can the Unconscious express itself uninhibited? Freud says no to it. There is of course a displacement in dream. There is displacement in literature also. Dream is not intentional. But one can write a poem intentionally. Unconscious Mind often betrays itself through what we speak or write, in the garb of our intended speech. It is like the serpent in the grass. The Conscious Mind is not aware of it. Thus literature is not what it seems to be. And could we not interpret literature just as Freud interprets dreams where the surface is symbolic of deeper imports?

Theory of language also holds out that the surface of literature is not everything of literature. Literature is a kind of language. Literature is language. We might look upon a gold as a gold or as gold, as we choose. Language is a shared system of signs. The signs on their own have no meaning as such. But when they become part of a shared system and are used as a code viz. a means of communication by an encoder to be decoded, it is language. Language is a kind of language. Thus it is meant for communication. But can the encoder communicate what he wants to communicate through the language that he inherits from the society? We cannot have a literal translation of our thought into language or any other thing external to us. We cannot make a globe without its being of some particular material and colour. In fact it is a drawback of our physically realised model that it must include features that are irrelevant to the situation they are intended for. Thus literature is but a distorted replica of the archetype that harbours in the poets. And this is Plato refashioned. Besides, language is external to man, he inherits it from the society, When he tries to express his thoughts with that, it is like the child at play pretending that sea shells are tea-cups and sticks are guns. Moreover, natural language cannot describe what a map does. So thought is sometimes handicapped by the inherent limitation of natural language as a medium.

Of course, we can forge statements with language that is verifiable. What I.A. Richards calls referential discourse consists of such statements. These signs are very close to the object or concept they refer to. There is no scope of ambiguity in the meaning in a referential discourse. But language fails to catch the mystic’s insights. A mystic is by definition, one whose experiences are not comparable with anyone else’s experience. So how can there be a shared language to express a mystic’s perceptions? A mystic has to express himself in terms of symbols, metaphor and poetry. I.A. Richards describes the language of poetry as emotive language consisting of pseudo-statements, as distinguished from referential language. Pseudo-statements do not have truth-value. They are ambiguous. Thus the surface meaning of poetry is not all that poetry seems to be.

When we look upon literature as a language which is a means of communication, we seek to know the intention of the encoder. Thus it is through literature we seek to know the intention of the poet. In this context Freud’s theories of psychoanalysis are very relevant. Because he tries to unlock the inner recesses of the mind. It should be however noted that a poet’s mind independent of the work cannot be known. He has no existence outside the work.  Yet we have to postulate a poet. That is human psychology. That is reader’s aesthetics. Unless it is a person speaking to a man, man does not try to understand it. We never respond to thunder the way we respond to a man speaking. But the primitive man responds to a thunder. Because he knows that God speaks through it. When there is a volcanic eruption in an inhabited island our response is of one kind. But when there is the eruption in an island where there is no living soul our response is different. Freud is very much relevant when we probe into the reader’s response to a communication through literature. Because the reader peruses it with all the complications of his mind anxiety lorn and desire torn.

According to Freud every human activity is at bottom, manifestation of sex desire or libido. Sex desire is the primal desire with which a child is born. Alfred Adler differs from Freud emphatically on the issue. With him will to power not sex is the primal urge of man since childhood. C. G. Jung in his use of the word libido unites both Freud’s sexual urge & Adler’s will to power. He uses the notion of the unconscious with greater emphasis & frequency than Freud.

 For Jung the unconscious has deeper layers. There at an indeterminate point our minds are linked with one another. Thus there is the racial mind or collective unconscious. The racial mind has inherited possibilities of structures and forms through the experience of the race. Great poets and artists speak in terms of such archetypes. Their creation becomes universal.

Thus psychoanalysis provides us with clues for unearthing deeper and deeper layers of meaning hidden in a text. It is through the deeper layers of a text where individual mind is linked with the universal mind, one could dare to have a glimpse of the archetypal ideas that Plato had found in heaven.

At this point we had better probe into what notion of mind they had when the Valmiki Ramayana was composed. The six philosophical systems that avow their fidelity to the Vedas were perhaps developed at a later age. But the major Upanisads, as the scholars opine must have been written earlier than the Ramayana. Naturally one might surmise that the psychology as held out by the Upanisads served as the frame of reference for the poet of the Ramayana.

The Upanisads are not primarily treatises on psychology. They are not even treatises on philosophy. They are poetry of high water-mark often laden with myths &charged with an urgency to know &become. Any such reflection on knowledge &ideal human existence entails in it a reflection on the mind that knows &that becomes. Naturally psychological thinking is at bottom of the Upanisadic ecstasy. When we seek to derive a system of psychological thought in the Upanisads we are doing just what the philosophers of psychoanalysis have done. When they gave a reception to Freud on his 72^nd birthday, Freud told them that the basic tenets of psychoanalysis were already there in the realm of literature. What he did was to retrieve them and to arrange them into a system. Besides one of the major tools of psychoanalysis is introspection. The Upanisads are often truths revealed through introspection. The Upanisads are not merely a possible source of psychological system. They might serve as the frame for a psychological system. The myths and metaphors that crowd in The Upanisads are characteristic features of the writings of both Freud &Jung. When Freud unravels the mystery of the unconscious which is unknowable, he has but to avail himself of myths. The use of myths of the Upanisads could be deemed in the same light.

The creation story of Taittiriya Upanisad is quite in conformity with the commonsense notion of life & world. It states that from atman the sky was created, the air sprang from the sky.Fire leaped forth from air. Water emerged from fire. The earth sprang from the water. Then the herbs came into being. The herbs supplied food. Food sustains the body of human organism. The living self inhabits the body. The mind harbours inside it--the knowing self. Even below that there is the blissful self. Might be there might be a still deeper something inside blissful self. Because the reality baffles all words & mortal understanding. Here if we explicate the atman as the causa sui, which is the state of things before creation, then the rest is parallel to the findings of western psychoanalysis. Only thing is that the Upanisads go further than the reaches of Freud.

Just as Freud speaks of conscious mind, preconscious mind and unconscious mind, so does the Upanisads. The mind that the Taittiriya speaks of might be what Freud calls conscious mind. The plane of the knowing self is somewhat parallel to Freud’s preconscious. The blissful self could be the Upanisadic counterpart of the unconscious mind.

The Brihadaranyaka speaks of dreams much in the same fashion with Freud. Just as the giant fish roams along both the coasts of a river so does the soul wander in the two worlds of dream & waking. Just as Freud first describes the unconscious & then speaks of the preconscious as intervening between the conscious & unconscious, so does Brihadaranyaka say that the place of dream is but intermediate place between the world & the world hereafter. Freud’s unconscious mind has thus a parallel in the Upanisadic world hereafter in the mind. Might be it is Freud’s death-wish or Thanatos that has been described by the Upanisadas the life hereafter. But death has no pangs for the Upanisads. Just as Freud deems the ego, as the go-between  between the conscious & the unconscious giving rise to dreams, so does the Upanisad place dream at the middle of a three-tier structure of the mind. The dream is surely occasioned by man’s failure to attain the objects of his desire in waking life. Sometimes the fears in his waking take shape in the dream world. He feels as if someone is killing him or as if he has fallen in a ditch; or else an elephant seems to pierce him. Sometimes again one attains one’s wish fulfilment. Hence he finds himself to be a king or a god in dream. The self revels in creative activity while engrossed in dream. Where there is no pond even, it creates lakes and rivers, where there is no fun or enjoyment, man attains them through dreams. They are simply cases of wish fulfilment and they surely presuppose an unconscious mind where repressed desires snarl & there must be preconscious mind that tries to assuage those desires through substitutes in dreams. Thus dreams are but the expressions of a pathological mind. Freud no doubt agrees with the Upanisads upto this point.

But the Upanisads go further & claim that there is a third stage in a deep sleep. It is not haunted. Just as a bird composes its wings & drops in its nest, so does the self rush to the plane of deep sleep. At that moment he has no desire & no dream. At this moment the self becomes all in all. The self no longer exists since there is no non-self, no duality. It is the state of highest bliss, this bliss could be compared with that of the lovers who forgot each other in ecstatic embrace. Thus the unconscious of the Upanisads seems to have more things than Freud can imagine. While Freud depicts the mind in three planes, each interacting with the other, the Brihadaranyaka claims that the self moves to and fro from waking state to the state of dream &thereafter to the state of deep sleep; after this the reverse journey of the self takes place. That is, the Upanisad posits that there is an observer of a traveller across the three regions of the mind. The function of dream is not merely to cater wish fulfilment. The Upanisads claim that it has another function. It is through recreations of dream that the self observes both the good &evil of the mundane world. This function of the self as an observer is not underlined in Freud. Thus if dream and literature were compared, according to Freud literature like dream gives vent to the repressed desires of the writer. But, we often pour our mind into literature, to detect the good & evil in us. That is what the Upanisads advocate. Thus the unconscious is not the witches ‘cauldron with the Upanisads. It gives a glimpse of absolute bliss to the self. Freud’s method has been one of introspection. The statements of the Upanisads are the out pouring of the risis who are plunged deep down into the self. The deepest layer of the self identifies the self with the whole existence, or the non-self. This has much in common with Dr.Jung’s vision who goes further than Freud. The collective self in Jung has its counterpart in the collective mind as hinted at in Purusa.

Although the Upanisads are one with Jung & observes that the self is identified with the universal self, the ancient Indian psychology is equally one with Freud in so far as it admits that all activities of a common man is actuated by desire which is at bottom sex desire. It is desire indeed which determines the sex of one, whether the self should be a man or woman. Just as Freud’s psychoanalysis has an urge for curing human ailments, so the Upanisads are actuated with the desire to help man to get rid of his groans and mortal limitations. Just as awareness of repressed desires is the panacea for the neurotic mind with Freud, the Upanisads also prescribe the knowing of the self. The Upanisad, unlike Freud wants us to know that the true self in us is all bliss. And once we know it, we are free from the trammels of the existence. To that end the Upanisads ask us to practise brahmacharya and meditation. The need for brahmacharya surely speaks of the thrust of sex desire in man which stands in his way to happiness. Thus Freud is defended by the Upanisads. The Upanisads however probe deeper than the depths of mind that Freud could guess. In Kenopanisad it is said in mythological terms that true knowledge who is Haimavati descends at will, to mind or Indra- the lord of the senses. And the object of knowledge is the indescribable Brahman or the vast or the Infinite. In order to attain true knowledge one must know both the good and the evil. Those who know the evil only are foredoomed to pass into the world of darkness. Those who only try to know the good being ignorant of the evil are perhaps meant for confinement in deeper darkness. Thus the Upanisads abreast with psychoanalysis put forward insights into mind that could be used with advantage in unravelling the deeper import of a work of art.

Consequently, with the aid of psychology we shall untie the text-the Valmiki Ramayana drawing attention to the constituent factors of the speech event.

Addressor----------------------------------------------------------------------------Addressee

Valmiki                                                                                                 Reader

                                                   Code

                                               The Ramayana

When we take into account the all three components of the speech event in addressor, code &addressee, we can try to understand it. The speech in the case of narrative poetry foregrounds pattern and backgrounds its referential & discursive meaning. Thus here message is important for its own sake. In Valmiki Ramayana the message is in the narrative form.

So we must first of all explore the structure lying below the surface of the narrative just as grammatical rules lie below the surface of a sentence of any language. In order to explore any deeper meaning of the message, the surface meaning has to be always taken into account. The deeper import cannot exist without the existence of the surface. The action and the agents of action that are grounded into the structure have to be observed. We must see into the motive and intention of the agents of action or characters. The motive & intention of the author has to be unravelled as well. So what makes the author speak or what is the inner spring of creativity is another point at issue. What repressed desires of the author express themselves is to be known. But we are not concerned with the personal desires of the author as such. We want to understand that part of the poet’s mind which is in consonance with the universal mind. The Ramayana is being enjoyed by the Indians through the ages. This is enough proof to show that the Ramayana  is but an expression of the racial mind through Valmiki . In that case we shall be in search of what Jung calls archetypes. Archetypes are primordial structures stored in the racial mind. When we compare a number of classics and find their structures identical we can surmise that they are archetypal. Since we cannot determine the exact time when the Ramayana was composed, and since we do not know any extra-text historical & social context in which it was composed, the context must be argued from the text itself, it is co-text indeed that we shall be in search of Besides the message in case of poetry, where poetry is merely an end in itself, the poet seems to have no extra-text existence. The text is the function of the poet. The poet is one who has produced the text. So any analysis of the poet’s mind would be but an analysis of the text. The text here is an artificial juridical person. Finally the readers’ response has to be taken into account. Even if the author does not think of a reader, he is himself a reader of his own work. Besides, we can take into account some instances from the later poets of the Ramayana where they deviate from Valmiki. That way we could get a glimpse of the readers’ response.

We must however keep in our minds the limitations of the psychological paradigm. Poetry is a social act by a lonely man. A poem is a social act. It has its import on the physical plane. The social is in turn the expression of a dream or a psychic act which is not a social act. Social act & psychic act perhaps take place simultaneously and it is singularly difficult to infer the psychic from the social act. The manifest dream is the epiphenomenon of latent dream thoughts. The latent dream thoughts might spring from multitudinous motives, ungratified desires, samskaras, social mind etc. It might derive itself from any of the aforesaid sources or all of them. So a work of art might have meaning on different levels even from psychological point of view. It is impossible to discover the meaning or even a meaning for the text. A text is capable of multiple meaning. In our effort to explore the meaning of the Ramayana what we are doing is to find out a method to live in the many psychological meanings of the text. In a close reading of the text we take the text and not the context; but a close reading of the text in the psychological context will reach us into real life. We read the tissues of the mind in the text. The psychological study of a text is not new in Indian tradition. Sankaracharya in his ‘Atmabodha’ reads the soul’s journey in the Ramayana across the forest of delusion to overwhelm passion &hatred as symbolised by the raksas. With Sankara Rama stands for the soul; with the Vaisnavas on the other hand Laksmana is the soul, and Rama is God. Laksmana seeks God’s grace as means for the attainment of God which is his goal.

Now what should be the unit for our study of the Ramayana? Could we not break up the main story in terms of events in consonance with the a priori structure of our mind. The mind has (i) desire in the unconscious ego and superego. Taking the cue from Jung & the Upanisads we say that the unconscious is not merely the seat of id; it has in it the desire for higher state of selfhoods (ii) the ego helps or hinders it. (iii)Fulfilment means the acknowledgement or refusal of the same by the superego. Thus the whole structure could be broken up into the following cycles.(We replace the word unit by cycle, since a cycle is a recurrent round of events)

Cycle –I

(a)Desire –Valmiki seeks to know a perfect man

Help –Narada and Brahma help him

Or

Hindrance

Fulfilment –Valmiki realises the perfect man in his poem the Ramayana

Or

Failure

Cycle –II

Desire – Dasaratha seeks a child

Help –Risyasringa helps him

Or

Hindrance

Fulfilment – Rama is born

Or

Failure

Cycle –III

Desire –In his adolescence Rama wants to manifest himself

Help –Viswamitra helps him

Or

Hindrance

Fulfilment-Rama wins the hand of Sita

Or

Failure

Cycle –IV

Desire –Dasaratha wants Rama to stay at Ayodhya and become the crown-prince

Help

Or

Hindrance –Kaikeyi stands in the way

Fulfilment

Or

Failure – Rama fails to become the crown-prince, he has to leave Ayodhya for twelve years.

 Cycle –V

Desire – Rama wants to live in peace in the woods for twelve years.

Help – Laksmana and Sita should be there along with him.

Hindrance

Fulfilment

Or

Failure –Sita is stolen by Ravana

Cycle –VI

Desire –Rama seeks Sita

Help –Hanumana helps him

Hindrance

Fulfilment –Rama regains Sita

Or

Failure

Cycle –VII

Desire –Rama seeks to rule his people

Help

Or

Hindrance –Kala and Durvasa stand in the way

Fulfilment

Or

Failure –Rama fails to live and rule for a longer period than he did. He dies.

This kind of structural division is not thorough perhaps. But when we take the whole narrative consisting of 24000 slokas, we miss the smaller units just as when we measure the heat of sun, the difference between such units as centigrade or farenheit do not exist.

We have taken into account the structure of the main run of the action in Ramayana, rid of all its digressions. The projection of mind’s structure a priori, to analyse the story does not seem to be arbitrary. Because when we look upon the text & analyse it into structure to find a few archetypal structures on which the whole gamut of narrative is based, do we not thereby seek to find the structures of our own mind only?

We have put forward the skeletal structure (rather tentatively) at the very outset of our study .We are setting up some broad hypothesis as to what happens in the story as a whole. It specifies the top level constituent of the story. It is a Bird’s eye view. In the chapter following, we shall analyse out the bits from a close distance.

Chapter – II

Cycle I – THE STORY OF VALMIKI-CREATIVE PROCESS

(1. 1-4)

Cycle I dwells on the creative process that forges the Ramayana. It is a story about the story of Ramayana.

The scene is ancient is ancient India; there busy metropolises are surrounded by wilderness. But the forests are not always, infested with wild beasts there. They are dotted with numerous ashramas where the risis devote themselves in meditation.

It is in this background that Valmiki meets Narada and learns about Rama. He discovers the sloka, the means to describe Rama’s story. Finally, he meets Brahma. With his blessings he composes the Ramayana. He teaches them to Lava & Kusa. The latter sing it at the horse-sacrifice observed by Rama.

Valmiki meets Narada

The forest symbolises the inner mind. Plunged inward Valmiki goes to Narada and asks him whether an ideal man at all exists or not. What makes him ask such a question? Is the society during Valmiki’s time out of joints, with no role model to follow? Every work of art is a thesis on what a work of art should be. And here the legitimation is clear: the proper study of mankind is man.

Narada says, yes such a man exists, He is Rama of Ayodhya. Narada narrates before Valmiki some major events in Rama’s life. Because a man is known by his actions. A man becomes by his choice of actions &sets value judgments thereby. And this leads Valmiki to think over Rama. Narada is one who gives water or nara symbolising life; he charges Valmiki with the faith in the reality of an ideal man. Our ideals sometimes are real indeed. Narada is the son of Brahma, the creator of the universe. He is also the greatest devotee of Visnu. Narada thus, in a sense, is the predecessor of Valmiki and influences Valmiki.

Narada here could be likened to the intimations from that part of the unconscious which is in communion with the collective unconscious. Valmiki’s urge for knowledge was there at the outset; the message from the unconscious has come up in response. Narada could be likened to Dante’s Virgil.

                                               

Valmiki discovers sloka

The second run or episode as narrated in sarga 2 is significant. There are following small events (e)

                e₁               -A pair of birds are mating

                e₂                -A hunter kills one of them

                e₃                -The other cries in agony

                e₄                - A saint finds it and feels pity for the wailing bird and rages against the hunter

                e₅                 -He discovers the sloka for himself.

This is singularly important episode. It probes into

1. the secrets of creativity and
2.  into the theory of poetry
3. It also strikes the keynote of the poem.

There is Karuna for the surviving bird; there is the sorrow for the dead bird, there is anger for the hunter. These are earthly things of the earth. They have been transformed into sloka charged with rasa an alaukika phenomenon. Valmiki is himself taken by surprise at it. He cries ‘’What is it that is uttered by me? (1. 12.16). The passive voice should be taken into account. There has been a mutation of being in Valmiki in response to a cruel incident of life. Thus a poet not only creates a work of art; he cannot but create it; he is made to create. Recalling Carlyle we might say, he sees into the life of things, he is made to see it.

When Valmiki discovers that he has hit upon sloka, the language of poetry as opposed to referential language, he is not engrossed with it. He observes it and enjoys it from a distance.

A poet needs have a detachment to observe and enjoy what he creates and poetry is a release of the deeply felt pent up feelings into the elusive and impersonal world of art. The poet escapes into the alaukika world of art through his verses.

And surely there has been a tension between the conflicting emotions sorrow, karuna, and anger. That acted behind the story of creation of sloka.

But the story has a different level on the psychological plane. The word Krauncha means movement. Narada’s story of Rama made Valmiki’s brain active, the activity is symbolised by the male bird krauncha. The female bird is a passive observer that enjoys the developments in the brain at the instance of Narada’s story of Rama. The word nisada is derived from nisayam atti viz that which enjoys in nisa. Nisa or darkness is the symbol of world immersed in ‘tamas’ where all conscious value-judgments are lulled to sleep and Nisada is that which feeds upon the fleshly and the sensuous. It is the id. Valmiki curses id so that it does not have sway over him lest the growth of his mind at the suggestion of Narada is shattered. Thus Valmiki achives purification of his self. The personality of the poet through which reality is seen, the consciousness of the poet on which reality is reflected must be rid of all their crudities and deformities. Brahma visits only a clean mind. Literature is surely not an uninhibited overflow of the debris shut up in the poet’s unconscious mind.

Symbolically the krauncha story has many levels. They might be enumerated as follows.

Krauncha                            

(i)                 The brain’s activity at the instance of Rama’s story

(ii)                Sita entering Patala or stolen by Ravana

(iii)               Rama

(iv)               any being that dies

Kraunchi                            

(i)                       The enjoyment of the knowledge of Rama’s life

(ii)                  All those who wail at the death or abdication of Sita or at the death of          Rama or at any other death

Krauncha mithuna          

(i)                     Eros

(ii)                   Conjugal life

Nisada   

(i)                    Thanatos

(ii)                  Asceticism that decries conjugal life

(iii)                 Un-inhibited Id

(iv)                 Ravana who steals Sita

(v)                  Rama who abandons Sita

(vi)                 Rama or Death that kills Rama.

The poet                             

(i)                   Who denounces his lower self

(ii)                 Who curses Ravana

(iii)                Who does not approve of Rama’s abandoning Sita and gives refuge

(iv)                Who curses Time     

(v)                 Rama himself who kills Ravana.

               

This episode gives us the foretaste of how Valmiki will forge the Ramayana:

(i)            Valmiki was overwhelmed with the event of the bird’s death and numbers lisped; so he must mediate on Rama and see it through his inward eye as vitally as he saw the bird’s death with his mortal eyes.

(ii)           Just as personal soka of the world has been transformed into sloka, similarly Valmiki’s emotions for an ideal man who carves out an ideal society have been transformed into Ramayana.

(iii)         The story of the Krauncha is in pity. Do not the stories of the birds and Rama suggest that Time plays and all human efforts are in vain? But who dares decry the beauty of life as symbolised by the mating of the birds?Who denies the beauty of Rama’s life despite its sad ends? Love for life and pity for transitoriness constitute the theme of the Ramayana.               

                                                               

Valmiki meets Brahma

Presently after the ablution of Valmiki and his discovery of the language of communication, Brahma reveals himself to Valmiki. The indicators describing Brahma are:

(i)                  He is the creator of the worlds

(ii)                He is himself their master.(1.2.23)

He is Valmiki’s muse. At his blessings Valmiki can visualise every incident, mental or physical, published or unpublished about Rama and compose. Brahma is the collective mind revealed to Valmiki. Valmiki becomes a mere tool in its hand to put forward the truths that perish never, with the aid of his lately discovered skill in sloka. The largest literature on the nature of the creative process is found in the writings of those highly creative persons who fascinated by their extraordinary creative experiences have sought to describe them for others. The Valmiki Ramayana is an instance.

Any creative activity needs :

(i) Posing a problem or recognition of a problem. Here Valmiki’s problem has been to find out a perfect man.

 This is eagerness for knowledge. But, (ii) there must be the possibility of knowledge. Narada says that a perfect man is really there. Valmiki gains the information regarding him (iii) But getting information is not enough. Valmiki undergoes a period of concentrated attention to understand what Narada had said (iv) Commonly this period of concentration is followed by despair. There is blocking of one’s efforts to solve the problem. This happens with the nisada episode. (v)The poet by way of cursing the nisada purifies his own mind. The purification of the knower is necessary (vi) At the same time he attains the skill. He however is engrossed with the new-found skill in the conscious mind; he is forgetful of his perfect man. Often there is a period of renunciation of the problem in course of creative process. (vii)Then suddenly insight comes. It comes to Valmiki in the figure of Brahma. (viii)Then the creation takes place. Surely the story of Rama or Rama himself is Valmiki’s creation. (ix)Presently verification and evaluation of the product is necessary.

Narada as we have seen was the predecessor of Valmiki. But Valmiki reads his own aspirations in Narada. It is into the vision of utopia as revealed through the world-view of Narada’s speeches that Valmiki trammelled in the real world of ours, wants to escape. And Rama is what Valmiki wants to be in his own life. But influence implies anxiety of influence. And there are three versions of the poem. In sarga I Narada tells Valmiki about the major incidents in Rama’s career in the dialogue form. Rama as depicted by Narada is a successful king who has killed demons & who has been able to establish a paradise upon earth. Valmiki on the other hand tells us how Rama fails in the long run to keep things in order, in his domestic life as well as in the political life. The death of Ravana is an episode in the great man’s efforts to keep things in order. On one side Rama’s career as depicted by Valmiki shows that the path of becoming great is lorn with untold hurdles. Again Rama is a great man whose best efforts are not heeded to in the world. All these have been dwelt on in the sargas to come after the fourth sarga. In sarga III event dwelt on in the Ramayana have been recounted in the form of a list of contents. In the fourth sarga hence, the Ramayana as composed by Valmiki and sung by Lava & Kusa is recorded. The influence of Narada has not been enough. Valmiki must have a firsthand experience of Rama through the aid of Brahma. He must have the language to express himself. The language, and the shape of experience reproduce the idea sown by the predecessor in the poet’s mind in a fresh get up.

Valmiki teaches the song

Now, the poetic work being accomplished, its verification & evaluation is necessary. Valmiki to that end teaches Ramayana to Lava & Kusa (1.1-4). They sing it before the masses.The listeners are in the melting mood. But mere novelty or originality is not enough. Truly creative product in turn creates new conditions of human existence. Examples of creative products . . . are theory of Copernicus, Darwin’s theory of evolution & Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis. In the story itself, Rama rescues the society laden in the story from anomie. If the world of Ramayana were Valmiki’s mind, Rama there symbolic of ego, destroys the ogres symbolic of id &establishes equanimity. Besides as we have already observed, the Ramayana like the most creative products is novel & original in the experience of an entire civilization, or of all mankind.

Thus this story about the story of Ramayana serves as a frame-story for the Ramayana. Here its function might be compared to that of the prologue in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales or to the opening story of the Arabian Nights.

The story is an indicator also in relation to the Rama story. On another level Valmiki is the hero; he seeks an ideal man & finds it in Rama; the Rama story is but an indicator there. Thus if the story could be read in two ways, obviously there cannot be one centre to both. But if a circle were infinitely vast, any point inside it could be its centre. Every work of art is an infinite in itself. Just as two parallel straight lines meet at the infinite, so do the ideal & the real, the axes of the story meet each other at the site of horse sacrifice (7. 94). The poet has created his ideal man in Rama. But it is assumed that Rama is real. Then the assumed Rama has caused the image of Rama in poetry as the ideal man. Thus cause &effect, father & son replace one another.

 Notion of ideal man (Cause) -> Rama (Effect). Rama is taken for real. Rama (Cause) -> notion of ideal man (Effect).

The Social code

               

Society is out there. It is not as external to man as nature or things are. Even when it is society which creates man , of biological entity , man creates society in turn. The institutions of the society are the externalisation of man’s inner world. The institutions in turn are internalised in man through superego. The process continues through conversation. Conversations produce society and sustain it. Ramayana opens with a conversation between Narada and Valmiki. Then other conversations follow. They raise the society where Rama is born, grows and dies. It is indeed through the location of an individual in an objectively real society that his life-story becomes objectively real and meaningful. The first four sargas thus serve as a fitting prologue to the story of Rama.

The society immediately in front of us in the first four sargas is the society of saints. They are surrounded by their disciples. They go to one another and share with one another their ideas in course of a continuous social intercourse. They are men who live away from the society of worldly men. They practise piety. But they have not escaped into the woods. Their chief concern is man. On the contrary their ideal man is no saint but a monarch, under whose rule, no man lies, no man dies prematurely (1.6.68). Narada informs us that Rama is always devoted to the well-being of his subjects and Dasarath selected him for the office of crown-prince to please his subjects. Narada’s vision of Rama-rajya surely influenced Valmiki deeply. The impact is perceptible when Valmiki banishes every evil from the society. It follows that Ramayana will be the story about a man who tries to right the wrongs in human society.

One reads socially objectivated knowledge or legitimation in the curse of Valmiki. One must not kill one’s neighbour. One must not mar the beauties of conjugal life that serve as the corner-stone for family- the prime unit of society. Svetaketu’s curse in the Mahabharata is on parallel line. Curiously enough here legitimation has been pre-theoretical, as most socially objectivated knowledge is. It re-enacts the dawn of social order or nomos in the primitive state of man. The primitive man of the lonely poet discovers value- judgment and society for himself and for his disciples and others. It is here interesting to note that the two extremes of Ramayana society are typified by the ascetic and the king. The king stores money and the ascetic stores sexual energy holding seed up. (Tapas means heat; Tapasvi is one who has heat or who has stored heat). The relation between the two are symbolic in the ideal Hindu world. The king gives away the wealth to the ascetic. The ascetic generates energy and supplements the king with energy that is lost by the king through his eroticism. No wonder that an ascetic like Valmiki sings of Rama who is a king and who expends his energies in a restrained and planned way to procreate and to develop every social aspect. Saving and spending are a must to run human mind and the universe; they are two complimentary phases in the operation of mind and universe.

It follows from Narada’s definition that the inner-most being of an ideal king typifies an individual’s belonging to the collectivity- the clan, the tribe, the nation. Everybody will identify himself with the king’s fortunes, therefore. An individual who is built by the society itself always helps in moulding the society through his speeches and actions. A king typifies this aspect of an individual.

But this is not all. Valmiki being the ascetic is the Purusa whose natural inclination is to become engrossed with Maya. An ascetic is pure consciousness. Consciousness has a tendency to dwell on matter. No wonder, therefore, that an ascetic like Valmiki chooses his subject natter in the story of Rama. The ego of the Purusa is formed when he is in contact with matter. Then ego is born.

Chapter –III

Cycle II - BIRTH OF EGO –RAMA IS BORN : BALAKANDA

The story of Rama begins with sarga V. The sargas V &VI in Adikanda function as an informant and depict Ajodhya, a city par excellence. Its roads are wide, well laid out and regularly watered to keep down the dust. Here food is pure and water is sweet, every citizen is literate. The streets are splendid through the rows of shop on their either side. Merchants & farmers from far and wide throng there. It is indeed the archetype of paradise. It is a world that seems to fly in the air (1.5.6) since it is compared with a floating body,that has been earned by tapasya; its corporeal frame is denied. It is like a mental state that has transcended gnomic or tamasika limitations. One cannot mar the sublime repose of such a mind. One cannot fight with Ayodhya. That is what the name signifies. It stands on the river Sarayu. She springs from Lake Manasa which issued from the mind of Brahma (1.24.8.9). Thus Ayodhya psychologically implies mind itself.

Risyasringa

 The king of Angarajya is a friend of Dasaratha, Angarajya is laid waste by drought. The word anga means body. Master of mind though, Dasaratha is therefore physically weak & impotant. The word risi means to move & ‘sringa’ means mastery. Fresh life &rain comes upon Anga rajya with the advent of Risyasringa, the master of life-force; Dasaratha will have children (1.10.11).

Here Risyasringa episode which is but a catalyser, could be recounted. He was a young man over head &ears in penance under the guidance of his father Vibhandaka. He did not know any woman in his life. Women went to him & seduced him. Then they brought him to Angarajya. This shows that the seed which is kept and matured in the preconscious of mediative mind, must be brought to the worldly life for its efflorescence. This only suggests why Valmiki a saint is drawn to a king –Rama. It is in the figure of an ideal king only that the universal mind finds its best expression, Risyasringa is the symbol of an archetype from the universal mind to the realm of literature.

Asvamedha(1.16)

King Dasaratha, however, enacts Asvamedha &queen Kausalya spends one night with an ‘asva’(1.14.38). Asva is associated with Asvins, the two Vedic gods  who are symbolic of sun. The horse is thus very much related to sun-symbolism, and horse sacrifice is central to the Hindu notion of a king who is the sun among men. Rama is born of solar dynasty. Kausalya lying with the penis of the horse therefore suggests that she will be fertilized by solar energy. Her issue should be sun god incarnate.

Putresthi(1.16)

 After the asvamedha, the sacrificial fire is lit again. There is putresthi  yajna, master- minded by Rishyasringa. If Rishyasringa is taken for an individual, King Dasaratha, one might infer, had son by him. Or else Dasaratha was rejuvenated, or else we might look upon the birth of god – incarnates who are not born of a father, as archetypal. Jesus was born of Virgin Mary. It seems that Buddha’s father had no physical contact with his mother. And Rama’s birth is caused by yajna. It is in the sacrificial fire that a male person of extraordinary lustre appear & serves Dasaratha with a delicacy that should be disturbed among the queens. This might be looking upon things with child’s eye. Freud observes : ”The sexual interest of children begin by turning rather to the problem where babies come from. . . He begins by supposing that babies come from taking in something special in their food”. The purusa is no one else but Agni which is the symbol of sun on earth. He conveys the seeds on his own. Or else, he being the go between god and men, he carries the seed of some primal purusa to a woman on Earth. Agni conveyed the seed of the Lord Siva to Ganga and the birth of Skanda was occasioned thereby. Lord Visnu is born into four brethren in Rama, Bharata, Laksmana and Shatrughna. One cosmic mind expresses itself through differentiation on earth.

The birth of Rama has much in common with the birth story of Ramayana. Dasaratha seeking a son has his counterpart in Valmiki who asks for a perfect man. Narada charges Valmiki with an enthusiasm when he says that the perfect man of Valmiki’s imagination is really there on earth. Rishyasringa rejuvenates Dasaratha as Narada inspires Valmiki. Brahma who blesses Valmiki has his counterpart in the purusa appearing in fire. The birth of poetry has its counterpart in the birth of Rama. Thus the two sets could be mapped into each other. Freud observes: Franze Alexander in his essay on pairs of dreams shows which occur in the same night play separate parts in the fulfilment of the dream function so that taken together they provide a wishfulfilment in the steps, a thing which each along does not do. Thus if the story of poetry is the signifier the birth of Rama is the signified or vice versa. There is an ambivalence. In the language of poetry the signifier and the signified are sometimes not intimately connected.

We may note here that the thesis of Kenopanisad recurs in both the episodes. Unless the higher mind descends and leaps forth from the universal unconscious, there is no fulfilment of the lower mind’s urge to go higher up.

Both the episodes, speak of the infinitude. The ego is born out of the depths of the unconscious. We could define ego as the medium for perceptions. During its functioning the phenomenon of consciousness arises in the mind. If Valmiki is symbolised as the mind its confrontation with the kingdom of Anga & the barrenness of King Dasaratha & a hunger-ridden world gives rise to ego, a principle that might be read in the birth of the sloka as well as in the birth of Rama. The barren king & the drought –ridden kingdom might be read as conscious mind which has lost its creativity. The forest ridden with the hunter is the unconscious overwhelmed by id. But there are deeper depths than that, as Jung & the Upanisads testify. The longing of the conscious mind draws up from its unplumbed depths, the ego in Rama who will deliver the two worlds of the conscious and the unconscious from their pitiable state. Freud also observes that it is his Majesty the Ego who is hero alike of every day-dream &every story.

Note

1.       The quotation has been taken from The Sexual Life of Human Beings by Freud, translated by James Strachey in The Complete Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, ed. By Strachey, p.318.

Chapter –IV

Cycle III –EGO MEETS BENEFICIAL SUPEREGO

ADOLESCENCE OF RAMA

BALAKANDA

It is curious to note that Valmiki having narrated the story of Rama’s birth presently switches to events in Rama’s adolescence. He has omitted the story of his childhood. This gap has been filled up by later poets like Tulsidas. Tulsidas shows great ingenuinity in describing the childhood of Rama. He narrates how as soon as Rama was born he revealed his Visnu self with four arms. This is reader’s aesthetics. When the reader begins to worship his hero he imagines what kind of childhood the hero had if it is not delineated by the narrator. Be it what may Valmiki’s ego is now in adolescence. Adolescence is a period of rapid change when the ego has to get rid of narcissism. It goes out from being engrossed with itself to the realities of the worldly life; the realities of the world draw him out. Adolescence being caught in a cleft stick between the fast fading childhood and the advent of youth, is now passive, now seeking to prove itself. Actually this is fraught with danger. Having lost the security of childhood, the ego is as if lost in a forest. At this time the ego should face up to the violent tendencies of the mind as symbolised by encounters with dragons. At the same time the ego has needs to turn inward, though being active in the outer world. The adolescence is indeed a period when ego needs truly good guide.

Adolescence of Rama

Rama attains adolescence. Viswamitra appears on the scene. Rama is yet a child of fourteen. Viswamitra seeks his aid to kill a few ogres who had been disturbing the quiet life of the saints in the woods. Dasaratha is at first reluctant to send his son with Viswamitra. But at Vasistha’s advice Dasaratha has to comply with his pledge that he will do everything within his powers to serve the risis. Rama goes to the woods accompanied by the risi and Laksmana (1.18-22)

Viswamitra’s visit at the court of Dasaratha at the prime of Rama’s life is ironical. Adolescence is a period of storms and stress, when sex-desires are manifest and leap to the foreground of mind. It is at this stage, that a child becomes conscious of his individuality. He learns that he is different from others. He is drawn to opposite sex. He wants to act in real life. In the realm of mind he has to contend continuously with Id. In the physical world he is out to kill demons. Viswamitra will be his guru.

Viswamitra’s apparent aim is to use the prowess of Rama to the end of destroying a fierce female monster Tadaka. So he leads Rama across the forests. But he fulfils another purpose. At the wake of adulthood Rama’s expansive mind is keen on knowing the different places and countries and rivers that they come by. Viswamitra, by way of answering to Rama’s queries informs his mind as to the history and geography of the contemporary world and impresses on him the highest values of life.

Just as Valmiki felt that the song of Ramayana would inform one as to the essence of the Vedic knowledge(1.4.6) so does Viswamitra exhort Rama through telling stories. They are mythical in the main. Myths contain in them the experiences and knowledge of a race through the ages. They are synonymous with the memory of a nation. They are the forge on which the culture of a nation rests. It is through the telling of the myths that Viswamitra transfers the heritage of the past to Rama. The values and the institutions that are objective through the recognition of the society are made internalised into the tabula rasa of wider life of the adolescent mind of Rama with these mythical tales. Internalisation means reabsorption into the individual consciousness the very structures of the objectivated world called society so that they have corresponding structures in the individual consciousness itself.Rama is being socialized through conservation with Viswamitra. He is being prepared for his future roles, that the society will assign him in times to come. To that end, Viswamitra is the project method. Not only he gives exhortations to Rama but leads him through dangers where Rama has to act.

In the following pages we shall recounta few tales told by Viswamitra and a few facts acted by Rama under the guidance of Viswamitra.

Kandarpa story (1.23)

In course of their journey from Ayodhya, the three, Viswamitra, Rama and Laksamana reach the confluence of Ganga and Sarayu. Viswamitra tells them that here Kamadeva, God of Love, practised his penance. Once the exigency of the gods impelled him to create lust in the Lord Siva. That enraged the most high Lord Siva and at his sight Kandarpa was burnt into ashes. These ashes fertilized the soil of the place they visit. The myth has farflung imports in the context of the Ramayana. It suggests that the death  of God of Love is altruistic. Death for a greater cause adds a meaning to life. It further points out that the truly yogin who is in constant touch with the cosmic mind can put carnal desire to flames. Both the motifs leave an indelible stamp on the mind of Rama.

Rama kills Tadaka (1. 24-30)

Viswamitra accompanied by the two brothers Rama and Laksmana crosses the river Ganga (1. 24). The river is symbolic of the chasm between the two worlds of the known and the unknown, the conscious and the unconscious. He crosses the river only to reach the region of death. It is a deserted forest ravaged by Tadaka a she-ogre. The she-ogre may have been conceived by an adolescent mind through fear from castration. Or else the fierce ogre might symbolise the threatening aspect of the mother. Children distinguish the loving aspect of mother from her threatening aspect. Or else, it is the cruel step mother. Coming events cast shadow before. Is the encounter with Tadaka a preparation for facing the step-mother Kaikeyi in times to come? Viswamitra the all knowing preceptor is preparing Rama for such encounters in future in the real life. Or else, one wonders whether the desire-personified Tadaka is the sexual urge, the enemy of man in his way to self realisation. Rama kills her and thus re-enacts the story of Siva who burnt Cupid into ashes. Thus the stories that are learnt are being acted immediately. Rama kills the she-ogre at the instance of Viswamitra. Viswamitra helps him with necessary knowledge to that end. It is through knowledge that one kills one’s ignorance symbolised by desire. As soon as one kills one’s desire gods of higher knowledge appear from the deeper depths or the unconscious. Gods appear in the skies. They ask Viswamitra to teach Rama the use of the whole range of weapons with the aid of which he could destroy every kind of ailment of mind. Once the mind is rid of its evil desires eros or the zest for life breaks out with the full grandeur of flames lit up during a sacrifice. Presently after the death of Tadaka her son Maricha in league with numberless ogres attacks the site of sacrifice. But Rama outdoes them in battle. Lest Rama hesitates to kill Tadaka since she is a female ogre Viswamitra exhorts Rama not to mind whether it is male or female the prince of a kingdom should do anything to keep up the social ethos. Thus Viswamitra, the superego teaches Rama to fit in the role of a prince, whose only pursuit should be to protect the subjects (1. 25.17). He prepares Rama for the abandonment of Sita.

Kusanabha story (1. 32)

King Kusanabha had hundred daughters. The spirit of air Wind-god was enamoured with them. Wind-god begged them to marry him. But the daughters would not give up their virginity without their father’s consent. So Wind-god crippled them from within. They could curse the god. But they did not. Their father approved of their grace.

Here, the formless wind symbol of infinitude the Zephyrus rapes and molests the beauty in terrestrial form. This is an important structure basic to the whole range of the poem. The infinite is always keen on communicating with the finite. Lord Visnu incarnates in the human form. It is, however, often unbearable on the part of the finite to be teased by the infinite. The earthly dames are crippled. The earth herself was reluctant to carry the seed of Lord Siva.

But the finite things can touch the heights of infinitude when they can bear with the wrong done to them even by gods and have patience with them.

The story eulogises masochism.

                Thus,

                Wind god symbolic of infinite                                     rise to godhood

                Teases                                                                  through tolerence    

                Terrestrial women                                               The terrestrial women

Viswamitra’s own story (1. 34)

Viswamitra happens to be the son of king Kusa. His sister after her death flows as a river, for the benefit of life on earth. Viswamitra is fond of her that she rarely, leaves her shores.

This story is important on two counts. Firstly, good souls cater benefit to the world, even after their death. Secondly, Viswamitra, a risi though, always remains with his sister. This edifies love of a brother for his sister.

The birth of the Minerals (1. 36, 37)

The earlier myth of Lord Siva is being continued here. Though Kandarpa was burnt Lord Siva was physically excited. There was none capable of carrying his seed unless it was Agni. Agni conveyed it to goddeses Ganga. But she could not endure it. So she could not but eject the foetus from her womb on earth and minerals were formed. Therefrom sprang Skanda or God Kartikeya.

Thus the knowledge of the infinite could not be borne in the conscious mind, symbolised by the Ganga. It went down on earth or into the inner recess of mind where it turned into minerals of arche-types.And Kartikeya sprang from there . He is the most beautiful among gods. Or true beauty is born of the archetypal(GK arche = primal; typos = figure) structures stored in the depths of the mind.

Thus,

Infinite                                                                               Beauty is born

                                                                                                       

Conscious mind                                                                Conscious mind

                                                                                                            

                 The exigency of being inward is hinted here.

Descent of Ganga (1.38-44)

          King Sagara had sixty thousand sons. They dug the earth in search of the sacrificial horse stolen by Indra and are turned to ashes at the roar of Kapila meditating in the Patala. Bhagiratha, the great grandson of Sagara observed penance and pleased the gods. Ganga descended from the head of Lord Siva and flowed across the earth and reached Patala. Her water redeemed the dead children of Sagara.

          Kapila means the “Red one” and stands for sun.He has been called Vasudeb and Earth is his spouse. Kapila burnt the youths. The motif of youth being burnt by a yogin, recurs in Ramayana. Lord Siva burnt Kamadev or Cupid. The nisada killed the bird. The consuming fire  of the yogin is the fire of knowledge that burns Eros or sexual libido.

          If Lord Siva is the destroyer he is also the preserver. Because it is from his head that the life-giving river Ganga flows. Siva drank poison when it sprang from the churning of the ocean. He gives away elixir to the Earth.

          The name Sagara means poisonous. His children are burnt. Then Ganga comes down upon Earth. Thus polluted water is evaporated, distilled and comes back upon Earth to charge her with life. When the ashes are sprinkled with water they fertilise the Earth.

           The rivers have a singular niche in the Indian psyche. The Vedas mention the rivers such as Ganga, Sarasvati, Sindu, Sarayu etc. As sacred goddesses Viswamitra recounts how his pious sister flows as Mahanadi catering benevolence to the humanity. The Ganga flows across the three worlds of Heaven, Earth and Patala. Psychologically they are the three worlds of mind. She leaps from cosmic mind into the unconscious of individual mind to enliven it, lest it is dried up in material considerations.

          Thus

                  is up                                    & then from the skies

                      being burnt                            pours

                Polluted water on earth            on earth as pure water  

             

Churning of the ocean (1.45)

           In order to derive nectar that should make gods and demons immortal, they churned  the ocean with Vasuki the snake as the rope and Mandara hill as the rod. Curiously enough, in their search for nectar, they found lots of poison that came from the tired Vasuki. Consequently Lord Siva, the greatest of gods drinks the poison –the first output of the churning of the ocean. The world was saved from disaster. The churning rod then seemed to slip down into fathomless deep, out of their grip. Lord Visnu assumed the form of a tortoise and supported the rod. Then the physician of the gods, the elfin damsels, the deity of wine, the divine Pegasus, the jewel named Kaustav and nectar sprang from the blue deep. The sight of the nectar at once sparked off quarrel between gods and devils. Lord Visnu assumed the form of a divine damsel deluded the demons; the demons were deprived of nectar which was distributed among gods only. With fresh vigours they kill the demons in war. The myth thus takes the auditorium back to the primordial source of life. To derive manna there of the gods symbolising the zest for life in the unconscious must unite with id and churn the mind with male sex energy as symbolised by the anti-diluvian snake and the hill. The eldest of the issues of this coitus symbol will be poison. Poison implies fear of death. Once death is faced four square the best things of existence will come forth with one after another. Once nectar is found out, id must not be fed with that. In that case the existence will be endangered. Hence Lord Visnu takes the shape of a woman that engrosses id. In other words getting enthralled by women is deadly.

The birth of the seven winds (1. 47)

          Viswamitra next tells how the mother of the demons witnessing her children killed by the gods, seeks  a child to outdo the gods. The motif of impatience for begetting children is commonly visited with punishment. This is archetypal. That is why Gandhari in the Mahabharata also gives birth to a lump of flesh only. And the mother of the devils has her child cut into pieces by Indra in the womb itself, because of her negligence. These seven pieces become seven children and they become gods of wind; Indra be friends them at the request of their mother. This underlines the need of patience and vigilant mind to create.

Rama delivers Ahalya (91. 48, 49)

            Next we come by Ahalya episode in Adikanda. On enquiry by Rama Viswamitra narrates how Indra in disguise of risi Gautama went to Ahalya, the wife of the risi. Ahalya found Indra out , but she gladly joined Indra in coiitus  and thanked him (1. 48,19). The risi detected Indra and cursed him. The risi cursed Ahalya also.She would lie on ashes at the asrama, unseen to the world, till she saw Rama. The reader’s imagination has retold the curse in terms of more concrete imagery. Thus Kalidasa and Krittivasa observes that Ahalya was turned into stone. This gives a fairy tale turn to the story. In fairy tales men are turned into trees stones or plants or animals in consequence of their pursuing pleasure principles in human life.

           Presently Rama enters the asrama of Gautama and finda Ahalya. Because the invisible Ahalya could now see Rama and she becomes visible. The spell of Gautama’s curse is now done away with . She has been performing penance in the asrama and she has gained in lustre thatilluminates the asrama. What to talk of men even gods cannot look at her. It seems as if the creator very carefully divined this infinitely elusive woman form. She likens the lambent flame made hazy by smoke or the full moon behind the cloud or the moon thinly veiled by snow or the blasing rays of the sun reflected on the waters. She is a woman and yet as these imagery (1. 49. 14,15)describe, she is a creature of ether and fire.

          As soon as Rama and Laksmana find her, they prostrate at her feet. Ahalya too welcomes them as her guests. The gandharvas and apsaras celebrate the occasion There is a shower of flowers. Gautama also comes and unites with Ahalya and heartily greets Rama..

          This is not all. Rama later visits the court of Janaka at Mithila. He meets risi Satananda, the son of Ahalya there. The latter, when he learns that it is Rama who has come to the court of Janaka,eargerly asks Viswamitra whether Rama met Ahalya, whether she welcomed him at his father’s. This adds to the a Ahalya episode in Adikanda, the flavour of a short story.

          The episode might contain within it the memories of the prehistoric past when, civilized man reclaimed the barren lands. Ahalya may literally mean the unploughed. The imagery of the ashes on which Ahalya lay stresses on fertility myth.

           Again, Ahalya derived from ‘hala’ or stain means stainless. Innocent beauty in her passing through sin and redemption resurrects in the form of ethereal beauty. Man rises to divine heights through penance. Shut up in the asrama in loneliness she attains the yang yin of Chinese art and philosophy viz. the perfect harmony between the conscious and the sub-conscious.

          Curiously enough, Rama is no longer a passive listener to past history. He acts in the Ahalya episode and clinches up the past.

          The ashes might mean dishonour and death. In the Vedic theogony and the Upanisads, mother-godess whom we Indians used to worship during the days of Indus Valley is rather ignored Rama brings back cinderalla (one who lies amidst cinders) to life and honour. Or else, Ahalya is the benevolent mother as opposed to the threatening mother in Tadaka.Or else, Tadaka Ahalya, one is of death and another of life, one is sensuous and another pious. The sensuous had overwhelmed the pious. Tadaka the sensuous knows no repentance but the pious Ahalya repents hence, while one is killed by Rama, the other is liberated by Rama. Pure consciousness thereby returns to its pristine self from the ashes of the unconscious. Or else, the son frees the benevolent mother from humiliation in the father’s hand. The family equilibrium is restored through the negotiations made by the son. Rama is Satyananda’s other self in that case. The sight of Rama only, liberates Ahalya. This reminds one of the motif of Medusa’s head. Freud suggests that Medusa’s head is the projection of the fear of castration. Now that Rama has got rid of it by killing Tadaka, his is the eye that brings back life and youth. The mere sight of Rama redeems Ahalya. This is more insignificant in the context of the Upanisadic psychology. The Upanisads state that God created through mere vision. Once, someone gets the vision of the creator himself one is rid of one’s mortal tenements. One must awaken oneself to reality; reality will be awakened to one in response. Of course, one must have a patient waiting for that like Ahalya. God shall come to one’s eyesight like Rama.

          The deliverance of Ahalya is in action, first of its kind, by Rama. Henceforth killing the demons and delivering the downcast will be his life-time job. It ironically gives us a flash forward to the rescue of Sita from the prison house of Ravana. It prepares us immediately for is attainment of Sita, the epitome of pure consciousness through wedding. Once she had killed Aphrodite Pandemos (Tadaka) and revived to life Aphrodite Urania (Ahalya), he is now prepared to be united with the latter in Sita. Sita, is the substitute  for Ahalya. While Ahalya is found amidst the ashes, (1.48.30) Sita was found in the soil, while ploughing (1.66.13-14).One might read Oedipus complex also in the story. The word Gautama means –the most illuminated. The risi is the father-figure of Rama.

          

At the court of Janaka (1.60,66,67)

           At the court of Janaka , at the behest of Viswamitra Rama breaks  the bow of Lord Siva and marries Sita. He has been instrumental in repairing a conjugal life. Now he transcends asceticism and breaks his brahmacharya. The bow also stands for female organ. Ram shatters the viginity of Sita.

          The stirrings of the ocean gave rise to Laksmi. Rama’s inward journey leads to the union with Sita- an incarnation of Laksmi, the soul’s beloved. The conscious mind unites with the unconscious.

          This is archetypal. The hero has to undergo such trials to prove his strength. Odysseus for example had to lift a bow to get his Penelope

          This occasion of marriage has provoked readers to imagine that there was love at first sight before Rama went for the trial. Kambana’s Ramayana dwells on this theme.

           King Dasaratha accompanied by his courtiers and army comes to Mithila to participate in the wedding ceremony of Rama Laksmana, Bharata and Shatrughna are also married there. Viswamitra’s task is done. He retires from the action of the story.

          Thus Viswamitra took Rama to nature. It was in nature removed from the palace that Viswamitra taught Rama. He tried to impress on him such masochistic values as self-restraint and self denial. Viswamitra recounts the past defines the society with its values and institutions and imposes  a common order of interpretation upon the experience of man. If death occurs to individuals or to a community it has been shown as but minor episodes in history. And what happens to man happens in the nature itself. Destruction and creation are the laws of nature. Lord Siva is the archetypal figure of the laws of nature. Lord Siva is the archetypal figure of the law that destroys and preserves. As an active force deified, Siva is typologically related to Rama, as we shall see, when we compass the whole of Rama’s career. Viswamitra is the superego. Thus Viswamitra not only gives the data of the culture and defines the society with its values and institutions but also designates the role of Rama as the liberator in this society. The furure course of Rama’s career will show how far the structures of the external society as communicated by Viswamitra mainly have been internalised in Rama as his own values, conscience, principles etc. This is more because the main pattern of the events in the Adikanda in Rama’s career repeats itself in the events to come.

          Encounter with Parasurama : A father figure (1.74-76)

          The four brothers with their newly wedded wives are accomplished by their father Dasaratha, family priest Vasistha and a whole arrayof royal army. They are on their way back home. All on a sudden there is a raging storm and earthquake. The trees and plants are uprooted. The birds are helpless. There appears Parasuram alight with anger. It was he who had killed the Ksatryas or the warrior caste on earth for twenty one times. He throws challenge before Rama. It strikes terror into the hearts of everybody present including Dasaratha. But Rama angry and composed accepts the challenge and takes over the bow of Visnu from Parasurama. The very spectacle of lifting up the bow calms down Parasurama. The bow is lifted up and the arrow must be shot. At Parasurama’s instance Rama shoots the arrow to undo the energies that Parasurama had attained through penance. A flame gets out from Parasurama had attained through penance. A flame gets out from Parasurama and enters the body of Rama (1.66.11)

           Both Viswamitra and Parasurama are types of Rama. When Rama appears on the scene Parasurama is eclipsed. Parasurama, a Brahmin though had to put down the warring Ksatrya repeatedly. But now that Rama is there –a Ksatrya determined to keep up the social ethos, the role of Parasuram has become irrelevant. The handing over of the bow is symbolic. The father gives away his everything to his son. Even the heavens are given up. Parasurama remains heroic in his humiliation as well. He will continue his penance through eternity. Nothing can stop him. The Upanisads posit that the father after his demise enters into the body of his son (1.5,17). The super-ego sacrifices itself at the alter of ego. Or else, the super ego hands over its bow to the younger generation. Freud observed :

           Thus a child’s super ego is in fact constructed on the model not of its parents but of its parents’ super-ego; the contents which fill it are the same and becomes the vehicle of tradition. Tradition propagates itself in this manner from generation to generation.

           If Dasaratha is a doting father and Viswamitra the teacher Parasurama is the projection of the threatening father. He is that part of super-ego that says “Thou shalt not do it”. The ego in Rama not only cows down the id, but also controls the superego. He is the Purusottama who sets up an equilibrium between the id and the super-ego between denial of sensuous desire and ruthless self-denial of penance between the two opposites.

           Rama and Sita accompanied by the whole Dasaratha family now return to Ayodhya beaming with joy.

           The whole story of the adventures of Rama in his adolescence is a fairy tale as it were. After a lot of hardship in course of the journey the hero wins his bride and comes home in joy and glory. A fairy tale has always a happy ending like this.

           Curiously enough –(i) the opening unit of the poem finds Valmiki guided by Narada attains the theme of his poetry (ii) the birth of Rama again has been realised by Dasaratha with the aid of Risyasringa (iii) Rama in his adolescence wins the hand of Sita through the meditation of Viswamitra. In all these three units there is the agent who acts and wins through the aid of a third person. Thus the archetypal structure of the story is there in course of its development. In every case it seems that the agent is but the unconscious desire to fulfil itself. The aid is likened to super-ego that comes to its aid. And thereby ego attains its stability.

          Note

         The quotation has been taken from Dissection of Personality by Freud translated by Strachey in The Complete Introductory Lectures on Psycho-analysis. P.531.

Chapter-V

Cycle IV ---

EGO IN YOUTH

RAM IN YOUTH

AYODHYAKANDA

In the adikanda Rama goes to the forest, kills the fierce she ogre
Tadaka and marries Sita and then returns to Ayodhya. The same
structure recurs in the four kandas hence. Rama goes once again to the
forest in Ayodhyakanda, Rama kills the fearsome Ravana and comes back
to Ayodhya. The education in adolescence should takes us through games
that give us a miniature of real life. The playway and the adventures
in the Adikanda have been preparations for the real struggles in
adulthood. Let us at the moment dwell on the major variations between
the adventures of Rama in adolescence and his exploits in real life,
in the four kandas following the Adikanda.

Ayodhyakanda

In the Adikanda Viswamitra goes to Dasaratha to let Rama go to the
forests. In Ayodhyakanda Kaikeyi insists on Rama’s going to the
forests. Both Viswamitra and Kaikeyi are the super-ego. But while
Viswamitra is a risi, Kaikeyi belongs to the royal family. The
commands of the society are not always motivated in the same way.
Presently after marriage when Rama came home to Ayodhya in triumph
Dasaratha was about to appoint Rama as the crown-prince of his
kingdom. But the hunchbacked Manthara, the maid servant of Kaikeyi
conspired with her and put in her mind that Rama should be sent to the
forests immediately so that Bharata, Kaikeyi’s son could climb the
throne (2.1-9).

The individualistic ideology of Kaikeyi could be explicated and summed up as thus :

1.        We live only once, hence why not make the most of it.
2.        One cannot give person happiness: he has to find it for
himself: so one should look out for oneself.

3.        One cannot make others happy unless one is happy.
4.        The world needs many kinds of personalities; so one should be one’s
own self.

5.        Morality consists in being true to the code that fits one’s
particular personality. What is right for one might be wrong for
another.
Those who wanted to frustrate Kaikeyi’s hopes also advised Rama to act
according to the same ideology.

The ugly Manthara is Kaikeyi’s id. Kaikeyi is so much in love with the id, she is so much in love with the devil, that she eulogizes the beauty of the uncanny Manthara with her hump in opulent images (2-9.41-44). The readers are sometimes reluctant to look upon Manthara as motiveless malignity. Hence, in some later poetry, e.g. in Kamba Ramayana and Ranga-natha Ramayana, it has been imagined that Rama as a child played tricks with Manthara. And what Manthara does in
Ayodhyakanda she does it from revenge motive.

Ayodhya is the domain of mind whose repose could not be shaken from
without. But the mind degenerates on its own. The palace intrigue
shows that Ayodhya has been diseased. So Rama etymologically meaning
the greatest joy-giver who stands for the bliss of life must be
banished from Ayodhya.

In contrast to the disintegrating forces let loose by Kaikeyi,
Bharata and particularly Rama stands for altruism and cohesion of the
community. Rama asks his mother to stay with her husband (2.24). He
asks his father to recoup his spirits so that his father might look
after the queens (2. 38). He tells his subjects that they can trust
Bharata in the role of king (2. 45). He asks Bharata not to admonish
his mother Kaikeyi (2. 112). He asks Kaikeyi to have no misgivings:
she should deem him to be a risi : go he must to the forest (2.
19.20).
Earlier Vasistha advised Dasaratha to keep his words to Viswamitra.
This time even Vasistha is reluctant to let Rama go. But Rama goes off
to the woods suo motu. To keep up the truth of his father’s commitment
has been an ideal with him. He is ready to sacrifice his individual
self in the interest of his family and state. To keep promises is the
object that he wants to realise. He is a risi who has been initiated
in the love of self-denial and of denial of the pleasures of youth and
material prosperity. Viswamitra has also inculcated in him a love for
nature.He goes to the woods cheerfully (2. 34.59).

When Rama goes away from Ayodhya the people follow him. The whole of
Ayodhya is plunged into grief and darkness. It seems Rama is the mind
and Ayodhya is the body: Rama is the soul, Ayodhya is the mind. The
people try to stop his chariot (2. 45.14). It is as if the mind wants
to delve inwards: but the dull brain perplexes and retards. Even when
he is amidst woods he casts a longing lingering look back to Ayodhya
(2. 49). Thus the consciousness in Rama is still different from the object or the principle it wants to realise.

In absence of Rama, the soul, the world of mind decays; its king
Dasaratha dies. Bharata rushes to bring back Rama to Ayodhya. But his
efforts fail. Viswamitra had already taught Rama, the secrets of death
and resurrection. Rama knows the powers of almighty death that changes
everything under the skies. Rama’s way of life is what the
existentialist would call “authentic”. And he is not moved by any
material prospects and calamities. He has miles to go and promises to
keep before sleep. So Bharata has to turn back to Ayodhya with Rama’s
sandals (2.112).A third-person observation, namely Sumitra’s, points out that wherever Rama goes there is Ayodhya (2. 40. 9). So it is not the geographical area, but the mind that matters. It is the mind that makes heaven of everything.
Rama sets out for the woods. He will sojourn there for twelve years.
Bharata has vowed that he will leap into the fire to make an end of
his life. Who knows what is in store for Rama in the years to come?
Come what may, if Rama does not return in time, Bharata’s innocent
life will be wasted. Both Rama and the readers have this in mind. This
creates a terrible suspense in the minds of the readers. If Rama
cannot return home in time, what will happen ? Rama , along with Laksmana and Sita leave Ayodhya. The first friend they meet is Guha - the nisada. Nisada belongs to the lower class who lives in the outskirts of the cities. It is only in epics that the hero can freely mingle with the lowly as distinguished from romances where it will be
below dignity for a Sir Gawain to talk to an ordinary man. It shows breadth of outlook in an epic.

Earlier Viswamitra led; Rama and Laksmana followed him.The woods
symbolises the inner world of mind. Viswamitra taught Rama to be
introvert. Rama enjoys being inward. Rama sets out for his journey in
the continent of mind.

Conclusion of Ayodhyakanda

As we have already observed at the end of the last chapter, all the cycles of the story of the Ramayana so far in (i) the discovery of poetry. (ii) the birth of Rama & (iii) the winning of Sita’s hand have one underlying structure. That is the protagonist (Valmiki orDasaratha or Rama) with some aid (Narada or Risyasringa or Viswamitra) attains the fulfilment (the knowledge of an ideal man or the birth of a child or the winning of the bride). When we find the structure in a work of art, we actually discover the structure inherent in human minds. The protagonist is the symbol of the inherent
urge of man lying in the unconscious, for fulfilment of the self. The
aid could be explained in two ways. It might be an external aid to
provoke the inner urge which is latent to act. Or else, it might be
the ego of the mind intervening between the conscious and the
unconscious. There cannot be any stability of meaning in a work of art
which is but an externalisation of the inner self in distorted terms
and which must be read as if it is symbolic, capable of meaning on
different planes. Therefore we could again read the protagonist as ego
trying to get at the inner self in man, or the fulfilment with the aid
from super ego. The superego however could be either aid or hindrance.
In the Ayodhya Kanda the same structure of the earlier cycles recur.
Only thing is that Kaikeyi the superego, is a hindrance instead of
being aid. And she deprives Rama the protagonist of his claim or
fulfilment. Kaikeyi as we have observed is all dominated by id. When
id manifests in a person and dominates the society as super ego, the
protagonist is baffled. This gives us a fore state of the shape of
things to come when we visit Lanka in course of our story. This harks back to the story of the hunter that we met in the opening of the
Ramayana. But the hunter story shows that if our inner self could react with vigour against the dominating id, it would create. Rama is
a creative personality in the context of the society of the Ramayana. He has to undergo crisis without and within. In the course of our study what we have observed is the domination of the number three in each cycle in(i)the protagonist (ii)aid or hindrance and (iii) fulfilment or failure. This number three is very important. Number
implies in the conscious and the unconscious, people, family situation
and ourselves in relation to the world. Protagonist, aid or hindrance & success or failure are there. Id ego & super-ego are three. Brahma Visnu Maheswara are there. There is the Holy Trinity of Christanity. The three might symbolise creation, preservation & destruction. It might symbolise the three women in mother, wife &daughter. And we must remember that the king Dasaratha had three wives. Kaikeyi proves herself to be his death while Kausalya seems to be like his creator or
mother & Sumitra symbolises the principle of preservation. It is she
who tries to keep up the tranquillity when things are out-of-joints.
She is the ego that tries to settle up tension between keening
Kausalya & Kaikeyi beaming with joy. Freud reads the three women in
King Lear in similar fashion and connects it with the three caskets in
Merchant of Venice to read in them the myth of Norn, Grace & Fury. Now
there is a structure having three constitutes in a larger structure
having three constitutes again, in the cycle Ayodhyakanda. And along
the course of this structure, we find that Rama the protagonist has
been asked to go back to the forests. The symbolism of the forest must
be properly understood here in this context. The forest is symbolic of
the wide world where the youth tries his strength. It also stands for
the inner darkness of the unconscious: Once the hero can stand it,
uncertainty is resolved about who he is: he discovers his identity
thereby. That is why going to the forest is not only archetypal a
structure often inherent in the fairy tales (ii) it is a structure as
Buddha claims, in the life of every Buddha.T paramo or perfection as to abhinikkamana. The Indians enact the inner urge to face four square
the indeterminate unconscious & go to the woods in the third stage of
their life. Rama is being compelled by the super-ego to go to the
woods. A weak father dominated by a stepmother is an archetypal motif
in the fairy tales. When the mother fails the child, in that case, the
child is in sharp danger. If Ayodhya were looked upon as mind,
Dasaratha is its ego. He is always torn by anxiety. He was anxious to
get a child. He was anxious when Viswamitra asked for Rama of him. He
was anxious when Rama had encountered Parasurama. He was anxious when
he was about to crown Ramachandra. That is why he did not send any
news to Mithila where the father-in-law of Rama lives. He also did
not send message to Bharata who was staying at that time, at his
maternal uncle’s. Anxiety implies the weakness of the ego. Ego is the
seat of anxiety. He is too weak to survive. He dies. Presently Bharata
comes back home to Ayodhya. But he does not get involved in what the
psychologists call sibling rivalry. They are four brothers in two
pairs viz. (i)Rama & Laksmana &(ii) Bharata & Satrughna. Two signifies
as in a love or marital relation. Thus, while there is discord among
the three mothers, the four brothers in two pairs are in perfect
harmony with each other. Curiously enough while a pair in Rama &
Laksmana goes out to the woods the other pair remains at home. This is
archetypal with fairy tales. The brother who spreads his wings and
leaves the nest often faces great difficulties. At that moment the
brother staying at home rushes to his rescue. The reverse also
happens. The brother who stays at home is entangled in the tangle of
oedipal attachment & destroyed. If Kaikeyi had unconsciously longed
for Bharata her son instead of her husband, Bharata is absolutely free
from the Oedipal tangle and rushes to bring back his wandering brother
home. He fails. Rama and his party moves from Ayodhya to Kosala &then
to Sringaverapura. They cross the Ganga the chasm between the conscious and the unconscious. Then they reach Vatsa &visit the asrama of Bharadwaja. Thence they meet Valmiki at Chitrakoot(2.56).It is here at Chitrakoot that Bharata comes to take back Rama home. Rama does not comply with Bharata’s request. The three, in Rama, Laksmana &Bharata visit the ashrama of Atri. Rama had been originally led into the inner mind by Viswamitra.Then he came back to Ayodhya – the city which implies the return of his attention to the outer world. Now once again he goes inward.

Chapter – VI

Cycle V - ID WOUNDS THE EGO
                  RAMA IN YOUTH
                  ARANYAKANDA

Earlier Viswamitra led Rama and Laksmana through the forests. Now Rama
himself is the pathfinder. Sita and Laksmana follow him. The woods symbolise the inner world of mind. Viswamitra taught Rama to be introvert. Rama enjoys being inward. Rama sets out for his journey in the continent of mind.

The forests are dotted with asramas of the ascetics. They are at the
same time infested with wild beasts and haunted by fierce ogres. Rama
in course of his sojourn across the forest meets risis. He also kills
the giants who disturb the ascetics in performing the rites. Although
Rama said earlier that he should be deemed as a risi, he acts the role of a ksatriya. He has cultivated within him self-denial for becoming a risi. Sita points out through a parable that he is a saint turned into a soldier, because he keeps a weapon with him (3. 9). We men create institutions; but they bind. Ksatradharma is binding on Rama. Rama is not only the death of the ogres, he has been the death of the risis. Death implies deliverance from mortality.

Here Rama meets the risi Sutiksna (3.8). The risi wants to give away all the rewards of his penance to Rama. But Rama refuses. He says that he will brave life on his own. Then the three wanderers come across a magic lake. They learn that it was a risi only who created the lake through fancy; the risi entered it and did long penance. This is symbolic. The world we live in is created by our desires only. The
risi however created it in pursuit of truth. But Indra sends divine damsels and he is in their thrall. We men have come to this world, created by our desires only, to practise penance. But we forget our pursuit being allured by the senses. It is the fickle mind that directs the senses to shatter us.

But risi Agastya can outwit the ogre of carnal desire. There were two ogres in IIVAL & Vatapi. The former would invite a Brahmin to eat. The Vatapi would assume the shape of a lamb to be slaughtered for the dishes of the venerable guests. Finally IIval would call Vatapi to come out, and Vatapi would come out tearing off the belly of the guest who ate the mutton. Agastya ate Vatapi and digested it (3. 11).
Agastya could do this because he was no slave of his senses. He was
the master of his mind & senses. He ate because he ate. He had no
longing for what he ate.

Thus, gathering experiences of various kinds, the two men and a woman roam in the woodlands in great joy and peace.

Rama, Sita and Laksmana, the three together are a happy unit. Surpanakha, the female monster falls in love with Rama. She is about devour up Sita. Then Laksmana crops off her nose and ears. Khara and Dusana attack Rama. They are killed. Scheming  revenge upon Rama, she goes to Ravana, the king of Lanka. She describes the great beauty of Sita before Ravana and tells him that she has been humiliated by Laksmana when she tried to kidnap Sita for Ravana’s lust. This
inflames the lascivious passions in Ravana. He hits up a plan. Maricha
moves about the hut of Sita in the guise of a magic deer, its horns
studded with jewels, its skin specked with gold and silver. The deer
marvels Sita. And despite Laksmana’s warning Rama chases it and is led
to the further corner of the forest. The ogre Maricha of the deer is
found out. While dying , he cried – “Laksmana, Sita save me” feigning the voice of Rama. This leads to a tiff between Sita and Laksmana.
Laksmana ill-treated by Sita rushes to the rescue of Rama. In the
meantime Ravana appears in the guise of a mendicant and carries off
Sita (3. 17-49). Thus the elusive charm of an illusory deer or greed
misleads Rama and Sita. To add to that, Sita’s lack of confidence in
Laksmana and want of poise bring about her fall. Indeed in the dream
state we are often deluded by the projection of our ugliest desires
into most beautiful forms. As soon as we try to realise them we are
confounded and confused amidst the woods. We miss our Sita as it were.
It was Mara who was out to deceive Lord Buddha and it was the devil
that tried to outwit Jesus. Maricha cheats Rama. Rama is separated from his dearest soul. He has his fall.

Later poets were so emotionally involved with the kidnapping of Sita,
that e.g. the Adhyatma Ramayana, devised that Rama and Sita conspired
and Sita’s tamasika self was only carried away by Ravana while her
Sattivika self remained. This puts in one’s mind the Greek myth that
the real self of Helen was kept intact whereas her illusory self only
accompanied Paris of Troy. This is how Euripides revised Homer. Thus,
we could say that influence has its archetypes also.

The Dasaratha Jataka reads Rama and Sita wandering the forest as brother and sister who get married later. There is always a tendency of incest in human mind. But that apart, the relation of husband and wife could be often like that of brother  and sister.

Conjugal life is again and again legitimised. Even Indra could not
escape the wrath of Gautama for rape. Sita, it has been repeatedly
told, is the death of Ravan. Ravana’s greed for Sita is as heinous as
Oedipus complex. In other words another man’s wife must be looked upon
as mother. Earlier Viradha tried to kidnap Sita. Now Sita is lost. The
royal family at Ayodhya was broken. Rama, Laksmana and Sita, the three
in the woods made a nuclear family. They were happy. Now there is the
fission of the rudimentary family even. Chaos takes over. There is the
fall from the paradise. The contact with the subconscious is snapped.
Rama loses his eternal jewel. The Sita, whom he had won under the
aegis of Viswamitra, he has himself lost through his own error.

 Rama loses his tranquillity. His great love for Sita bursts forth
into laments. He embraces the trees and plants and wild life and asks
them as to the where abouts of Sita. When he came to the forests to
keep up the truth of his fathers’s commitment, it was but a duty. He
acted the role of ksatrya and liberator when he killed the many harmful friends. But now Rama will seek, find, strive and never yield
till he regains Sita. His whole life and being, is plunged in the pursuit. The lover in the husband wells forth. It is the loss of the lady-love that arouses the lover. Rama puts on the role of a the loverand husband. Now he is the lover and husband. Sita is Rama’s nonself. Rama is engrossed with his lost  Sita. May be the lover sometimes
behaves like a lunatic, projecting sense to the insensate. But love seems to draw response from the inanimate hills. Valmiki says that the rocks wanted to speak to bereaved Rama, but failed (3. 60-63. 75).Thus matter at such moments of insanity reveals itself asconsciousness solidified.

True that Rama has been playing the role of Ksatrya. But now the bereaved lover and Ksatrya in one will seek out the blackest of the evils, the prince of the devils and kill him. He will rid the earth of evil by way of killing the rough who has robbed him of his wife.

Viswamitra is no longer with Rama. Dasaratha has been too weak to protest his son. Rama, has now lost the security of his childhood and Viswamitra-monitored adolescence. Rama is now in real forest. It suggests that he needs to find himself. He is lost in the forest like children in fairy tales. He has lost Sita –his joy. This is not an accident. The loss is largely Rama’s own doing. He has played to
humour Sita. Now what is lost must be found out. The ego must discover
its strength. The ego rises up to fight the forces of id. While, a part of id, has been inimical to Rama, another part of id in the bird Jatayu, tried to save Sita from being kidnapped. The bird has been mortally injured. The dying bird informs Rama about the kidnapping of Sita (3. 68).

Next, they meet a fierce ogress only to scare her away. In the meantime, another ogre, terrible to look at with its mouth on its belly, and one eye on the forehead stretches forth its long arm to catch hold of the brothers. The ogre is sans head. The brothers cut off his arms. The ogre asks who they are. When he learns that it is
Rama, who has killed him, he is overjoyed. He tells his own story.
Earlier he had scared the risis in the persona of an ogre. So a risi
cursed him to be an ogre only. This suggests that the risis curse
when, one wants that unconsciously. When one feigns to be a demon, one
has unconscious desire to be so. The curse only acts as a catalyst to
translate the desire into reality. But once the desire is experienced
by oneself through the transformation of one’s self only, if one
repents, one is redeemed. So the ogre Kabandha is redeemed, Rama and
Laksmana then bum Kabandha alive.His body burns; and out of that smoke
an effulgent figure appears only to direct Rama and Laksmana along the
right way in quest of Sita. Rama is thus the symbol of liberation (3.
69-73).

They, the two brothers, move towards the abode of Sugriva. On the way
they meet the ancient woman ascetic Savari. She has been waiting in
her sylvan habitation all alone for years together to meet Rama. Rama
is her summum bonum; he is her death. Now that she has met Rama, she
dies in peace. Thus images from the unconscious mind leap up again and
again before the ego to remind it of its inherent greatness. The ego
knows not itself. Events take place to make it aware of its secret
contact with the universal mind (3. 74).

The two brothers go on in quest of Sita. The fit of depression due to
separation from Sita again recurs in Rama, at the sight of the lake Pampa (3. 75).

Chapter –VII

Cycle V

EGO IN SEARCH OF THE ID THAT HAS STOLEN ITS STAY

RAMA IN YOUTH-KISKINDHYAKANDA

Section – I

After Sita is stolen, Rama settles down for a time at Malyavat where the cycle of season unfold its splendour and Rama reads his own mind in it. The rains come and he is reminded of his lost Sita who was his bliss.

In Kiskindhyakanda Rama describes the rains in telling images. We hereby take eleven slokas from the Ode to Rains (5. 15-25) and explicate them as a unique unit forgetting for a time their context only to explore price-less wealth on the psychological level that enriches our understanding of the greater whole, the Ramayana, of which it is a part.               

Rajah prasantam sahimodya vayur

Nidagha-dosa-prasarah prasantah

Sthita hi yatra vasudha dhipanam

 Pravasino yanti narah svadesan

Tr.—The particles of dust stand motionless. The wind is laden with
vapour. The evils of summer like heat are calmed. Kings postpone their
journeys. Men unable to linger abroad, separated from their loved ones
come back home.
Ex. – The dust –grains have been settled. They were in a state of
turmoil presently before, raised by a storm. Now the storm has been
quelled. The air is cool and soft. In short there has been a change
from storm to breeze, from restlessness to quietude. The second pada
dwells on the transition further. The evils of the summer including
heat have been dispersed. In other words, summer has ended. The
passage of the cycle of seasons is perceptible. The third pada dwells
on the kings who have deferred their expeditions, whereas, in the
fourth pada, men abroad pine for home, eager to meet their sweet-
hearts. Thus the third and fourth pada report the reaction of the
changes in nature of human world. It is surely the season of home-
coming. The kings cannot go out; men come home. There is a paradox.
This is not a season when one parades oneself as a king. The kings set
out for wars. This is a season when all mortal conflicts have been
subdued. The word ‘rajas’ meaning dust; it also puts in our mind the
‘guna’ called ‘rajas’ which is associated with the motion of rajahs;
the rainy season suppresses the rajas. In short, it is a season of
being introvert. Men come home. They are eager to unite with their
brides or with their real self whence they were away.
                Samprasthita manasa o lubdhah
                Priyanvitah samprati cakravakah
                Abhiksna varsodaka – viksatesu
                Yanini margesu na sampatanti
Tr. – The cakravakas eager to live on the banks of Manasa accompanied
by their beloveds set out. Excessive rains made the roads muddy and
the chariots do not move about.
Ex. – The kings do not stir, but the lovers hie home; so do the birds
fly, but the chariots do not ply. While men come home to join their
lovers, the birds together with their spouses  take wings towards the
Lake Manasa. Do men mingling with their mates metamorphose into
feathered tribes to be on their wings towards Manasa. The lake is the
symbol of ‘yoni’ or of the Prakiti that looms large behind the show of
things as Causa Sui. It is the primordial waters where Lord Narayana,
the pri- mordial purusa lay asleep lulled by the sea-waves. If one can
wing and sing in the blue deep, if the sky is full of cakravaka wings,
the earth is unfit for vehicles to drive. The same rains that clean
the sky and enrich the lake make the paths muddy and man’s roaming on
earth becomes impossible. In other words, it is the season for
spiritual voyage; it is not the right hour for adventures in the
material world. The rains that settle the dust and cool the wind in
the earlier sloka has been mentioned in this sloka in another contest.
                Kvacit prakasam kvacidaprakasam
                Nabhah prakirnambu-dharam vibhati
                Kvacit kvacit parvata sanni ruddham
                Rupam yatha maharnavasya
Tr. – The sky being lorn with scattered clouds, somewhere visible and
somewhere invisible likens the calm oceans obstructed from the view by
the mountains.
Ex. – The cakravakas are on their way to Manasa. Manasa has
association with manasa –the mind. The cakravakas were on their way to
plumb the depths of mind. The sky itself is symbolic of cosmic mind.
It is hidden from the eye of the seeker by the clouds of obsession in
the seeker’s mind. The satchitanandamaya Brahman is not always and
everywhere perceptible. It is manifest here and there , now and then.
The adverb kvacit has application both in relation to time and space.
The skies in themselves are inactive. So is the cosmic mind. But the
cosmic mind is equally eternally activity itself. Hence the sky likens
the oceans and the clouds turn into mighty mountains that cover the
seas from our eyes.
                Vyamisritam sarja-kadamva puspaih
                Navam jalam parvatadhatu-tamram
                Mayura-kekabhi-ranu-prayatam
                Sailapagah sighrataram vahanti

Tr.—The mountain-springs gather greater momentum and their waters
mingle with sarja and kadamba flowers. Red colours, including saffron
and the cries of the peacock, also flow fast imitating the murmuring
sound of the water.
Ex. – The cakkravakas in the skies are in quest for Manasa. The skies
liken the seas. The seas remind the poet of the springs. The mountains
conceal the seas from the sight. But it is the rivulet that runs down-
ward and has acquired momentum lately. It is through the little
springs of introspection that individual mind rolls downwards and sets
up communication with cosmic consciousness. Red hues as well as the
voice of the peacock also roll down in harmony with the murmurs of the
rivulet. Every movement has an accompanying sound. The fast flowing
river has its rhythm. It has been perfectly ornamented through
variation effected by the peacock’s cries. The peacock is a living
thing. It cannot give rhythm. It adds variation by its sharps and
flats. Is the poet himself the peacock? In a dream, the dreamer must
be present in some or other form. We cannot see the peacock though we
hear it. The colours roll as well, not the coloured objects. Does the
poet hear the inaudible sound of the rolling colours? It is the sound
of silence that makes a symphony complete. The colours are also on the
move. It also adds variation to the rhythm. There is synaesthesia. The
colours stand for the eye, peacock’s trebles for the ear, and the
flower for the nose. They all roll together along with the river. The
river is symbolic of man or the poet on the move. And the whole
universe of taste, touch, sound, smell and sight seem to be on a
weltering move downwards with the movement of the jivatman of the
jivatman; it is as if the Pre-Raphaelites have painted the river. Its
murmuring waters are coloured and fragrant. And there is a riot of
colours and sounds and movement along with material objects as if in a
spiritual swoon.
                Rasakulani satpada – sannikasam
                Prabhunjate jambu-phalam prakamam
                Aneka – vamam pavanavadhutam
                Bhumau  patatyamraphalam vipakvam
Tr. – Men eat plenty of black berries likening the six legged black-
bees overflowing with the tasty juice filled by the wind; ripe mango
fruits of varied colours fall on the ground.
Ex. – In the earlier sloka sights and sounds and fragrance have been
referred to. The touch of the wind has been also hinted at in sloka
one. Now taste and objects of taste are being touched upon. There are
trees laden with black-berries. The black is the rhythm of the scene,
the different colours of the mangoes give the variation. The ripe
black berries resemble the black bees. The object of enjoyment looks
like one who enjoys it. The black bees are rasakula. That is – (1)
they are slaked with rasa and (2)they are eager for rasa ever more.
They are thus symbol of infinite thirst drinking in infinite manna. Or
else, they are infinite contentment and yet infinite craving. Rasa
implies enjoyment as well as object  of enjoyment. Thus the doer, the
action  and the object of action, all three have been merged together
into a revelation that serves the key to the mystery of life and
universe. The creator himself is the act of creation and the creation
itself. Longing for pleasures, the black-bees are like women wailing
for their male counterpart. When men feed on black-berries we have the
symbol of the lovers relishing one another. The black-berries hang on
the tree. The mangoes are scattered on the ground. It is a season of
mellow fruitfulness, ull of abundance and abandon.
                Vidyutpatakah sa –valaka –malah
                Sailendra- kutakriti sannikasah
                Garjanti meghah samudirnanada
                Matta gajendra iva samyugasthah
Tr. – With flags of lightening and garlands woven by herons, the
clouds taking after the grand mountain peaks in form, roar full-
throated. Their sound is like that of the lords among the elephants
engaged in battle.
 Ex. – The white valakas, at the margin of the black rain-clouds, and
now and then flashing emblem of lightening in the very corpus of the
dark cloud once again puts forward before us a beautiful word-picture.
If the kings have adjourned their excursions, the cloud seems to
exhibit themselves in the welkin. It is perhaps the time when man has
to keep quiet and watch the elemental forces at work in nature. The
clouds thunder like the king of the elephants at war. A fierce combat
among the elemental forces of nature is being enacted in the azure,
although the earth is pleasant. The earth is here symbolic of stasis
that looks at the commotion among the clouds. Both stasis and dynamics
constitute the commotion. The clouds are static and dynamic. They
imitate the sound-less mountain peaks that wear the garland of snow on
their brows. The mountain imagery carried forward from an earlier
sloka becomes all the more richer in import in the context of this
sloka. The mountain turns into warring elephant  impelled by the magic
of poetry.
                Varsodakapyayita sadvalani
                Pravrtta-nrttotsava- varhinani
                Vanani nirvrsta – valahakani
                Pasyaparahnesvadhikam vibhanti
Tr. – The cluster of grass has been satiated with rain water. The
peacocks have been prompted to a festive dance. The woods look
exceedingly beautiful in the afternoon.

 Ex. – There is the description of the green grasses watered. They are
therefore fresh. But this is not all. Beauty needs something to be
added to that. The peacocks are charged with ecstasy. They dance. That
makes the woodland beautiful. Earlier we heard the peacocks. Now we
see them as living things sprightly leaping among  the inanimate.
                Samudvahantah salilatibharam
                Valakino varidhara nadantah
                Mahatsusringesu mahidharanam
                 Visramya visramya punah prayanti
Tr. – Cirumscribed by herons and overladen with water, the pealing
clouds, rest for a while on the high peaks of the mountain and then
proceed again on their excursion.
Ex. – The clouds were mountains as it were. But now they are
different from them. They are on the move. They stop at the hill tops.
Here also living things, the herons embellish the clouds. The clouds
garlanded with herons seem to have amour with the mountain peaks.
Charged with desires, the herons excelsior cloudwards.
                Meghabhikama parisampatanti
                Sammodta bhati balaka- panktih
                Valavadhuta vara-pundariki
                Lambeva mala ruciramvarasya
Tr. – The rows of the herons, playful to the clouds tremble in the
wind, pendant, they are as if a garland woven with white lotuses.

 Ex. – The valakas have been compared to necklace round the clouds.
When the clouds bear resemblance to mountains, they are the capping
snow. In this sloka they are desirous of conceiving. So they are
prayful to the clouds. The clouds are the agents of rain; they quench
the thirst of the woods and electrify nature with joy and vitality.
The rains cause new births in nature. Or do the valakas go to the
clouds as women nestle nea their malecounterparts, desirous of
begetting children. From the earth they look like a zone made of white
lotuses or pundarika. Pundarika is the synechdochee of pundarikaksa
viz. one who has lotus eyes. Rama has been described as
navajaladharasyama. The clouds are symbolic of Rama. The clouds
circled by the valakas look like the lotus-eyes. Pundarikaksa is the
male principle. The many valakas are the souls of the earth and the
woods, that spring to the sky seeking union with the supreme soul, the
one Purusa or Narayana who is their bridegroom.
                Valendra – gopantara – citritena
                Vibhati bhumirnava sadvalena
                Gatranu- prktena suka- prabhena
                Nariva lakssoksita kambalena
 Tr. – Bedecked with fresh grass, dotted with small Indragopa insects,
the earth looks like a maiden in shawl that has the colour of the suka
bird, speckled with black pigments at the middle.

 Ex. – Not only the valakas, but the whole earth is decked like a dame
in a green cloak with red designs on it. The creation as a whole is
the women and Pun darikaksa wearing the chain woven with living
valakas – the whitest souls that have escalated Godward , looks upon
the creation which is in attractive attire to tempt him.
                Nidra sanaih kesavamabhyupaiti
                Drutam nadih sagaramabhyupaiti
                Hrssta valaka ghanambhyupaiti
                Kanta sakama priyamabhyupaiti
Tr. – Sleep slowly approaches Kesava. Hastily does the stream draw
near the sea; happily the herons hug the clouds; the maid is on her
erotic-steps towards her mate.
Ex. – Thus everywhere there is a fiesta of mating. Kesava, the
primordial male principle, is being over-powered bu sleep. He will be
once again forgetful of himself under the spell of Maya or Death. And
creation will spring hence. Thus the poet seems to perceive the very
act of creation before him. The river and the woman and the herons
also join in the carnival. The whole creation is in pursuit of love
that will hasten new births. It should be however noted that everyone
is on the move; but none has attained one’s object though it is close
at hand in every case. Consequently there is joy; but the joy is not
that of fulfilment of desire; it is one of longing and hope. This
feeling is sine qua non with every creation art. Significantly enough,
while, sleep is an abstract noun personified, the river and the valaka
and the lady are concrete nouns. They have been however classed
together; it seems that the latter three are but elements in the
larger set sleep. While sleep, an indeterminate thing approaches
Kesava, a person, the valaka, a determinate thing enters into the vast
indeterminate world of clouds and the river, a determinate thing in
the contingent enters the vast indeterminate realm of the seas. Thus
the indeterminate moves towards the concrete and the concrete toward
the indeterminate. They are the two simultaneous actions in play in
the universe. God turns into creation and the souls move God-ward, the
second and third pada of the sloka thereby moving in opposite
directions on the surface. Sleep incarnates in the valaka and the
river, Kesava incarnates in the seas and the clouds.
Thus on the surface the slokas give a vivid pen-picture of the rains.
The poet’s eye rolls from the earth to the skies, and from the skies
to the earth in a frenzy. The earth and the sky contrast each other
and forge a universe complete in itself. Whenever the poet describes
the sky he describes its items in terms of images culled from the
objects on earth. The clouds resemble the elephants or the mountains.
The inanimate is always bedecked with the living. The images excite
every one of our five senses.
The actions are dramatic. Each actions interacts with other actions.
There is the poet who seems to wander about in the rains and describe.
The clouds act, the rivers act, the birds act. Even time moves.
Because it becomes dark. There is the scene of the rainy season. The
actors often seen at a distance, constitute the scene. Thus valakas
look like garlands. The purpose of the description seems to discover
slowly theaspirations of nature to procreate.
The slokas together are a sequence of imagery objectively conceived.
The imagery take us beyond themselves. They half conceal and half
reveal, symbolising the longings of creation for the primordial purusa
or consciousness. One wonders whether they together constitute a myth!
Is not there a magic  in the rains that moves the creation towards God
who is our Bridegroom? Is there no subtle lulling of the sense of
alienation that is a universal and absolute situation with every man?
Or one wonders that here is an archetypal myth of the marriage between
Earth and the sky (cp. The mating between Ouranos and Gaia in Gk.
Mythology).The poem looked upon as an incipient drama may also be
interpreted in terms of death of a demoness fast approaching to kill
Kesava. And one wonders whether Rama will take up arms against the
demoness of Death to save his transcendental self or whether Valmiki
will do so to save his idealised self.
The ode we have explicated is poignant with the sense of loss for
Sita crucial in the development of the ego in Rama. Earlier, presently
after Sita was stolen, Rama burst forth in heart-rending laments in
the Aranyakanda and the opening of the Kiskindhyakanda. There the ego
seems to have saved Sita from her disaster, had he not run after the
illusory deer. The super ego censures the ego and the latter is at a
breaking point. But this capability of being overwhelmed with grief
and laments with poetic exuberance has a deeper import. In the
language of Jungian psychology creative males are not so completely
identified with the masculine persona roles as to bind themselves to
or deny expression to the more feminine traits of anima. Creative men
reveal an openness to their feelings and emotions and their wide
ranging interests in the world & its culture, are thought of as
feminine. They give fuller expression to the feminine side of their
nature than do their less creative pairs. Thus the sorrowing speeches
of Rama are an organic part of the drama.
Events took place in the time intervening between the laments in the
first canto of Kiskindhyakandya and the ode to the rains in the
eighteenth canto of the same. Rama has killed Bali and made permanent
friendship with Sugriva. He has allies in the quest for his forgotten
self. The ego is gaining ground. It is determined to repair the loss
incurred by negligence. It will prove itself before the superego. That
shows itself in the ode. Ego is here ready to act like Kesava, self-
composed, at the sight of the approaching locks of some fierce maenad.
Come what may, the ego will continue its seeking. Rama, Sita &
Laksmana looked like the three lettered word A U M where A symbolises
the primal purusha and U symbolises the primordial energy and M means
the devotee of the two in one, since primordial energy is inseparable
from primordial purusa. Modern science also looks upon matter and
energy as one and they have coined a term in massergy or matterergy to
indicate their identity. Yet in dreams they are artificially
separated. And once, either of the two is lost the other is in a fit
of passion and then there is action to recover its better half to
become whole. T he raging Lord Siva, after the death of Sati belongs
to the same archetype that is reflected in Rama. This is why perhaps,
the episode of Siva lamenting and raging over Sati’s suicide takes
place in Tulsidas before the narration of the tale of Rama, in Ramcharitmanas. The ode to Rain is a sample that shows that every part of
the Valmiki if read on its own as a monad separate from the whole work
(which is a more evolved monad indeed) we would find, that it would
give us the taste of the whole. Every wave of an ocean of condensed
milk would taste as sweet.

Section –II

The odysseus theme continues in Kiskindhyakanda Acting upon the
advice of Kavandhya in Aranyakanda Rama and Laksmana go to the lake
Pampa where Sugriva resides. The sight of the two brothers strike
terror at the heart of Sugriva. He fears that they are the allies of
his elder brother Vali in whose fear Sugriva lives. This repeats the
apprehension of Rama when he sighted Bharata with his army in
Ayodhyaknda. Hanuman meets the brother and learns the object of their
visit, Hanuman takes them to Sugriva. Rama promises to help Sugriva
against Vali; Sugriva will help in the quest of the two brothers. He
shows Rama the robes, bracelets and anklets that fell from Sita as she
was being carried off by Ravana. Sugriva then narrates his story of
quarrel with his brother. Sugriva is a desolate husband like Rama
whose wife has been carried off by force BY Vali. But Vali seems to be
very strong and Sugriva doubts whether Rama is a match for him. An
arrow shot by Rama pierces seven palm-trees. It is a marvellous feat.
Sugriva now conceived of Rama’s prowess and skill, dares Vali to
fight. From a distance being hidden from the sight of Vali Rama kills
Vali with an arrow. Vali rebukes Rama for that clandestine attack. But
Rama defends himself on the plea that Vali was seeking the death of
his brother Sugriva. On the contrary, Vali should have had been the
protector of Sugriva, his younger brother. Vali’s wife laments Vali’s
death and puts its blame on Rama. At the instance of Rama, Sugriva
observes the funeral rites of Vali. Then he assumes the throne and is
left to himself for some time (5. 1-27). Sugriva is however so
engrossed with sensuous pleasure now, that he forgets his duty to
Rama. It is not until Laksmana communicates strong message from Rama
that Sugriva is alive to his duty. Sugriva, the king of Kiskindhya
now collects vast army and gives instructions to each other leader of
a division. The quest for Sita begins in every direction, east, west,
north, south, (5. 30-45).

As soon as Sita was stolen the desire for quest was aroused. But the
limitation of necessary aid to that end thwarted it. Help is sought in
kiskindhakanda, and help has been found. The very word Kiskindhya is
kim kim dha, meaning enquiry. And quest is now in every direction of
the universe and of mind. The inner self which has been lost track of,
in the forest of unconscious, must be found out.
Another significant thing is Rama’s piercing the seven trees with
single arrow. What does the seven stand for? Seven is the number of
days in a week and is also a symbol of each day of our life. The
Ramayana is itself made Kandas. Could we construe the seven as
symbolising the seven chakras of Tantric anatomy. The arrow is the
symbol of Kulakundalini the snake, the male principle lying at the
bottom. It pushes up like a fountain shattering the six chakras till
it reaches the primodial vagina or Prakriti and there is the
consummation. The being and the nonbeing unite.
The third important thing about Kiskindhakanda, is the animal
connexion with Rama. At the end of Aranyakanda only the two brothers
met Jatayu – the vulture. Now a whole host of monkeys come to their
aid. Animals symbolise animal energy represented by id. The animals
and demons could pose problems to the hero. The challenge of the ego
is to ride the unconscious as one tames the turbulent horse. Actually
that part of the id which is tamed by the ego is represented by the
helpful animals. Unless one tames a part of the id to one’s purpose,
one cannot fight the other part of the id which poses a threat to the
survival of ego.

Chapter – VIII

Cycle   V--    

 EGO IN QUEST OF THE ID
 RAMA IN YOUTH
SUNDARAKANDA

        

Animal connexion with the hero is a recurrent theme in the ancient
epics and heroic poetry. Beowa knows to change himself into animals.
Enidu in Gilgamish is half-beast. Jatayu Sampati  and Garuda are
protagonists of birds in Ramayana. Siegfried in Niebegenlinged
understands the language of the birds. So does king Kekaya in
Ramayana.

Apparently Rama has to raise an army of monkeys or animals who might
contend with the animal force personified by the demons who rule
Lanka. The animals are at par with the demons in as much as they can
change their forms at will like the demons in as much as they can
change their forms at will like the demons. Among the monkeys Sugriva
and Hanuman tower above others. Hanuman steals the show in the
Sundarakanda. He acts great feats by crossing the seas and visits
Lanka as a spy. He is surely a sex symbol. On his passage to Lanka he
faces terrible women-forms. They extend their open jaws so as to
engulf the vastly increased stature of Hanuman. Hanuman outwits one
and kills the other. But in both cases he enters into the mouth. He is
a brahmachari who experiences the contact with Prakriti only when it
is unavoidable and thereby transcends it. Hanuman lays the presiding
deity of Lanka low (5.3).
The grand city of Lanka shows the height of materialistic flourish.
It is highly organised culture where hedonism reigns supreme. The
palace of Ravana is a wonder. There lusty maidens lie about in
garments loose from clasp to hem. Valmiki revels in eros and erotic
women in Lanka (5. 5.). Through their descriptions Valmiki the ascetic
may have had wish-fulfilment and sublimation of desires. The
sublimation having reached Hanuman reaches Sita. Lanka is a highly
urbanised society with epicurean life-style. But Hanuman finds Sita
away from the opulence of Lanka’s materialism. She is like the flame
on which Lanka’s culture could not cast any shade. Ravana himself
comes to seduce her but fails. She is like the woman that lifts one up
and unlike those women who entice one into carnal desires. Lanka could
be compared to a person whose conscious mind is given to material
consideration and whose starved consciousness at bottom or Sita cries
for love. Or else, Sita is the soul that longs to unite with Rama the
cosmic soul.

Chapter – IX

Cycle V --        

EGO FIGHTS ID

RAMA IN YOUTH
YUDDHAKANDA

Large portion of Sundarakanda and a greater part of the opening of
Yuddhakanda devote themselves to Ravana in Lanka. The story of Rama
began with a pen-picture of Ayodhya. In Kiskindhyakanda the capital of
Vali has been described (5.33). They serve a contrast to Lanka and
forge a pattern. Ayodhya bustles with various cultural and economic
activities. Its government is benevolent. It were the people who
wanted Rama and Rama was being made the heir-apparent only to please
the subjects. The king is not absolute; he acts according to the time-
honoured customs and rules decreed by the Brahmins. Lanka on the other
hand is highly regimented and well-built; it looks more like a fort of
a city and savours of a Nazzi capital in its military austerity. It is
as if the manifest form of an Ego, iron-willed, sans reasons and love,
determined to seek the object that the Id desires. It is a Huisclois
segregated from the world where the self is imprisoned in its castle
of narcissism built by himself. But Ayodhya recalls the Elysium in its
abundance and abandon. There is no trade and commerce in Lanka. Her
untold treasure has been amassed through lootings. While the citizens
in Ayodhya are busy doing their duties as laid down by the society,
great raksasas roam about in Lanka, their chief pursuit being physical
prowess and self-aggrandizement. Ravana the king of Lanka has total
power and is not restrained by any law. His career is one of a war-
monger and an individualistic adventurer, impelled by insatiable
personal cravings and he readily flings his family, his friends, his
community, his state into the danger of utter annihilation only to
amuse his own whims. Driven by jealousy he did hard penance and
attained power from Lord Rudra, the god who shouted and killed a
demon; thus he became invincible to all immortals. He is the tapasvi
of the nisada type. He overthrew the gods and harried hell, the abode
of yama. He broke every social institution. He put the world out of
joints. He carried off Sita in the guise of a mendicant. The ego that
has no higher value other than to glut the self cannot stick to
heroics and degenerates into committing frauds. This is an archetypal
incident. Satan degenerates into a toad in Paradise Lost.
In short the raksasas are the personal forms of the forces within and
without us,  that threaten our supreme values and plunges us into
anomy. Ravana the prince of darkness represents the attitude that
reduces love to mere lust and that represents lust for blood and
perversion of will. The Id within us whose sole pleasure is in the
satisfaction of desires, impels his ego to imperil the cosmic super-
ego that includes in it the social order and the order inherent in the
universe. Ravana the name derived from the root verb “Ru”implies a
loud and shrill yell of the Id which jars the harmony of the cosmic
rhythm that caused the universe.
We might try to characterise the demons as:

1.    Dualiser.The demons who have been described as “dasas” in
Vedas is etymologically derived from ‘dasa’ or to divide. It was
through Kaikeyi that this demon’s spirit showed its serpent-hood.

2.    They are gluttony personified. Vatapi episode illustrates
the point (3.11).

3.    They are self-love. When Ravana visits Narmada it seems to
him that nature is there only to feed his senses. Narmada is as if
damsel to be ravished by him (7.31, 24-30). Self-love has made him an
autocrat. Over and over again his friends and relatives and well-
wishers ask him not to enter into quarrel with Rama. But he pays no
heed to them. On the contrary they cause his ire. A king though, his
actions are directed toward the delight of his own self even if it
costs his tribe and kinsmen.

4.    They are great tapasvis. But the chief end of their
tapasya is to lord over the physical universe only to gratify their
senses.

5.    Their culture is characterised by orgies and sexual
voluptuousness.

6.    They are mighty individualists.

7.    They are sadists. They revel in wars and bloody executions.

8.     They avail themselves of every kind of fraud and
disguise to win their ends.

9.    Finally the great war between Rama and the demons lie
in the logic of affairs. Rama’s earlier strife with the demons, even
the episode of killing them by the great risis, gods and mighty
warriors in the near and remote past have been preludes to the final
encounter between Rama and Ravana. Or else, this is an encounter
between two opposing forces, between the archetypal powers of light
and darkness that has parallel only in the distant antiquity when the
gods fought the demons. While all anomic phenomena are ascribed to the
demons, the nomization is understood as the progressive victory of
their good or positive antagonist who is Rama. The theme of Zend
Avesta recurs.

Rama with the aid of monkeys builds a bridge across the ocean and
Lanka is under siege (6.22). Thus while Sita is a captive in Lanka,
Lanka is besieged by Rama. Lanka is in a state of war on two levels.
On one side she tries to enthral Sita, who is symbolic of the spirit
that cannot have any commerce with the world of matter which is
qualitatively different from the soul. Or else, Lanka is like a being
given to materialism whose starved soul cries for freedom in the gloom
of Ashoka grove. On the other side the mortal strife ensues between
Rama and Lanka; Rama seeks to deliver the spirit from the mesh of
body. He wants to kill the Id so that pure consciousness reveals
itself in its effulgence. He wants to rescue the Eros, the forces of
fertility from the clutches of Thanatos or forces of death and
destruction.

On the eve of the war, large number of Ravana’s kinsmen led by
Vibhisana Ravana’s brothers, leave Lanka to join Rama (6. 16,17). The
war begins. Either side is so evenly powerful, that no one can
forecast its results. And Kumbhakarna appears on the scene. He is
another manifestation of the Id. He was made to sleep at the commands
of the most high Lord. Because unless the uninhibited Id is kept
dormant the order in the creation could not operate. When the abode of
Id is under attack Kumbhakarna is awakened. And since evil is self-
destructive, Kumbhakarna is a machine who devours up his own kind even
(6.67.94,95). Indrajit is another facet of Id. Indrajit fights
clandestinely and unseen, being concealed behind the clouds. He is the
symbol of the darker desires that dare not expose themselves in their
real colours.
The ogres have been delineated as having uncommon features. The
fearsome Kavandha or many mouthed Ravana are examples. They are
unreal. Nothing in their likeness is found on earth. But when we see
them, we feel we know their like; we have as if known them in our
nightmares. The cruelty and horror that particularly figure in the
fight with Kumbhakarna, the grand and exaggerated scale in which the
battles have been borne alienate the readers, at times, from being
identified with the protagonists in the war; they have their impact
directly on the sub-conscious of the readers and listeners.
While Ravana and his tribe glory in wars, Rama is fully aware of the
horrors of war. He fights only when fight he must. Even at moments of
great danger, however, he restrains himself from using the deadliest
weapons, lest it causes great massacre of the enemies (6.63). At every
crucial moment he takes counsel of his friends and comrades; he asks
for their consent before taking any decision and acts accordingly.
Whereas in Ravana’s camp, they often join in the war grudgingly
blaming Ravana for the misfortunes in Ravana’s camp. Everyone is there
to cheer up other to die for Rama and his cause. Eros, or zest for
life and love, unites Rama and his fellow-warriors.
In the great war the ogres employ magic. They create illusory head of
Rama to dismay Sita, and fictitious Sita is publicly killed by
Indrajit (6.80). It is Oedipus complex described in visual terms. But
true to heroic conventions Rama does not knowingly avail himself of
magic. He employs his truthfulness against every fraud of magic. He
employs his truthfulness against every fraud.

On the empirical level, magic implies the subordination of the
supernatural to empirical ends. It is the individual who employs it to
fulfil some extrinsic goal. It is the use of impersonal power. On the
contrary Rama is ever aware of the intrinsic attributes of the super-
empirical, and his actions are of collective nature. On a deeper
level, the humanisation of the natural forces and the naturalization
of human forces might imply each other just as the forces of light
might ever imply those of darkness and each will complete the other,
ever and anon.
On another level the heroes are the archetypal Purusa who dispel the
world of illusion or Maya. Rama will rid the mind of the illusions
sprung from self-love, so that truth shines in all its glory. One
finds nothing unnatural or miraculous in Rama’s behaviour. He is cent
percent human and thus rises to superhuman heights. Occasionally both
Rama and Laksmana, are overwhelmed by their enemies; they are near
death; at such moments of helplessness they remember their cosmic
self, at the innermost reigns of their consciousness and resurrect
(6.59. 112). When Rama is at his heights in the war, there are myriads
of Rama crowding the vast battlefield. Rama himself rolls like the
wheel, symbolic of total life and of that dynamics that impels this
universe through death and rebirth, destruction and preservation
annihilation and resurrection (6.93.27,28). Thus at times of crisis,
he brings into fill play the divinity that lies at bottom in all
things great and small. He is in ecstasy; the word ecstasy
etymologically means to stand beyond one’s self.

No wonder that, instructed by Agastya, Rama prays to the sun, the god-
head for winning the battle (6.105). The sun is pure consciousness
through which everything in this universe is intelligible. But since
it is not mortal thought or object of thought, it cannot be grasped
physically. So Sampati and Hanumana failed to reach it.
 Valmiki reaches the end of his powers when he describes the great
battle between Rama and Ravana. It is like ocean contending with
ocean, mountain battling with mountain, skies warring with the skies.
The fight between Rama and Ravana is like itself; it has no match in
past history.

The war between Rama and Ravana, is surely the war between man and
his lower self or Id. It is curious to note here that the weapons that
Viswamitra bestowed on Rama were but those that would rush to Rama’s
aid, as soon as Rama remembered them mentally. Thus the armoury where
these weapons remain is obviously the self itself. And it is self that
can save itself from its own ignorance.

The war ends in victory of Rama. Rama loves even his enemies. He
heartily asks Vibhisana to observe the last rites of Ravana(6.109). No
enmity persists against those who are dead. He eulogizes the great
heroics of Ravana. There is a certain refinement of culture in
arranging funeral for the noble enemy. This is a sine qua non, for a
heroic poem to be named epic.

 Valmiki sings the heroic requiem that rescues Sita opening the magic
casements on perilous foams. But presently she leaps into the fire to
prove her chastity. No trick is used, no tarncappe of Nibelungenlied.
She throws herself into the, to the loud laments of everyone present.
While Sita burns, Gods praise Rama. There however nature itself stands
up to defend Sita. Fire-god himself appears with Sita in his
translucent arms and hands her over to Rama saying : “Here is Sita;
she has no sin”(6.118). The Fire-god further adds that she
had tremendous ordeals while she was shut up in Lanka. But she held up
her chastity against all odds there. This suggests that the soul or
the pure mind has intrinsic merits. There is legitimation of women,
who are abdicated and even touched against their will. Mere physical
touch, cannot undo the purity of a woman. Amidst great joy, Rama
unites with his Sita and returns to Ayodhya from exile. This is a
structure that occurred in the past when Rama, newly wedded to Sita,
returned home to the joy of everyone. At Ayodhya, Bharata and his
colleagues clad in saffron have been waiting for last twelve years for
Rama’s home-coming just as Sita waited for Rama to deliver her from
the nightmare of captivity. With Rama’s return the whole of Ayodhya
comes back to life and vivacity. Ayodhya was as if like a body, whose
soul or consciousness had withdrawn itself from the body and the
external world to sojourn in the unknown recesses of the mind.

 The protagonist, aid or hindrance, and success or failure, being the
three contiguous motifs constituting a cycle, we have encountered
three cycles in Balakanda and one cycle in Ayodhakanda. Valmiki, was
the protagonist of the first cycle; Dasaratha was the protagonist of
the second cycle. Rama has become the protagonist of the third and
fourth. Kiskindhyakanda, Sundarakanda and Yuddhakanda make the fifth
cycle. Here Rama the protagonist availing himself of the aid of
Hanuman has regained Sita. And this is the cycle, perhaps, for the
attainment of which the earlier cycle toiled. The Yuddhakanda ends
with the happy comeback of the hero accompanied with his brother and
wife. The other pair of brothers who have been lingering at home,
counting days for Rama’s comeback are united with him and his party.
In fairy tales often the brother who stays back goes to the rescue of
his wandering brother. Here also Bharata was getting prepared to rush
aid to Rama. But it has not been necessary. The two pairs of the
brothers, commonly symbolise the two aspects of a self. The myth that
Visnu has been born in the form of four brothers only reiterates the
truth. While Bharata remains at home as a mere titular head of the
state on behalf of Rama in the robes of a sannyasin, he signifies that
part of ego which moves about in the conscious world listless to the
demands of the Id from the outer world. The other part of ego in Rama
delves deep at the heart of the unconscious. The relation of
Shatrughna to Barata is parallel to that of Laksmana to Rama. While
the one part of self plays the superego, the other part serves it as
ego.

 In the trinity Rama, Sita & Laksmana while Rama is the superego,
Laksmana its attendant ego, Sita is the pure consciousness deep down
the unconscious protected by the two. Now that all the brothers along
with Sita unite, there is the integration of the personality. The
queen mothers, the minsters, the priests and the people uniting with
the brothers and their wives, revive Ayodhya to life and jubilation
which is itself symbolic of mind and which had become neurotic. The
scene of union among friends and jubilation at the end of this
Yuddhakanda reminds us of the end of the earlier cycle in Aranvakanda.
Both read like fairy tales.

 We shall recapitulate here the stories in terms of motifs of the two
cycles in –(1)Ayodhyakanda and (2) Kiskindhakanda, Sundarakanda and
Yuddhakanda (actually the two are subsets of a larger set) as one
cycle and read it in the context of morphology of fairy tale as put
forward by Vladimir Propp. Propp speaks of 31 functions that bring
about changes in initial situation to develop a fairy tale.
Propp’s first function is that one of the members of a family absents
himself. This is there in Ayodhyakanda, Bharata is absent.

The second function  states that an interdiction is addressed to the
hero. Through the machinations of Kaikeyi Rama has to give up his
claim to throne. He has to leave Ayodhya for woods.
The third function is that, the interdiction is violated. It is
violated indeed. Though Rama obeys Kaikeyi, Bharata does not accept
the throne; he rules on behalf of Rama.

 Propp’s tenth function is that the hero leaves home. Rama leaves
home.

The fifth function is that the villain receives information about his
victim. Ravana, the villain gets information from Surpanakha(3.34).

The sixth function is that the villain attempts to deceive his victim
the hero, in order to take possession of the hero or of the belonging
of the hero. Ravana himself goes to Sita’s cottage in disguise while
Maricha takes the shape of a magic deer to draw the attention of Sita
so that at her bidding both Rama deer to draw the attention of Sita so
that at her bidding both Rama and Laksmana  are separated from her.

The seventh function is that the victim of the hero, submits to
deception and thereby unwittingly helps his enemy. Rama, at Sita’s
insistence goes after the magic deer. The magic deer impersonates Rama
and cries for Laksmana. Laksmana has to go after Rama. And Sita
becomes at the mercy of Ravana – the villain.

 Thus Propp’s eighth function that the villain causes  injury and the
eight (a) function that one member of a family either lacks something
or desires to have something is thereby fulfilled. Rama has lost Sita
and desires to get her back.

 The hero now is transformed into a seeker. Propp’s tenth function is
that the seeker decides to counteract. Rama promises to find out his
lost jewel.

The hero is tested interrogated attacked etc. which prepared the way
for his receiving helper. That is Propp’s twelfth function. Propp’s
thirteenth function is that the hero reacts to the actions of the
future donor. Both these are satisfied in the Rama story. Rama kills
Vali on behalf of Sugriva.

Propp’s fourteenth function is that the hero acquires the use of
magical agent. This Rama gets by way of earning the love devotion and
friendship of Hanuman.

The fifteenth function of Propp is that the hero is transferred,
delivered or led to the whereabouts of an object of search. With the
aid of Hanuman, Rama, raises the siege of Lanka.

The sixteenth function witnesses the villain join in direct combat.
Rama and Ravana fight in the Yuddhakanda.

The seventeenth functions brands the hero. The eighteenth function is
that of the defeat of the villain. Rama’s heroics are displayed in his
fight with Ravana. Ravana is defeated and killed.

Propp’s thirty-first function is achieved when Rama gets at his
object of pursuit,in Sita.

Thus the story of Rama as delineated in the Ayodhyakanda,
Kiskindhakanda, Sundarakanda and Yuddhakanda has sixteen functions out
of thirty-one functions of fairy tale by Propp. It is not necessary
that all the thirty one functions should be there to make a fairy
tale.

We have emphasised the fairy tale nature of the story. Because soon
the coming events will metamorphose the fairy tale element into a
myth.

Chapter –X

Cycle VI -  

EGO FACES DEATH FOURSQUARE

RAMA IN MANHOOD

UTTARAKANDA

i

Uttarakanda opens with the risis thronging together at Ayodhya, come
to greet Rama, on his taking chargeof the throne, back from the exile.
Agastya tells Rama the family history of Ravana and Ravana’s career
that were unknown herebefore. The part of Hanuman is touched upon also
(7.1-35). The guests depart Sita is pregnant. She longs to visit an
asrama (7.42).
The childing mother is introvert. In the meantime rumours among the
subjects of Ayodhya spread fast doubting the chastity of Sita. Rumour
is wide-spread only when the subject is important and the ambiguity of
the evidence pertaining to the topic at issue is high. The subject
here is the legitimacy of the child that will be born to Sita – to
inherit the throne of Ayodhya. Since Sita lived long among the
raksasas, grave suspicion among the people as to her chastity will be
there. In fact, the emotions of the people of Ayodhya for Rama are
beyond dispute. And it was this excessive love of the people of
Ayodhya, who wanted Rama exclusively, operated in spreading the rumour
against Sita. The people have been called prakriti. Prakriti also
means thoughtless female principle. Rama is the purusa and his men are
the prakriti. At once Rama abandons Sita(7.45). Just as Kaikeyi’s
fears led to the banishment of Rama, so do the doubts of the people
result in the expulsion of Sita. This is a unique act on the part of
Rama. There has been the conflict between Rama’s role as the husband
and his role as the king. Rama has been born in the family f kings
whose chief task was to please their subjects. Viswamitra taught him
in the lore of acting on behalf of the social ethos, goading him to
kill the ambitious ogres wo created trouble in the society. And Rama
responds to the voice of the people. He deems the role of a king as
his head, which he holds high even when his other limbs are mutilated.
Or else, Viswamitra had advised to kill Tadaka, even when she was a
female; thus he advised Rama to give priority to his role as a king. A
risi withdrawn from the din of the society could live like Gautama
with a sinner who has been redeemed. But in the capacity of the king
Rama cannot. The secret of Rama’s leadership lies here. The leader
himself is led by those whom he seeks to lead. The leader is never
absolutely free. He works and has to work in the restraining frame-
work of laws, institutions, mores, and customs. The leader must play
the role that the people rooted in tradition want him to perform. As
it has been already observed Rama was able to generate the we feeling
among his group during the wars against Lanka. He is born a king.
Ravana, the son of a risi has aspired to be a king. Ravana’s auto
critic leadership is a product of wishful thinking than science.
Ravana has been the case of power-seeking which according to
psychology is a compensation for a real or imagined inferiority. Later
poets sometimes could not bear with any fault of Rama who has been
with them a cultic hero, transferred from culture hero of the Valmiki
Ramayana. Hence, they imagine that Sita playfully drew a portrait of
Ravana which was found out by Rama. This led Rama to ostracise Sita.
Banished by Rama, Sita is left all alone in the woods, in the vicinity
of Valmiki’s asrama. She finds shelter there. Two sons are born to
her. They are taught the life story of their father. They sing the
Ramayana in front of their father, (Rama did not however knows them as
his own) ( this is the reverse of Odysseus listening to the Bard
incognito). Rama learns who they are and sends message to Valmiki to
send Sita for another test of character. And Sita this time asks the
Mother Earth to give her refuge, if she has ever remained chaste to
her husband. And lo! There springs up a throne decorated with divine
serpents and Goddess Earth lifts up Sita, seats her on the throne and
vanishes into the nether world. In her earlier test she leapt into the
fire charged with Eros or Zest for life. In her later test she does
not do any such feat, but haunted by Thanatos or Death she prays to
Earth so that the Earth gives her the place of safety. She dies for
Rama. In death does she unite with him? Or else why should Earth
herself take her away holding out that she is chaste. A chaste woman
whose head is full of Rama, must not seek even death unless death
itself is union with Rama to her. Or is love associated with its
synechdoche hatred. Is she avenging herself upon Rama? Or is she keen
on going back to the womb? Is the death of the heroine a variant of
the fertility myth and significantly enough Sita was found from a
harrow.
Rama wants to rack the earth to get back Sita. Or else he will also
enter into the bowels of the Earth to live forever with Sita hence.
But the poet of Ramayana has not ventured across death the way.
Orpheus pursued his mistress in Hades. Brahma asks Rama to listen to
Ramayana – Rama’s own life, to learn hidden truths of life. When Rama
sought to harry earth, he became the role. He must be reminded that he
has only to put on a role. Rama as a leader knows distinction between
his personal views and judgments which he usually keeps aside and the
views of his people which he has to represent. Symbolically no man
realises his ideal in the contingent world. Orpheus regained his
Euridyce only to lose her for ever just as Rama rescues Sita from
Lanka only to lose her for ever. Poets like Tulsidas and Bhavabhuti
have not dwelled on this motif of Sita’s going down to the underworld.
This shows that they did not want to find any fault of Rama. When the
hero becomes a passion with the reader such readings take place.

 It is interesting to note that when Lava and Kusa sing Ramayana, they
sing before Rama even the events to come, including Rama’s demise. The
opening sargas of the Ramayana have dwelled on poetic imagination. And
obviously imagination according to Ramayana has functions – (i) the
imagination could discover what is hidden from the eye. (ii) It could
see into what lies in the future even (7. 91-98).

 If Sita’s death kept Rama complacent, Laksmana’s death cannot. There
comes Kala assuming the form of a tapasvi. He seeks an interview with
Rama on condition that if any one overhears them or espies them he
should be killed by Rama. Therefore Laksmana, the most trusted friend
and brother of Rama stands at the gate to see to that no one overhears
or espies them. In the meantime Durbasa turns up. Laksmana must inform
Rama presently of the sage’s arrival. Or else Ayodhya will be put to
fire. Laksmana decides to go to Rama, even if he is killed, so that
Ayodhya is saved from the wrath of the saint.

Rama’s life – long pursuit was to keep commitments and to maintain
social ethos. And the fatal coincidence of the visits of Kala and
Durbasa lead him to a dire situation. He wanted to uphold the words of
his father and became indirectly the cause of his father’s death. He
had to agree to the death of Sita to keep his promise to the people.
And this time accident impels to commit fratricide, because he is
commited to kala.

Laksmana is prepared to die in his brother’s hand. And finally
Laksmana commits suicide on the banks of Sarayu. It is altruistic
suicide. Here individual’s sense of belonging to a group is so strong
as to create a sense of total obligation. Just as Patroclus’ death
charged Achilles with anger and activity, so does Laksmana’s passing
away goad Rama on to self-annihilation. Sita has been dead a long time
back. Laksmana dies. The society with Ramachandra is destroyed. The
conversation through which society is sustained has come to an end for
Rama. Kala himself tells Rama that he is Rama’s son. This is a fatal
conversation. And it is Kala who becomes an instrument of Rama’s
death. Rama goes to death in an attitude, the rituals are performed.
Valmiki being a poet par excellence does not dwell on the moment of
Ram’s death. He delineates how the two of his brothers, their wives,
and the friends and the citizens of Ayodhya, old and young, all follow
Rama.  This reminds one of their following Rama at the time of his
banishment in Ayodhyakanda. At that they had to bear the separation
from Rama, their heart of hearts. This time they all follow Rama
joyfully and embrace death with Rama in great bliss in the waters of
Sarayu (7. 103-110)

Valmiki categorically points out that there is a community suicide
and nobody dies of grief. Rather everyone is glad to follow Rama to
his death. This is a rare vision. Death implies the fulfilment of the
heart’s desire. Death implies in the case of the followers of Rama the
consummation of their love. It is clear before the readers the
onlookers, that a generation of best men passed away.

The hero with whom the welfare of the tribe and nation are identified
must die in order to atone for the people’s sins and restore the land
to fruitfulness. The very concept of leadership is associated with the
concept of scape-goat. Rama has not been crucified surely but he had
to undergo sorrows and sufferings that are more than mortal ones can
bear. The loss of his father, the loss of his wife, the loss of his
beloved brother and finally his suicide suggest what great sufferings
he had to undergo before his death. If jewish priests had not
pronounced their self-seeking verdict on Rama, as they did on Christ,
it were Kala and Durbasa who had pronounced doom on Rama’s career.
Also it were the people whose demands led to the crucifixion of Sita
to the great loss of Rama (They wanted Jesus to die and not Barabbas).

In the Psychology of the unconscious in the chapters entitled the
“Sacrifice and Mana personality” Jung opines that the hero as it
appears in the individual fantasy is an exaggerated childish self that
must be sacrificed if the libido or the zest for life has to move
forward to active life. The hero is an expression of a great physical
power. The life energy in its spontaneous expression generates the
hero-figures of myths and legands like that of Rama. If the spiritual
power that animates a hero-figure like Rama, is understood
psychologically as the awakened sense of our common nature, then there
is an exultation felt by us at the death of the hero. Sita is
sacrificed in front of a large crowd. When Sita goes down the earth,
men and gods exult. Rama also dies similarly. He is aware of the
ultimate power of Kala. He goes to death after having finished his
rituals in gaudy attire being followed by all the world. Vasistha
performs the rituals for Rama’s death. Rama walks under a splendid
umbrella (umbrella is sun-symbol) accompanied by the brightest
Brahmins. When Rama steps into Sarayu, bugles are blown, Gods shower
flowers. This puts in our mind the religious exaltation that the
primitive group felt when they made sacrifice of the divine king or a
sacred animal, the representatives of the tribal; thereby through
shedding of the blood they felt that life strengthened and renewed.
The rejoicing at the time of death make death bearable or keep it
within the bounds of sanity or reality of social world.

Rama is the primal purusa come to lift up the social ethos from
degeneration. He is the ego of cosmic mind. His suicide in the river
Sarayu is singularly symbolic. The waters symbolise the unconscious.
The name Sarayu etymologically implies that it springs from a lake
(sara=lake; yu=to be united). It stands for cosmic mind. When Rama
disappears into Sarayu, he becomes one with the cosmic mind. The river
also symbolises female principle. Rama or Bhagavana Visnu the
transcendental self is once again immersed in or engrossed with Maya.
The motif of Visnu’s nindra engrossed with yoga-maya is a recurrent
one in Hindu thinking. And once Rama passes away, Time, Kala or Kronos
has its sway over the universe again and time rolls down from Treta to
Dvapara. An era passes away.

 In short the story of Rama symbolically dwells on the grand truths of
existence where the indescribable and nirguna Brahman becomes saguna.
Often the saguna purusa asserts itself as Rama does, but finally he is
lulled to sleep by Maya. The hero Ram is symbolic of the sun. The sun
has to set after its hour on Earth. The Earth and Sky try to mingle.
With the death of Sita the spirit of Earth went back to its elements.
With the death of Rama the spirit of Ether goes back to its own
elements.

 The riddle of our life is that we are awefully conscious of our
consciousness though this consciousness is always through the
consciousness of the subject and we cannot establish any satisfactory
connexion between this consciousness and objective world. Rama’s life
is torn by the issue. Of course, he is not given to introspection
unlike existentialist heroes. But events speak on this behalf. His
whole life has been a sequence of commitments that led him through
untold sufferings to death. But as he knows full well in his heart
that he is all alone in the realms of consciousness, he keeps his
commitments. Death finally ends the strife in man raged by his attempt
to reconcile being in nothingness. After his death at Sarayu, Brahma
tells Rama’s Visnu self that in mortal body as Visnu was, he must be a
prey to contradictions. In his divine Visnu form Rama is omnipotent.
Although Rama has never behaved as conscious of godhood, everyone
about him, admits of his godhood. Even if his godhood is accepted, the
Ramayana points out that God Himself in man’s frame cannot get rid of
contradictions inherent in man’s existence.

Rama whose career has been chequered by heroics has to pay for it by
dying an unnatural death, every war being basically annihilation of
the self. True that Rama never went to war in bravado; wars he did
only when they were a must for him to rescue the risis and their rites
from the raksasas. Still a warrior cannot have a natural death. Rama’s
death might be looked upon life-in death. He is surely the martyr to
the higher values of human life.

The Ramayana ends with Rama’s death or Rama’s realisation of
transcendent self. This happens in the seventh Kanda. The yoga informs
us of seven chakras in human body. When the Eros or Kula-Kundalini,
touches the seventh or Sahasrasa after having pierced six chakras one
has the realisation of the self. One wonders whether Rama’s penance
helps him to touch the seventh chakra at the end of Uttarakanda.

 What read like fairy tale till the end of Yuddhakanda has been thus
transformed into a myth. Myth is about a particular hero. There is the
myth of Theseus or Hercules. Here is the myth of Rama; its title is
Ramayana. The hero of the Fairy tale is everyman. The hero of a myth
is a culture-hero Rama is a culture hero. He is at the heart of
millions of men. When he deserts his native city Ayodhya, people
follow him till the bordars of the state. They lament. When Rama rules
them, people demand of him the giving up of his childing wife. When he
goes to death, people follow him. Just as characters react with one
another similarly a whole culture seems to react with Rama’s character
and Rama reacts with the whole culture. This makes Rama’s stature sky
scrapping. He inspires us with awe. The heroes of the fairy tale are
not awe – inspiring. The end of the hero in Ramayana is tragic. But
fairy tales have happy ending. Sometimes again, the end is sad. It is
never tragic unlike myths. The style of narration in fairy tales is
causal; the style of narrating a myth is massive and grand. Fairy tale
is a love-gift. But myths are different. Here the demands of the super-
ego on the hero is so heavy and exacting that mortals rarely can dare
imagine themselves in the role of the hero.

                                Ego mediates on the reality
                                        before its death

In Uttarakanda Rama himself is a narrator. His immediate object is to
exhort on the rules of administration or on the observation of  rituals. But at bottom they seem to be the attempts of self-  realisation. That is why he recounts the reincarnation of Vasistha and  Agastya who have played the role of superego in relation to Rama,  throughout his career. Both water God and Sun-god ejaculated! Their  semens into a pitcher wherefrom the greatest risis sprang. This tells  that we are not born of semen and overy; they are but instrumental in  bringing about our birth; we are something else than body (7. 57). The  story of  yayati giving away senility to his child in exchange of the  youth of the child and giving it back to the child again shows that  youth  and sex could be put on or put off; they have intrinsic worth (7. 58). This is not all. He asks whether there is really any duality
at all in male and female. Hence he narrates the ILa story.

                                        The story of ILa

 In this section we shall dwell on the story of Ila which will reveal
especially the attitude towards sex held by Valmiki and Rama. The
episode occurs in the 87th and 88th sargas in the Uttarkanda of
Ramayana. The story of the episode might be told as follows:-

 Lord Sankara in order to humour Parvati took the guise of a woman and
was enjoying his spouse in a forest. And in that region of the forest
every male no matter whether plant or animal changed their sex and
became female. King Ila engaged in haunting, having killed thousands
of animals and yet remaining unsatisfied entered into the charmed
forest. And consequently he turned into a woman. He learned that it
was Sankara’s trick; he went to Sankara and begged to be turned into a
male again. But Sankara refused to give such a boon; then the king
implored Parvati to grant his prayer. Parvati said that she could
grant only half of the prayer because the rest half should be granted
by Sankara alone. The king Ila then being overjoyed asked for male-
hood and female-hood every alternate month. This Parvati granted.

 Ila in the female form roamed about in the woodland with her once –
upon-a-time-male now female retinues. In course of her wanderings she
came across Budha who was plunged into penance being immersed in the
water. Ila fell in love with him and Budha also responded to her love,
so they cohabited and month later Ila turned into male and forget his
female past. At the instance of Budha he remained there practising
penance. The next month he turned into a woman again and so on. Thus
after a span of time Ila gave birth to a child in Pururava. Thereafter
at the instance of Budha, there was a sacrifice called Asyamedha that
pleased Sankara and gave back Ila his former permanent male-hood.

This is a fantastic story. It dwells on how a male turns into a
female for a month and then a male for a month alternately. But on a
second thought the story may have a deeper psychological import.

The story has the look of a myth no doubt. And the story has been
told by Rama to illustrate the efficacy of Asvamedha or horse-
sacrifice. This story of Rama in turn is being told by Valmiki. Thus
there is a tale within a tale or doors within doors into the realm of
myth. The twist is that when we are about to open the door unto a
house of fantasy, we are already within the courtyard or the outer
wall of the house of fantasy. Rama tells us the story of Ila. But he
himself already is a part of the myth.

 Now as to the adventure of Ila that he reaches the charmed forest
might be interpreted in terms of the fact that Ila, or Rama himself,
the speaker of the story of Ila might have had a dream through which
the speaker’s or the king Ila’s deeper desires are gratified.

The king Ila’s adventures across the charmed woodland and his return
therefrom, might be interpreted as his journey across the subconscious
and unconscious region of mind and return therefrom, being wiser than
ever.

 It should be, however, noted that the king comes across the magic
woodland where every animal and plants whatever are female and he
himself is turned into a female only after he has butchered several
beasts in course of haunting and was not satisfied and wanted to kill
more animals.

The motif of hunting is very significant here. Is the king punished
by being made a woman because of his extreme thirst for animal blood?

The architect of the whole Ramayana of which Ila’s story is a mere
motif or a very small constituent element, Valmiki cursed the hunter,
when the latter killed the bird. And the king Ila has been also
transformed.

The motif of hunting might imply a conscious desire on the part of
the king to become extraordinarily masculine and dominating. He is a
sadist. By way of hunting he tries to make a myth about himself that
he is very masculine which is shattered by the discovery of his real-
self in the region of the subconscious; he finds himself turned into a
woman. It is the weaker sex that becomes dominating and cruel when it
comes to power.

The king being the male penetrating into the woodland, symbol of
female organ, (his object) becomes identified with the object himself.
The curious thing about king Ila’s story is that he remains she Ila
every alternate month. The other months he is a male. And for the
period he remains a male, he leads a hermit’s life. The sadist king
turns a masochist.

The story may have sprung from the socially convenient idea that a
male can do anything that a woman can do or it may have sprung from
the fact that a male is envious of a woman who has the capacity for
carrying a child.

Finally a male is fundamentally envious of its opposite sex. The myth
of Ila points out that the king in order to bring forth a child has to
turn into a female. In short, here common sense prevails and it is
asserted that only the female can bring forth a child.

But that Ila, a male turns into a female shows that a male wants to
have the privilege of a woman. Under the spell of Parvati’s boon Ila
is oblivious of her earlier male existence and when female Ila turns
into male Ila he forgets her female existence. This shows that in a
mortal frame one cannot be two-in-one, male and anti-male together.

Furthermore, it is a commentary of the shortness of human memory.
Besides it might be looked upon as a commentary on the process as to
the cycle of birth. Our birth is but a forgetting.
Further it is noted in the story that Ila as long as he was under the
spell, as soon as he turned into a male he longed to go back home
where his wife and children lived. But the moment he turned into a
female he forgot them. Thus psychologically, our attractions to the
world are conditioned by our sex.
Mercury or Budha cohabits with Ila. He is found by Ila to practise
penance immersed in water. Water and water reservoir symbolise female
organ.
There is another story within the Ila story. Lord Siva wanted to
humour Parvati by displaying himself as a female. And hence everything
in the world surrounding him turned into a female. Dr. Jung points out
that every Adam has his Eve at his heart. That a man loves a woman
implies that he projects in what woman the Eve that he has in his
mind. When a man turns into a woman he becomes identified with the Eve
that lurks in his sub-conscious. We might interpret the turning of
Siva as well as of all the males including Ila, from this standpoint.
Or else, this shows that whileva mortal cannot be male and female in
one, gods can become a male or female at their will. Thus man attains
his wish fulfilment by imagining gods to be capable of that which men
cannot in their mortal frame.
Besides, God is two-in-one, that is male and female. This idea is
recurrent in Hindu mythology. A thinly veiled female gender or
divinity is revealed in many stories in Hindu mythology as when we
find the universe in the mouth of God. Arjuna finds the cosmos in
Krishna in Ayodhya XI in the Gita. Yasoda also finds the worlds in
Krishna’s mouth. The mouth is not only the belly of God, but the womb.
Siva swallowed Sukra and emitted him through his phallus.
Again man suffers from a consciousness of a dichotomy between
conscious mind and object, between male and female and so on. This
dichotomy is resolved in the wonderland of the sub-conscious in the
magic woodland where all the world is thoroughly turned into female.
It is said that finally an Asvamedha satisfied Siva and the male Ila
remains for all time hence. The horse flesh is a substitute, thus for
woman-hood , that is sacrificed to gratify the primordial purpose.
Or else, the killing of horse might mean the killing of the lust for
hunting and that dispels curse upon Ila.
 It is Rama who narrates the story of Ila in Uttarakanda in front of
Laksmana and Bharata. This ironically suggests that Rama is gradually
seeing into the truth of Maya where love and affection are conditioned
by sex. He is gradually discovering his transcendental self and he
will soon leave the mortal world where love and affection are
conditioned by trivial sex-distinction. The story is a commentary on
Rama’s life as well. The very way he acted, his own life, has been
determined by the very sex with which he has been born.
Sex change is rather an uncommon theme, occurring only in earlier
myths. We might try to understand the sex-change theme as treated in
the Ila episode by linking it with Greek myths on the same theme.

 Tiresias changed into a woman after he had struck at two coupling
snakes with his stave. In the case of Ila also he turned into a female
when he butchered many animals. He became a male after he sacrificed
the horse. The motif of the snakes in the Tiresias story and the
sacrifice of the animals in Ila story and sex change in both cases are
associated with fertility.

Tiresias turned into a woman settled a dispute among gods about which
sex derived more pleasure from intercourse. Ila was elated with joy at
the outset when he learnt that he would remain a woman every alternate
month.

The ancient Greek rituals demanded the reversal of the normal order
of dress and behaviour and changed in status of the initiate. Hence
there were transversite practices. Possibly this explains why Achilles
was brought up as a girl in Skyros, although he did not forget his
male sexhood. One wonders whether male Ila, being turned into female
Ila, performs some ritual which has been symbolically described in
terms of the bringing forth of a child. Lord Siva also in female outer
from humours Parvati.

But what does the story signify in Rama’s life? Earlier also we met
with incidents where a male falls into water only to turn into a
female. Getting drowned in water always implies birth. Lord Visnu took
the female form in Mohini to allure the demons. All these show that in
every male there is a female and vice versa. Sex is not integral to a
personality. Hence Rama seems to attain a trans-sexual stage of mind.
Or else, he can find Sita in himself only. Ila observed horse-
sacrifice to get back his male-self. Rama is about to perform horse-
sacrifice getting his cue from Ila. It will separate Sita  from Rama.
Because Sita is now deeply seated in Rama’s self only. Rama is about
to discover himself only as the one without any second. On the surface
however it is on this occasion that Valmiki appears and Sita goes down
to Patala. The earth and sky loved each other . But their separation
becomes inevitable.


                                The ego in retrospect analysed
                                        Rama as hero

                                                iii

There is a grandeur about Ravana’s character. His heroics are beyond
dispute. But they have been actuated by harsh individualism. A self
seeking person cannot see the world steadily and as a whole. He sees
it in fragments. He lacks empathy into the world besides him. So he
interprets the higher values as consciousness in terms of matter. An
egoist and materialist Ravana cannot stick to higher values other than
the gratification of self. If gratification of self is the be all and
end all, fair means are as good as foul ones to achieve that. So
Ravana steals Sita like a coward and degenerates. It is from fear of
death inherent in his mind, that he injures others and attacks the
realm of Yama even. In the great war between him and Rama, it seems
that he is foredoomed to destruction. He himself also seems to be
aware of his own past actions, at lucid intervals of his thought that
recoil upon him.
        There is a tragic glow about his character.
        B ut Ravana pales beside Rama.
Ramayana is more like an Odyssey where adventures follow adventures
Ulysses does not seek them; but they fall on his way home. Similarly
Rama does not seek adventures. He has no mission in the sense. Aeneas
has. He does not crave for honour and glory in war unlike the Greeks
or Trojans. All that he longs for is to lead a life as ordained by his
station and duties. He is a Ksatrya. A ksatrya is one who rescues
others from injury (ksatat trayate iti ksatrya). Hence he must wield
the weapon against wrong-doers when there is no other alternative.
Sita is stolen by  Ravana. So he will punish Ravana and rescue her.
But he is not actuated by any heroic ideal Greek style. Heroes in the
Trojan war scare the gods. Rama strikes terror into the heart of gods
even. He kills Ravana whom gods could not overwhelm. But true heroism
does not lie in his heroics in wars. True heroism consists in control
over five senses. The episode of Visvamitra and Vasistha is
interesting in this context (1.52-65). Viswamitra is heroic in his
mighty struggles for transcending his ego and for controlling his
desires. When he achieves victory over himself he is acknowledged as a
Brahmin. The episode has been narrated on an epic scale. It defines
what true heroism was like as per the Indian payche. Rama is the
character (of which Viswamitra has been a type) who is though not
incapable of passions is always composed. He is superhuman in his
sufferings and in his great ability to suffer with a superhuman
equanimity. The very Sita whom he recovers at the cost of a great
bloodshed is abandoned because the people demand this from him and he
being born to the station and duties of a ksatrya must honour them.
His efforts have been ever directed to effect harmony in chaos. But
his every effort in that direction has been given stiff resistence by
the force of chaos. At the end he has to commit suicide. And the
empire of Ayodhya has to be given away among children; it is broken
into fragments. Herein lies the tragedy of human efforts as typified
in Rama’s career.
Thus Ramayana is more like a Paradise Lost in its denigration of the
romantic hero in Ravana and Ravana and rehabilitating the virtuous as
the ideal of mankind and the true heroic chosen from the false.

 We have traced the development of the ego in course of our narrative.
Let us now recapitulate it on the plane of discourse. The Rama figure
is an archetypal leader. Men are aware of death. They are afraid that
one day when it is too late, they might find that, they lived wrong or
that they did not live at all. Scared of such inevitabilities they
want to explore some meaning of life by participating in history.
Hopes for being remembered by history is a substitute for mortality.
Consequently they want to kill for an ideology or for their nation or
for their leader. ‘Their slogan is kill and survive. The man who can
provide them with such a world view are leaders who are never
forgotten. Is not Rama that kind of leader whose charisma led
countless monkeys to kill the demons in Lanka?
But there is the other kind of effort, where men aware of the
finiteness try to earn universal brotherhood. It prefers self
sacrifice to killing. It does not try to prove itself as great and
immortal; it tries to be saintly partaking of eternal life. Those who
embody such qualities in their own person are emulated and followed.
They are the light through the ages. Their motto is rather “die and
become”. Rama in his life-style of being acted upon, than acting,
shows the highest form of leaders of this kind. Vibhisan, Hanuman
accept eternal life only to worship Rama. Thus Rama unites the two
opposite forms of leadership in his person. His followers also partake
of that quality of Rama.
The scholars find that Rama of the first kanda and of the seventh
kanda is not consistent with the Rama of the rest of the kandas. For
example Prof. Macdonell observes: -
“. . . and the human hero of the five genuine books has in the first
& last become identified with the god Visnu, his divine nature in
these additions being always present to the minds of their authors.”
But this is not true. The story of the birth of ego is the result of
divine deliberation. It has leaped up from the cosmic mind. But once
it is face to face with the reality, there is ambivalence in the
portrayal of its true nature. Take for example the Ahalya story in
Balakanda. There, while Ahalya worships him as god incarnate, Rama
prostratrates at her feet and introduces himself as the son of
Dasaratha. In the Ayodhyakanda Sumitra happily asks Laksmana to
accompany Rama to the forests and serve him. For Rama is the supreme
Purusha. In the forests risis have been waiting to have a last meeting
with him before death. For example Savari has been waiting till she
meets Rama at the end of Aranyakanda; then she doffs her body. This is
not all. Wherever he goes, demons and devils have been transformed by
him. We can cite the case of Viradha. Earlier Viradha had desired
divine damsels. This pleasure principle brought his transformation
into an ogre. When he dies in the hand of Rama he goes back to his
original self. The Kavandha also goes back to his original self. When
they fight Rama, they often do not know who Rama is. Only at the point
of death they learn it, they die in joy. This shows that Rama was the
godhead with many of his contemporaries. They often found a meaning in
dying in his hands or dying for him. This is symptomatic of
charismatic personality of Rama. It happens with every great leader.
He gives meaning to the life of millions of men. But the ego or Rama
has never been engrossed with what other men think of him. While his
devotees, mythicise him, he demythicises himself. He falls at the feet
of his elders introducing himself as a mortal – the son of Dasaratha.
The ego never suffers from narcissism. Again and again messengers from
the cosmic mind to appear to remind him sa to his real self of being
cosmic mind at bottom. Viswamitra tells him the myths about the
highest gods like Siva and Visnu who destroyed carnal love and the
demons.

                        Rama brings about a social change
                                        IV
 Rama is a creative product of Valmiki that not only subordinates the
Id and establishes a super-ego manifest from the cosmic mind of the
deeper unconscious, he also revolutionises the society to create an
equilibrium in the society in the light of the cosmic mind.

Scholars of the earlier generation have read in Rama’s victory over
Ravana, the Aryan’s conquest of the non-Aryans. When Rama breaks the
bow of Siva, they found the non-Aryan faith in Siva outdone by the
Aryan faith in Visnu. The conflict between Viswamitra and Vasistha,
the encounter between Parasurama and Rama, and Rama’s letting down
Valmiki led the critics of earlier generation to point out that the
story of Ramayana fingers at a period of Indian history when the
ksatryas outdid the Brahmins in power and glory. They might be true on
certain planes. But on another plane they are not. There is reason to
believe that he was a worshipper of Siva. Viswamitra himself initiates
Rama in the Sivaite lore. And Siva has been als type of Rama. Siva’s
relentless fight against the demons and his asceticism finds
consummation in Rama who kills demons and sacrifices Sita for greater
cause. Ravana is Brahmin by birth. But his temperament and activities
transform him into a rakshasa. Viswamitra is a kshatrya by birth. But
as we have already referred to, his heroic feats achieved brahminism
for him. Both Viswamitra and Parasurama are types of Rama. With Rama’s
coming to prime youth they pale into non-entity, because Rama includes
in him all the glories of those two heroes. Parasurama is both type
and anti-type of Rama. In the capacity of the anti-type, Parasurama
has again and again destroyed the kshatryas all over the world. This
was not the duty of the Brahmin as per his station. And what Rama did
was to eclipse his prowess and put him back to brahminical rites. Thus
Rama’s victory over Parasurama shows that social revolution as
portrayed in Ramayana holds that the efforts of Rama were directed to
maintain the traditional caste-system. It is this exigency that led to
the death-sentence on Sambuka(7.76). For scientific purposes customs
have to be understood in terms of a culture of which they are a part.
Once we learn to suspend a judgment we may find that we see a good
deal of sense in other people’s behaviour. In a culture where, people
practise penance and become as fearsome as Ravana, when a person toes
penance along the same line, with same end in view, he needs be
punished.

Valmiki claims that Sita is chaste, he gives vent to his
feelings of the foster-father for her innocent child. He gives a
tongue to the truth which Rama could believe in private. But Valmiki
is a realist who knows that he will be turned down. Here Valmiki is a
person and not the representative of the class he belongs to. Surely
he belongs to the hereditary caste of the cultural literate that are
always lawgivers in the society of Ramayana. And intellectual
reflection nearly always involves the frustration attendant upon
knowing how things work and yet being unable to directly affect those
things. Even Rama at the bottom of his consciousness is aware that
absolute right and absolute wrong could not be determined in the
contingent. He repeatedly says that he is bound by his station and
duties.

 And thus caste system is grounded in deeper reflections. In the
Purusha sukta of the Rig Veda “Purusha himself is the universe”. It
has been observed in the “ Sukta”, when (the gods) devied Purusha into
how many parts did they cut him up? Brahman was his mouth, the
kshatriya was made into his arms, The Vaisyas were his thighs, and the
Sudra sprang from his feet”. This idea has been attended to in
Ramayana. The cosmic mind classified itself into the caste. And the
life-long pursuit of Rama, the cosmic mind in the frame of a kshatrya
human has been to establish a permanent social ethos by keeping every
caste to its vocation, as ear-marked by the cosmic mind itself.

Note :

1. The quotation from Macdonell refers to p. 305 of his History of  Sanskrit Literature, William Heincman Ltd., London.

Chapter – XI
                                    

THE STORY OF VALMIKI

Valmiki, the poet, has his own story. That might be deemed as the main
action of the poem, the Ramayana. The poem itself opens with Valmiki
himself seeking the perfect man. Surely such a query only takes place
at an hour when someone finds the world about him shorn of humanity.
We can guess that the world in which Valmiki lives, great havoc of man
was caused by man himself. The very nature of enquiry shows that the
poet is not concerned with his private affairs. He has been already
able to subdue his ego in the ego of mankind itself. His problem is a
problem to the mankind as a whole. The secret of artistic creation and
of the effectiveness of art is to be found in a return to the state of
participation mystique – to that level of experience where a man rid
of the accidental qualities of his persona becomes the everyman
speaking to men. Intuition leaps forth from the unconscious universal
mind. Valmiki mediates on it. He banishes the id or the conscious ego
that stands as an obstacle in his way of contemplation. The active
will thus done away with, Valmiki becomes a tool in the hands of the
creative force ruled and moulded by the unconscious as symbolised by
Brahma. With his blessings he can know his hero from within and
without. Truth never lies far off. Rama, his perfect man, only lives
in the vicinity of his asrama. The city of Ayodhya is situated just
across Tamasa river on the banks of Sarayu . Before the advent of
Brahma, Valmiki took a dip in the Tamasa. Tamasa was the subterranean
current that swept away the active will and conscious ego of the poet.
Now that he knows his ideal man, he traces his hero’s career from the
latter’s birth onwards. He plays the role of detached observer and
follows Rama through the latters’s adolescence, youth and manhood. The
Vedas and the Upnisads speak of two birds; while one of them partake
of the fruit of a tree the other only looks upon it from a detachment.
But he cannot for long remain a dumb observer of the affairs of men.
The story of Rama has progressed along a path which has been beyond
the control of the poet. True that an inner urge impels one to speak.
But the language then itself determines the shape of the context. The
poet could be likened as the ego of humanity shaping the materials
culled from the unconscious in the mould of the language of man.
Whoever speaks must submit himself to the convention of language.
Whatever poetry is written is written according to the convention of
poetry. A narrative progresses with moves in a game of chess. Once the
hero is born from the wombs of unconscious, he is acted upon. The
images of the reality of the non-being reacts to his very presence.
And then the interaction between the hero and the circumstances forged
in the work of art itself interact with one another and moves ahead
listless of the poet’s will. Here is a poet who does not allow himself
to be carried off by his poetry. The moment he had discovered sloka,
he was surprised. He cried: ‘What has been uttered by me?’ in
wonderment. Though the language of poetry as such far removed from its
referential meaning is more drawn to itself, yet it cannot harmonise
itself into a perfect pattern. Language is a sign; it has a signifier
and a signified. When the poetic passion attend to the signified and
signifier the sign is lifted up to its higher self endowed with
meaning. But the passions are themselves torn between the personal
sympathies and the visions of an irrevocable universal law. Rama in
the role of a king has to comply with his subjects. He gives up Sita.
Sita should be left all alone in the forest in the neighbourhood of
Valmiki’s asrama. Sita is then carrying the children of Rama.
Curiously enough it is Sita herself who wants to go to the forest at
this hour. Her will is fulfilled, though in a different way. She is
the pure consciousness of Rama. Any leader has two aspects of his
personality; while one of them is in communion with the claims of his
followers, the other remains wholly to himself. On the plain naive
level of experience there is an opposition between individual and
collective. I cannot be myself when doing crowd things and the crowd
can’t function with a unified purpose if it must take into account
each individual’s styles and needs. The philosophical antinomy between
individual and universal is itself an archetypal situation. But
situations arise when the one must be sacrificed at the alter of the
other. A vast narrative like the Valmiki Ramayana cannot be written in
one breath. No wonder, therefore that the poet is himself one of the
first readers of his work. His own wonderment at what he had uttered
at the death of the birth showed that he is a keen observer of his own
emotions and activities. So, that from time to time Valmiki
retrospects on what he writes is obvious. Thus the reader as well as
personal sympathies of the poet and the detached observer of the
affair of man combine in one entity. Whatever the conscious mind
rejects or forgets is stored in the unconscious mind. And when the
childing mother  Sita is abandoned in the woods, Valmiki stretches
forth his hand to give her shelter. Though circumstances of the
external world might crucify the heroic efforts of setting the
unsettled, the very fountain- head of the impulses of heroic efforts
might lose its stay in confrontation with the circumstances which
profit by the altruistic activities of the hero. But the seed of such
heroic efforts is saved from utter annihilation by the collective
unconscious. That is why in the course of history once a battle on the
part of the liberator of mankind is lost, it is not lost for ever. It
remains with the poet, the reader, the detached witness of the affairs
of men to rescue the pure consciousness with its seed from being
utterly forgotten or destroyed. So it is Valmiki who gives shelter to
the childing wife of the hero. It is he who rears the children of the
hero. It is he who forges songs to impress upon the children the life
of their father with a view to teaching them the eternal values of
life. The poet and the historian impress upon the younger generation,
the pursuit of mankind since time immemorial, for reconstructing the
world, man is confronted with. The world as such is by nature bizarre.
It is made of sattva, rajas and tamas. They are the three gunas which
are the parts of one continuum called Prakriti. Prakriti is the non-
being with which the being is confronted. Prakriti is eternally
restless. They are the three gunas that continually change their
place. The sattva guna is the illuminator; it is light and effulgent.
The tamas is heavy and dark; it hides the truth from the view; it
likens the id. Rajas juxtaposed between the two, is all activity
likening the ego of Freudian psychology. It is through activity indeed
inspired by rajas that the tamas has to be cowed down. But the
activity itself has to sacrifice a part of the sattva in its fight
with tamas. Parasurama had to take the role of ksatrya. Sattva remains
latent only to resurrect with the subjugation of tamas. In the world
of Ramayana, the tamas from time to time raises its head unexpectedly
to unsettle the settled things. Kaikeyi with all the unpredictability
of the tamas shatters the world-order. Once the hero is settled in an
idyllic life amidst sylvan surroundings in the inner recesses of mind,
id of a deeper depth with all its suddenness unsettles the settlement.
Once the battle is lost or won in the island of Lanka, the hero unites
with his inner consciousness to be crowned at Ayodhya. The id once
again raises its head in the demands of the subjects of Ayodhya. If
Rama, the king, the hero, the doer is likened to the rajas, it must
have its sustenance from sattva, as represented by numerous risis,
among whom Viswamitra and Agastya are predominant, in his mortal
battle with tamas. And when tamas through the voice of the people
seeks to separate the hero from its pure consciousness and wants to
destroy his seed even, it is the cosmic mind that gives refuge to the
homeless childing mother – Sita and rears up its seed – with the
visions of the brave new world for which rajas inthe light of sattva
has been ceaselessly fighting against the hydrahead of tamas. Valmiki
must have composed his Ramayana during this time when the two children
– Lava and Kusa – grow up in the forest being caressed by their
bereaved mother with light falling upon them from the eyes of Valmiki
– the paterfamilias. Because Valmiki teaches the Ramayana to the
children when they are away from their father. This is an interesting
point which must not be overlooked. It states that the Ramayana is
composed before the story of Rama in the real life (as envisaged in
the Ramayana ) is run to its omega. This must be understood in the
context of Agastya’s narration at the outset of Uttarakanda. Agastya
tells the audience that whatever events have taken place upto the fall
of Lanka were actually predetermined. In other words while a part of
the cosmic mind expressed itself through the hero who confronts an
unpredictable sequence of events in the world, another part of the
cosmic mind knows every bit of the shape of things to come. The poet
is in communion with that part of the cosmic mind which is omniscient.
Hence the poet knows the future events beforehand. But mere knowledge
of the inevitable future cannot stop a man from trying to resist it.
Hence it is Valmiki indeed who accompanies Sita to her second trial
and openly asserts against the all powerful king and the subjects who
are one with the king that Sita is perfect and that there is no need
of trial. Thus he takes the reader’s role. He is turned down. On one
level whenever creative force predominates human life is ruled and
moulded by the unconscious as against the active will and the
conscious ego is swept along a subterranean current being nothing more
than helpless observer of events. On another level, Valmiki’s helpless
resistance to Sita’s trial adds a heroic to his self effacing
character. That gives a particular kind of dignity to the listeners of
the story. Because the role of the listener is adumbrated. A listener
or reader is one who is like a risi. He reads or listens to a story
with disinterested curiosity. He is then alive with all primal
emotions. He curses the hunter. When Rama abandons Sita despite her
innocence, the fact that she remains in the asrama of Valmiki only
suggests that she remains at the heart of the readers protected by
every kind of sympathy on the part of the readers. Children  Lava and
Kusa are being reared by them. Does it not mean that the story of the
hunter killing the kruncha remained unfinished at the opening of the
Ramayana. The whole story of Ramayana only tells us that the saint
Valmiki was not content with cursing the hunter, he rescued the female
bird. The little bird brought forth children. Valmiki reared them up.
Lava and Kusa are installed on the throne. The little birds when grow
up fly into the skies. And the asrama of the risi is loud with their
joyful chirpings. Thus the story of Valmiki and the kruncha bird seems
to be the main action on a level where Rama story is the mere
catalyser. What Valmiki does thereby is to subjugate his id and
restore the tranquillity of his mind. The story of the Rama is but an
externalisation of the story of the birds and Valmiki. It is like a
copy of the bird story. Man is the microcosm of the universe. The
universe is the macrocosm of the man’s mind. When conscious life is
characterised by one sidedness and by a false attitude, then the zest
for life is activated one might say instinctively – and come to light
in the dreams of individuals and the visions of artists and seers
restoring the human equilibrium of an epoch. Curiously enough, while
in the story of the bird, Valmiki is the protagonist, in the dream
replica of the same, he is but a side character and the krauncha
transformed in Rama is the hero. This has taken place because of the
censorship of the conscious mind. The listeners, do not always enjoy
to listen to the speaker about himself. But if a speaker narrates
something about a third party the listener might take interest in what
the speaker says. The essential sense of humanity of the conscious
mind of a risi impels Valmiki to speak in third person instead of
putting things in a first person narrative which would be
autobiographical In dreams such displacements occur.
The story of Valmiki & krauncha is a tale fitted for a song, sweet
though in sadness. The same structure magnified into Rama story
attains a cosmic breadth of an epic. Does it not show that the
fundamental structure of an epic & a simple narrative may have the
same archetypal structure? Does it not argue that man is the microcosm
of the universe?

Chapter –XII

 THE WORLD VIEW OF THE RAMAYANA

i

We could look upon a work of art in two ways. Firstly, a work of art
could be deemed as a window to the real world. Secondly, it could be
read as a world on its own. We shall take the second alternative to
proceed in our deliberations. The world-view that transmits through
the world of Ramayana cannot be separated from the way the Ramayana
has been told. Hence the clue to the world-view of the Ramayana must
be unlocked from the narrative technique which has been employed in
the telling of the story of Ramayana. As we have already observed the
Rama story could be seen as a function of Valmiki’s transformation. Or
else, the composition of the Rama story is the function of Rama’s life
itself. On the other hand Valmiki’s search for a hero and knowing him
could be the main action where Rama’s story is a mere indicator. Thus
the poet himself decentres his work at the very outset of his poem. On
a closer scrutiny we might say that the kernel story is that of
Valmiki saving the life of a childing mother-bird; Rama, story being
an enlarged version of the same. This process of decentring is always
working along the course of the narrative. What seems a fairy tale in
the beginning transforms itself into a myth. When we come to Agastya’s
narration our world view is revolutionised. Because now we know that
nothing happens fortuitiously in this existence. Empirically we saw,
it was a sheer accident that the hunter in Kaikeyi hurt the mating
bird. It was sheer accident that Surpanakha fell in love with Rama.
But Agastya’s narration points out that history works through the
apparently random events to a particular end.

It was sheer accident that Surpanakha fell in love with Rama.
Instances might be multiplied. But Agastya’s narration points out that
history worked through the apparently fortuitious events to a
particular end. That puts in our mind the question whether it was
predetermined that Valmiki himself should write a poem on Rama’s life.

 How is the present the child of the past? Take the case of Ravana who
put the world out of joints. Every good soul wants to get rid of the
mad raksasa who lives on pleasure principle and whose thirst for power
is insatiable. In this context a deliverer comes in the course of
history. Family situations are very important with the psychoanalysts.
Valmiki has delineated the family situation of both Rama and Ravana.
The Ikshaku kings through the generations have pursued dharm. The
raksasas have pursued self-aggrandisement through the generations. But
there are exceptions also as in the case of Vibhisana. In fairy tales
often one among the three brothers is a simpleton. It is he who wins
success. But mere pious wishes of the risis and the people have not
pulled down Ravana. People have reincarnated with the desire of
destroying Ravana. Reincarnation is very much associated with
psychology itself. It asserts that we are what we wanted to be. With
death , the body is destroyed. It merges into physical nature. Dust
returned to dust. But the soul pursues. The Buddhists pin their faith
on reincarnation. But they do not acknowledge the existence of soul.
Desire they say outlives the life of man. Actually sugerness and sugar
are inseperable from each other. Hence desire, travelling from one
body to another could be constructed as an abstract quality whereby
the concrete is suggested, just as such abstract words as “beauty”
could be sometimes used for a beautiful dame. And it is this desire
that takes shape in myriad forms. There are different planes of
existence in conformity with the desires of many planes. Actually it
is through sheer will that Visvamitra could create a universe. There
is the magic lake created by a risi through imagination only, wherein
he resides and enjoys divine damsels. One wonders whether thereby
Valmiki gives the clue to argue that, there was no one called Rama. He
has himself given local habitation & name to aerial nothing. The risi
Bharadwaja can entertain a whole army with his magical power. As long
as the hungry people can appease their hunger, the magic is not magic
but reality, unless we know the trick of it. Similarly Valmiki
Ramayana is a true history of Rama. Still imagination seems to be at
the core of creation. And the structure of the society and the world
has a central idea behind which is imagination. But it is almost
absurd to find out the centre though a study of the interaction of the
parts of the existence with the whole. Just as it is difficult to find
out the centre of the structure of Ramayana since it is always
ambivalent or shifting. Actually despite darings, Ravana could not
reach the end of the world. He could scare the gods and defeat thim.
But he could not dare defy trinity in Brahma, Visnu and Siva. Their
roles in supervising the universe is unique. Firstly they do not vie
with each other. To quote Somervell’s Toyenbee –

“Hinduism has accepted, as a solution for the problem of the unity of
God, a compromise which is no solution at all, in as much as it is
impossible to conceive of a god –head that is omnipresent and
omnipotent – as Visnu and Siva each claim to be unless it is at the
same time unique. The answer is that Visnu and Siva are not jealous of
each other.”

Indeed, the Ramayana does not pose any conflict between two sets of
cultures or religious beliefs. The conflict is between hedonism with
the theory of categorical imperative of Knt and between egoism and
altruism in a universe whose origin we do not know but we can guess.
If a world could be forged with imagination of the risis, if man
becomes what he wants to be, we shall not wide off the mark, if we
presume that, it was imagination at the source of all creation
whatever. The three gods Brahma, Visnu and Siva are but its three
aspects in creation, maintenance and destruction. Setting up contact
with this imagination at bottom of the unconscious mind one may
resurrect on higher plane. The gods and the risis are of that plane.
They appear over and over again to the jealousy-lorn and war-torn
human habitation like the wise man of Jung who lives deep down our
minds. It has been their wills and efforts that has caused Rama to be
born. In true art, the artist does not reveal himself as an
individual; he partakes of the universal and he is a man speaking to
men. The poet in his humanity reincarnates as Rama – a man who belongs
to all the world. Just as the readers need not care for the personal
affairs of the artist, so the people also need not take into account
the personal tragedies of a man like Rama. In a world view where,
imagination is the secret of creation, what happens when the creation
itself is face to face with the imagination of which he is a shadow?
It is a mysterium tremendum before which we are tongue tied and awe-
stuck. This takes place when Rama hears the Ramayana in the tongues of
his children. And surely if the original Rama is like a duplicate in a
work of art, the children are the shadow of Rama itself. The person
through whom the imagination has taken place, the efficient cause of
the birth of Rama is also there face to face with his creation. This
is a situation forged by Valmiki as inscrutable as life itself. It is
a situation that the soul attains while mingling with the universal
mind, during deep sleep or susupti. There all the apparently different
frames of narrative of existence merge, as for example, the story of
Valmiki and the birth-story of Rama meet. Thus the central point of
the story has been shifted to an apparently unimportant point of the
narrative as it happens with dreams. The truth of the mind commingling
with the universal minds, is a state which could be described in the
language of the Buddhists as naiva-sanjna nasanga or neither
consciousness nor unconsciousness. It is far removed from the readers
ken, like the more distant star neighbouring a distant star in the
twilight.

                                                ii

In a work as Ramayana, crowded with varied scenes and situation,
events, intrigues and incidents, moods and sentiments, characters,
human and superhuman, motives and intentions, a world view is raised
through legitimations  and theodicy. The caste system has been made
legitimate by placing it in the scheme of universe. Kingship has been
made legitimate by linking the family of kings with gods. The sanctity
of married life has been made legitimate. And even gods are subject to
punishment when they violate the rules. Thus in the Uttarakanda
version of the Ahalya story Indra the king of gods has to undergo
punishment as he tried to entice the wife of risi Gautama.Even the
kingship among the gods is decreed not to be permanent. Thus kingship
on earth even if it mimes the kingship in heaven is not permanent and
absolute unless it acts in tune with the social order. However much we
legitimise the social institutions and thereby forge the social order,
Valmiki a realist knows that anomie lurks behind every nomos just as a
penumbra of darkness looms large around every luminous object.
Individualism plunges one into anomie. Ravana symbolises anomie that
is out to downraze the social order. In the past Indra had to contend
with Vritra. Visnu and Siva had to kill numerous other ogres from time
to time. The conflict between Rama and Ravana repeats that  history.
This is a form of explaining away the anomie. One participates in the
cosmic struggle between Good and Evil, between the forces of darkness
and light. One’s redemption lies in his participating in the struggle
on the right side. Rama fails to bring about one world and harmony.
But his life has been worthwhile in his relentless war with the forces
of chaos.

True that Ravana is defeated in war. But the forces of anomie best
express themselves in death. Nothing can stop the death of Rama. So
all great literature must explain death to put forward a world view.
The Uttarakanda dwells on the death of the heroes. And in a work of
the kind like Ramayana death theme surely occupies the most vital
position, when theme is defined as a constituent structure in the
pattern of a work of art. The death of Rama is surely in pity. Still
in that Christ had suffered and had suffered voluntarily, suffering
was no longer unjust and all pains were necessary. In one sense
Christianity’s better intuition and legitimate pessimism concerning
human behaviour is founded on the assumption that overall injustice is
as satisfying to a man as total justice. Only the sacrifice of an
innocent god could justify the endless and universal mayhem of
innocence. Only the most object suffering by god could assuage man’s
agony. If everything without exception in heaven and earth is doomed
to pain and suffering, then a strange form of happiness is possible.
Rama is a god and at the same time a man. God suffers in him and
hustifies the righteous man.

When they die with Rama, a case of mass suicide, it seems that they
feel insecure without their leader. Rama is their death: Rama is their
love. Or else, the mass suicide is a self-betrayal of a culture. Or
else, the society in which man lives is at once the basis for and
nemesis of the fullness of life which he seeks.

Dasaratha has three wives in kaikeyi, Kausalya andSumitra. He himself
says that Kausalya has been both mother and wife. Sumitra should be
bracketed with Kausalya. And Kaikeyi has been his death. These three
women as Freud read in the story of the three caskets might remind one
of our loves, in mother, wife and daughter or its variation in death.
True that Rama has been passively a tool in the hands of Fate or
circumstances. But we must not read the Oedipus story init.
Nevertheless, Rama is in a sense death for Dasaratha, for he is the
wise-opposite to death and, as such; as he is separated from
Dasaratha, Dasaratha dies. Dasaratha also shares with the ogres,
sexual voluptuousness. He has to pay dearly for it.

Dasaratha however recounts on his death-bed how he had once killed
the son of risi Andhaka and was cursed thereby by the risi. Man’s life
is determined by his own cats. This is what Dasaratha himself realised
presently before death. The very curse of Andhaka puts in one’s mind
Valmiki’s curse on the hunter. Hunting is the means of livelihood with
the hunter. Still Valmiki cursed him. Every murder implies a
disturbance of the social order, and the killer whoever he may be, be
it Rama, he shall have to pay for it. Vali and many others die in the
hands of Rama. Rama has been only instrumental in bringing about their
death which was due to them by their own past actions.
The Karma-samsara Complex thoroughly explains away every anomie. It
states that every human action has its necessaryconsequence of past
human actions. Thus the life of an individual is only but an ephemeral
link in the causal chain that is extended ad infinitum both in the
past and future. Therefore, an individual cannot blame any one else
other than himself for his misfortunes. He can at the same time
boast that his good fortunes are but the results of his own good deeds
in the past. Thus it serves as an explanation of anomie for the happy
as well as the unhappy. When Rama all on a sudden comes to know that
he cannot be the crown prince, he surmises that surely he had done
some wrong in earlier birth which he has to reap. This has impelled
the later poets of the Ramayana to find out events in the Puranas
pertaining to the life of the earlier incarnations of Visnu which
could explain the great sufferings of Rama, a later incarnation of the
same. The concept of Karma-samsara is linked with the caste system.
Because one is born to a particular station and duties by virtue of
his activities in earlier births.

On a humbler level the Ramayana by way of allusion takes into account
the whole history of humanity where men die but the society lingers.
We do not get any empirical evidence of the death of collectivity.
The life of collectivity is in turn laid in totality of being, human
and non-human as illustrated in the fertility rutual. In the Vedas,
Vritra is the demon of drought who had imprisoned water in a cave.
Just when the world is about to perish Indra comes to its rescue,
attacks and slays Vritra. This thunder battle being over, rain comes
in torrent and grass sprouts luxuriantly. Indra has been the type of
Rama. The fertility myth is obvious in Ahalya story. Ahalya might mean
unploughed; she lay in ashes as long as the spell of the curse was
there. The sons of Sagara were also turned into ashes. The fertility
myth could be read in many such deaths in Ramayana.

Death theme implies death and resurrection. Ahalya resurrects. She
becomes truly sans hala or stain through penance. The children of
Sagara resurrect.

 Dasaratha resurrects when his child shames Parasurama in prowess.
Sita’s captivity and liberation harps on the same theme. When Sita
enters into the fire, god himself brings her back to life. She
resurrects.

There are other deaths also differently delineated. Risi Sarabhanga
is overjoyed to meet Rama. He frankly offers all the fruitions of his
penance, including his right to perennial life in heaven. When Rama
declines to accept them the risi, keen on leaving his mortal frame
offers himself to the fire; fire in turn burns fully, his hair, skin,
flesh and blood and bones till he turns into a youth made of light and
springs to Brahmaloka, the abode of Brahma. Thus death does not mean
annihilation. The risi sees into death and at his sweet will burns his
corporeal frame into ashes till he turns into a thing made of ether
and fire, earmarked for Bramaloka. This is a messianic millenarian way
of transcending. A life suffering through penance is rewarded in life
hereafter.

 In contrast to them Parasurama has been doomed to have eternal life
on earth. Rama robs Parasurama of his glory being given the very
weapon of Parasurama. Parasurama is as if the father image with Rama.
Rama ruins him. Parasurama chooses death in life and at his instance
Rama shuts the gateways of a life hereafter. Thus death-in-life and
life-in-death unite in Parasurama.

The eternal life for Hanumana or Vibhisana also means the life to be
lived ever in longing for the object of their desire, Rama. This is
masochism. Masochism means total self-denial. It is perhaps through
self-denial that one can imbibe the seed of the infinitude and create.
Thus male Ila became female Ila, and Riksharaja, the father of Vali
and Sugriva could beget children only when he turned into a woman to
be imbued with the powers of the infinite. When masochism is cent
percent, the dichotomy of self and non-self is resolved and the
individual need not die. So Hanumana will know no death.

 Death implies eschatology. Although faith in life hereafter, is
asserted everywhere curiously enough Jabali exhorts Rama as to the
materialist version of life and death. Man is born of the union of
semen and ova. Nothing remains of him when he dies. Does a dead man
eat? If food offered to one as a substitute for a dead soul reaches
the soul, those who undertake journey would not need take any food
with themselves. In other words Jabali discards the theory of a soul
independent of body. Jabali upheld these arguments to debar Rama from
going to the woods, from his journeys inward trying to prove the
improbabilities of the subconscious and unconscious. With him forest
is confusion. Rama chides Jabali for his heresies.

Agastya describes Ravana’s visits across the world, where Yama reigns
supreme. The soul of the sinners come thereafter; they are being
whipped and thrown to dogs. They scream terribly. They are being cut
by the blades of the sharp-leaved plant. They are being ferried across
the bloody Vaitarani rivers, one lorn with alkaline liquid another
lorn with current as sharp as razor’s edge. There are many
compartments in hell. In another direction of the realm, the souls of
holy persons are enjoying themselves being sheltered in beautiful
cottages and entertained with tunes from various musical instruments.

The life hereafter is a different plane of existence. There are
numerous planes of existence referred to in the Ramayana. Each plane
of existence has its own space & time. It is poet alone, who can have
contact with other planes of existence. In the state of susupti, on a
different plane the poet sees things happen, that are bound to happen
to human experience in future. This is why Valmiki writes the life
story of Rama including Rama’s death, before Rama actually dies.

But on the mortal plane, Sita is really separated from Rama, and when
Rama really dies , time moves from Treta to Dwapara. That is, on human
plane time is not cyclical or repetitive; its progress is linear
towards heretofore unknown valleys of experience. Men helpless before
the unknown future ahead, rave and rage. Rama, knowing not which seed
will grow and which seed will not, raves against mother earth. And
Brahma the creator appears to exhort him to read the Ramayana where
the poet’s mind in communion with the universal mind has laid down the
future which has already been a thing of past on a different plane of
mind.

Thus on human plane, there are two worlds of hedonism and duty. The
former corresponds to Id and the latter corresponds to the dictates of
Superego. One is out to cancel the other. The world of duty gets vague
intimations of a multi-verse, with myriads of planes of thought. In
the light of that, the hero braves all along. His life becomes
decentred on the mundane plane or on the wilderness of worldly life,
where nothing is stable and everything is shifting. The wise men who
go to and fro between the universal mind linked with susupti and the
conscious mind speak of the theory of the fruition of karma as the law
immanent in the cosmic imagination.

Thus, the myths of the mundane world wherever there is the endless
strife between good and evil is demythicized by the revelations of the
other world. The revelations of the other worlds are demythicized by
the experiences of the real world. The untold sufferings of Rama and
Sita show how good souls are foredoomed to suffer in the human plane.
So Rama is a mere mortal. But the risis and the wise throughout praise
the mortal Rama as the God. They can see into that part of Rama which
has contact with the universal self. Or else how could one live a life
with one aim and one desire – and that aim and desire are to keep his
commitments to his superego or to his own sense of duty. Rama however
always humbles himself before others as mortal only. He pays obeisance
to Ahalya as if he is a mortal. But Ahalya looks upon him as god.
Thus, the mythicization and demythicization of the hero continuously
work through the whole poem. Rama himself demythicizes the myth about
his godhead. The western scholars could not appreciate the elusive
nature of the world of art. Hence they discarded Balakanda and
Uttarakanda as improbable because of Rama’s godhood explicitly
asserted there. But Rama’s godhood has been upheld by some people in
every kanda of Rama story, though Rama himself denies it.
 

The mythicization and demythicization make the Ramayana an
inscrutable whole before which analysis is tongue-tied. It is a vast
world of which some things we can experience, while, some other
things, we do not see, but we feel that it is there.
 

Those who are stuck by a dream would not forget a dream if they could
and could not forget a dream if they would. A great work of art is
like a dream. A dream never says “you ought” or “this is truth”. And –
connoisseurs of art have been moving round and round the grand dream,
the Ramayana, through the ages knowing not what to say. It is a
charmed world with bustling cities hectic with activities surrounded
by woods and hills littered with asramas. All over the known world
sacrificial fires are a light  and a reader seems to travel from one
sacrificial fire to another. The journey started from the sacrificial
fire of asvamedha lit up by Dasaratha Valmiki then leads us through
the forest to put on the sacrificial fire for Viswamitra. Therefrom we
sojourn to Mithila at the news of the sacrificial fire. In the
outskirts of human habitation at the border land of the known and the
unknown live the raksasas who from time to time come to put off the
fire. Beyond the forest across the seas, the luxuriant city of Lanka
is the seat of Ravana – the king of demons. Rama, the prince from
Ayodhya, accompanied by his wife and brother is sent to the forests by
a freak of fortune. His princely task is to protect the sacrificial
fire from extinction. And the prince of the demons steals his wife.
This goads the hero to seek the demon, away from home to kill him in a
battle royal. The fire has been the symbol of consciousness. What ails
the fire? It is desire that both creates & destroys the consciousness.
The hero is ego-consciousness. His separation from his home is but the
creation of the aggressive fantasy that seeks separation between the
infant and the child. The hurdles that the hero faces is but the
course of his growing up. The child and the mother were one
consciousness now differentiated into two, the ego-consciousness and
the mother. Still he has his feminine side which is symbolised by his
wife. The wife is taken away. The feminine side in Sita is separated
from the masculine side of the ego-consciousness which is Rama. What
else but the mother’s jealousy that tears Sita away from Rama? The
Great Mother of Jung haunts the hero. The hero seeks to kill the
Mother. He kills the giant Ravana. The killing of a dragon is but
killing off of imagination. This is very much true about Ravana. He is
the imagination’s self. Hence he travelled the numerous worlds. The
raksasa is the creation of imagination &so is the hero. But the hero
is one in whom we read our ego-consciousness. The heroic way of
thinking splits spirit and matter. Imagination is the quality of
matter. Imagination is the quality of the Great Mother. The Great
Mother is one who is life-giving and yet who is our death. The raksasa
are symbols of Great Mother in their imagination, employment of magic
and materialism.

 And we could put it in the language of Tao:
                The gate way of the mysterious female
                Is called the root of heaven &hell
                Dimly visible, it seems as if it were there
                Yet use will never drain it.

  Ravana, has used the external world and could not drain it to his
fill.

 The Tao further says,
                The further one goes
                The less one knows.
Just contrary to Ravana. Rama never set out for anything driven by any
desire whatever. He has never stirred away from earth. And the Tao
says
                Without stirring abroad
                One can know the whole world
                Without looking out of window
                One can know the whole world.
Once the imagination is killed, once the Great Mother is slain, the
ego consciousness becomes one sided. But the Great Mother is
indestructible. Even after Ravana’s death, everywhere the hero feels
the imprisoning effect of the terrible. The constraints of kingship is
one that binds Rama. And to solve the mother complex the hero need not
kill his mother; he kills the antagonism to his mother; this by being
not heroic. Rama becomes hundred percent hero by being not heroic; he
gives in to the will of the people and sacrifices Sita. The
sacrificial fire associated with the horse sacrifice is lit at that
hour of Sita’s exit from the theatre of life; Rama puts his self
interest last and Tao says:
                The sage puts his person last & it comes first
                Treats it as extraneous to himself &it is preserved.
It is through inaction that Rama reintegrates himself with the Great
Mother. It is through undoing his heroic he falls in the lap of the
Great Mother. And once he is one with the Great Mother, he has no need
of mortal Sita. So while on one level, separation from Sita implies
loss of his better half, on another level he becomes a regenerated ego-
consciousness. And as Tao says,
                Bowed down then preserved
                Bent then straight
                Hollow then full
                Worn then new.
And once again the Tao says
                The sage has no mind of his own. He takes as his own the mind of the
people.
As we have already said Rama desired no desire unless it was what his
station impelled him to desire. He is without any sankalpa and he is
one who acts. We can best describe him as the realisation of Tao’s
goal:
                Hence, always rid  yourself of desires in
                                Order to observe its secrets ;
                But always allow yourself to have
                                Desire in order to observe its
                                        Manifestation.
Rama is thus in touch with what the Chinese call Tao, Indians call
Brahma and Jung calls the archetype.

Jung describes the archetype as at bottom of our minds, it is the
unknowable nucleus that never was conscious and never will be, ‘It is
one essential irrepresentable basic form’.
And Taoism tell us of
                A thing impalapable, commensurable
                        Yet latent in it are a form
And the Vedas says
                One knows not whether the Brahman
                Is conscious or unconscious
But Tao observes
                Only the limited (in individual human form)
                Can be understood.
And ‘the ego cannot assimilate a purely archetypal content & that
unconscious fantasy images need humanising and personalising before
they can be integrated; otherwise they will be repressed’. Hence Rama
sticks to his persona. When Sita enters fire gods at once appearing on
the scene appeal to Ram:
                Couldst thou, the Lord of couldst thou
                Creator of the worlds allow
                The queen, thy spouse to brave the fire
                And give her body to the pyre?
                Dost thou not yet, Supremely wise
                Thy heavenly nature, recognise.
But Rama does not take it from the gods. He says that he is only a
mortal. Many a soul saw godhood in Rama. But Rama never agreed with
that. But when he does not agreed with the gods even as to his own
supreme godhood, one wonders whether he has been always in direct
touch with the archetype, of which he is aware!

Jung speaks of a hierarchy of archetype. Starting from outside it is
persona or the social mask or facewe put on. Without the persona, the
manifestations of the archetype in a person would make his social
living difficult. Continuing inwards the next archetype is what Jung
calls shadow which implies each man’s fears and hatreds. Ravana is
Rama’s shadow. Desire is what Rama despises. And to quote Tao
                

                Thus something and Nothing produce each other;
                The difficult and the easy complement each other;
                The long & short off set each other;
                The high & low incline towards each other.

A still deeper layer of the archetype is that of the soul which is the
feminine in man and maleness in woman. It is the channel or avenue of
communication between ego and the unconscious. We have observed that
presently before the horse-sacrifice Rama is very much occupied with
this level of archetype. His quest for Sita has been his search for
anima indeed.

Still another plane of archetype inward is that of the spirit or
Jung’s wise man & woman. The gods and risis belong to that layer of
mind.

Deeper still is the self which is the centre of a personality out of
which ego evolves. As Jung points out,
  “As one can never distinguish empirically between a symbol of the
self & a God image the two ideas, however much we try to differentiate
them always appear to blend together, so that the self appears
synonymous with the inner Christ of the Johanine and Pauline
writings . . . psychologically speaking, the domain of gods begins
where consciousness leaves off, for at the point man is always at the
mercy of the natural order. . .”

And it is these Gods who cause the birth of Rama.
When Dasaratha observes the putresthi the Gods being happy with
Dasaratha rush to Brahma
                O Brahma mighty by thy grace
                Ravana who rules the giant race
                Torments us in his senseless pride
                And penance – loving saints beside
                For thou, well pleased in days of old
                Gavest the boon that makes him bold
                That gods nor demons E’er should kill
                His charmed life for so thy will,
                We honouring that high behest
                Bear all his rage though sore distrest
                . . . . . .
                To thee, O Lord thy suppliants pray
                To find some cure this plague to stay”
Does not the world threatened with poverty and war need a re-enactment
of the putresthi.

Note

1.    The quotation from Toyenbee occurs in his A Study of History
abridged by D. C. Somervell p. 505

2.    The excerpts from Tao Te Ching in this chapter have been taken from
its translation by D.C.Lau

3.       The excerpts from the Ramayana in this chapter have been taken from
Wilkins’ Hindu Mythology p.195 & p.173 Published by Rupa and Co.

The End