Why is Lord Rama worshipped?

I Shuba Krish would like to tell you a kutty story about Rama and why we worship Rama? As you know, we were all introduced to Rama by Ramayana,I would like to share glimpse of Ramayana here to explain further about the topic I chose. Rama is the eldest son of King Dasaratha. Rama had 3 other brothers after him and they are Bharata, twins –Laksmana and Satrughna. Rama was Dasaratha’s favorite child and his dad’s desire was to install Rama as the yuvaraja, heir to the throne.To cut long story short, due to some political reasons Rama was exile to the forest. After hearing this news from Rama, Sita and Laksmana decided to follow Rama to forest for 14 years. Can you imagine staying in a forest after living as a prince with all the luxurious facilities? It’s not an easy life to adapt to but he respected and obeyed the dad’s wish, and followed it without any hesitation with his newly wedded wife. In the forest they were all lived in an asrama together and one day, while talking to Sita, there came a beautiful golden deer. She was fascinated with its beauty and asked Rama to capture the deer for her. Rama could not resist her request and to show his love and dedication to her, he asked Laksmana to look after Sita as he proceeded to chase the deer. Destiny had now set the stage for unfolding the tragic part of their life of exile.

Marica, the golden deer was used by Ravana the demon king of the island Lanka, to draw Rama away from the asrama to execute his devious of kidnapping Sita. As the deer was playing hide and seek whilst running endlessly, Rama decided to shoot an arrow at the deer. Lying to die, Marica resumed his original form and stimulated Rama’s voice, asking for help “ Hey ,Sita! Hey Laksmana please help me to draws Laksmana away from Sita. At first Rama feared tragic consequences of the pitiful and deceiving cry but later comforted himself knowing well that Laksmana’s presence would protect Sita in the asram.

Hearing Rama’s voice Sita and Laksmana became anxious thinking Rama’s life was in danger. Laksmana was confident that Rama could handle any dangerous situation but Sita insisted and commanded Laksmana to go save Rama. Now , this is where the twist happens, Ravana who was hiding in the bushes came towards the asrama in disguise of a beggarman. Here Sita receives him with respect and offers him a seat. As the beggerman, Ravana tells his interest of marrying her and she then summons him to leave or face death. Ravana immediately reveals his true self and kidnaps Sita in his chariot and leaves.

Jatayu, an eagle bird tried to save Sita from the evil Ravana but unfortunately Ravana cuts off one of his wing and he fell on to the ground unconsciously. As Rama was looking for Sita he cameacross Jatayu on the ground and just before he passed he told Rama that Ravana kidnapped Sita. Sita without the Ravana’s knowledge dropped her jewels one by one to the ground to guide Rama to Ravana’s place. Jatayu died in Rama’s arms, where Rama gave Jatayu a proper burial.

Rama and Laksmana took a year together with an army of monkeys to track and find Ravana’s place. Once found, Rama engaged in a war where he defeated Ravana and brought Sita back to Ayodhya. All of them returned to the palace after 14 years and upon their return, Rama took on the role as King to rule Ayodhya, and his situation took on another twist of faith. The people of his kindgdom started to doubt Sita’s purity when they found out that she was a prisoner of the evil Ravana, King of island Lanka for a year. Therefore, they wanted Rama to be remarried and ask Sita to leave. Rama, now as the King of Ayodhya had to choose between his wife and his duty for Ayodhya.

Rama chose to send his wife, Sita back to the forest and to live the rest of her life in the forest. He made all the arrangements for her and she understood her husband very well and left to the forest to live in the asrama again. When Sita left Ayodhya, she was 5 months pregnant and imagine the hardship and loneliness she had to endure in the jungle all by herself? Rama being the loving and responsible person, had planned and arranged all that she needed in the asrama. Sita delivered her twins in the forest, naming them Kush and Lava. Rama had no idea he had twins and many years later, Rama unknowingly faced his sons in battle, where he almost killed them but with god’s grace and faith, he could not. Only then he found out that he actually fought with his own sons.

Unfortunately, Rama and Sita never got to meet again and Sita died alone in the forest. Now, after listening to the story, if this series of drama would have happened to anyone of us, do you think we will be taking it easy, able to still stay focused, or would have given up and gone astray? Now I want all of you to think of every challenge faced by Rama in this story and understand how he overcome it.

Rama never broke his principles in life, where is depicted- dharma, love, sathyam, compassion, wisdom, leadership and balance in this story. These are the qualities that we all seek to helps us through our journey of life. Seeking his guidance, wisdom and blessing, is why we worship Rama. Again I would like to highlight that as students of SSOY we too have our principles to follow which are the eight limbs of Yoga and it is not something new but it is in our scriptures and it has been introduces to us by our parents to instill good qualities in us from young. This teachings allow us to live a balanced and a happy life while we face challenges in our daily life. Thank you, Nandri and Vanakam.

-SHUBA KRISH

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