Epics in Imprints-1.pdf - Vivekananda Kendra Prakashan

Rama has taught me that each of us
must work authentically according
to our own best light.
Ramayana to me is human experience.
Religious traditions are like waves, and
as waves pass through their various
mediums, individual particles remain in
the same area with relation to each other,
moving in circular or elliptical paths. The
wave itself moves lineally, but when it
encounters an obstacle or change in the
ocean floor, it responds in new and
complex patterns. The particles may be
compared to individual phenomena,
remarkably similar throughout human
society. The wave can suggest a religious
tradition passing across generations and
cultures, radically changing its
characteristics when it encounters new
contexts. The figure of Rama is such a
wave. It rolled across south and southeast
Asia changing with each new medium but
maintaining its own vital power.
Rama, like religious matters generally,
must be viewed as part of human
experience, not separable from the other
modules of experience. In its fullest sense,
the experience of religious living
encompasses a total commitment to
something seen as ultimate concern, lived
out with such intensity that it transforms
the life of the devotee and conditions his
relationship with those about him. Thus,
religion can be used to discover meaning
in existence and to organize life into
significant patterns, even if the average
worshipper at shrine, mosque, church, or
temple is no more aware of the nuances
of what its syntax or grammar. “The
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FEBRUARY - AUGUST 2003
THE ROLE OF THE SACRED BOOK IN RELIGION-THE RAMAYANA
HARRY S.BUCK
externalia of religion—symbols,
institutions, doctrines, practices—can be
examined separately. But things are not
themselves religion, which lies rather in
the area of what these mean to those who
are involved”. Thus, recalling the incident
where Hanuman’s chest was ripped open
to display Rama and Sita seated on a
throne in his heart, we can adapt the
words of an old Christian song. “He lives.
He lives… you ask me how I know he lives,
he lives within my heart”. From this point
of view, the Ramayana is not a sixth
century or third century book. It is a
contemporary book, changing its meaning
with each succeeding age.
The Story and Book
Fundamental human needs lie behind
all great masterpieces of religious
literature. The great scriptures never
appear in a vacuum, but they rather
combine various approaches with differing
degrees of subtilty in order to invest
temporal existence with an aspect of
eternity. No book can become an object of
veneration unless it both speaks to the
spirit of a people and reflects that people’s
values. Although such a book can be
appreciated throughout the world—the
Ramayana is often studied as great
literature apart from any devotional
commitment-sacred books as such remain
the peculiar property of faithful
communities where they can be nurtured
by their accredited teachers. Typically,
events believed to bear redemptive
significance are transmitted through a
narrative, and just as typically, the
narrative itself becomes more important
than the events it narrates, as the events