'The whole world is but one family' - Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Australia

April 2010 Vol. 7 No. 10
Holy & Wise
Ekam Sdvipra Bahudha Vadanti - That is one whom the learned call differently - Vedanta
The Sun is reddish at the time of rising so also at the time of setting. Those who are noble -great,
are uniform in prosperity as well as in adversity - Mahabharata
Prosperity has this property, it puffs up narrow souls, makes them imagine themselves high and
mighty, and looks down upon the world with contempt; but a truly noble and resolved spirit appears
greatest in distress, and then becomes more bright and conspicuous - Plutarch
Spring unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soul - Heber
The renew of one duty done is the power to fulfill another - George Eliot
Ramachandra
Kulapativani
If there is one fascinating artist of life in history or mythology, he
is Sri Ramachandra. His art was superb. It has illumined centuries,
and if you read Vahniki’s story of his life again and again, you will
catch glimpses of this art. In his relations with his father, mother,
step-mother, tacher, brothers, wife, friends and enemies and subjects
he brought a sweetness, grace and purity which have no parallel in
biography or fiction. He was intensely human, and beautifully so.
Sri Ramachandra’s relations with Sita were wonderful, so human
and so sublime; an ethereal bond which transmuted sex-relation
into a thing of beauty, a beacon light to all who look to the sanctity
of home as the pivot of a perfect life. The popular notion that he
discarded her because a washerman criticised his conduct has no
foundation in fact. First, the whole incident does not find a place
in the original Ramayana. Secondly, when it does find a place in
the later additions to the work, it is different. Sri Ramachandra put
away Sita after a conflict of emotions in pursuit of an overriding duty as king to respect the wishes of his people.
By this act he added the last great touch to his art of living.
A king who serves his people has no personal life of his own. The demands of public confidence are inexorable.
Even modern Britain overruled her-king’s choice to marry the woman he loved, and removed him from the
throne when he preferred private happiness to public duty.
In Sri Ramachandra life as Valmiki has given it, every moment was inspired by the permanent values of Culture.
His was the Life Beautiful, which alone brings heaven on earth.
Dr K.M. Munshi
Founder Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan