So if you or your family is from India, you’d know who Rama was. Hindus worship him as a God and believe him to be their savior. But looking at Rama’s whole life, we’d see that his life was filled with FAILURE at every phase.
- Rama was born a prince, married a beautiful princess, Sita, then became king upon his father’s death. So far so good.
- But then, one of his stepmoms [he had 3] exiled him to 14 years in a forest. [In those days, kids listened to their parents, no matter how wrong, irrational, illogical, and emotional they were, lol, and even if they were “step” parents]. The stepmom did so to ensure that her own son, and not her stepson, could ascend the throne.
- So Rama and his princess bride went to the forest. One of his brothers followed too. [He was a prince too, so not sure why he thought he could be of any more help to the prince & princess, lol. But his is a story of brotherly love so no judgment here.]
- Anyway, during their exile, Rama’s wife gets kidnapped – [It’s another long story that is not relevant here, so we’ll skip it.]
- Rama walked over 100 miles a day for ~20 days to find his wife. [Remember, there were no cars or planes then and not sure how he could walk that many miles, but again, that’s a story for another day.]
- He fought Ravan and retrieved his bride. Unfortunately for him and his bride, the world judged her to be “not pure” since she’d spend 20 some days with the kidnapper. Sigh!
- So she left him and went into exile. [Where, how, again, not relevant, lol.]
- One day, Ram is in a fight with two young men and he would have killed them or might have been killed by them.
- A timely appearance by his exiled wife Sita makes him realize that the two men were his twin sons. [She was still his wife, no ex’s in those days.]
- Ram is united with his two sons and returns to his kingdom but Sita vanishes into thin air. [Yep, you got it, not relevant, lol.]
By today’s measures, we’d be inclined to call his life a “tragic life story”. He never got a break even though he was a prince.
And yet, he is worshipped. Why?
Because Rama was the perfect man. No matter what happened to him and what life threw at him, Rama didn’t become bitter or angry or upset. He continued living a life filled with integrity and values. He was untouched by all that happened around him.
I feel we’re such lightweights when compared to him. One small disruptive event and we’re tragedy queens/kings – and I’m not even talking about experiencing a loss or any such tragedies. Even simple life events have a way of upsetting our balance and we spend years thinking about them and blaming everyone [and even ourselves].
Imagine living a life like his, filled with one disaster after another, and still maintaining calm and balance.
Imagine being so detached that no hurt or pain can touch us.
Imagine having so much inner peace that no there’s no anger towards anyone or even ourselves.
And finally, imagine being so in balance that the world around us can go crazy and act crazier, and we’d still feel blissful!
Yeah, I’m not there yet. But that’s why no one’s worshipping me, lmao!
P.S. It’s day 52 of my quarantine. But I’m not saying, “Oh well! C’est la vie”. I’m working on becoming a better version of myself and I’ll share more about that in the coming days. I’d love to hear your thoughts so feel free to post a comment or connect with me on Instagram.
