Characteristics Of Lord Rama In Ramayana
Introduction
Lord Rama is the elder son of King Dasharatha and Kausalya of the kingdom Kosala having Ayodhya as the capital. In Ramayana Lord Rama was described as one of the avatars of Lord Vishnu. He was born as a human to kill the Asura named Ravana who was the king of Lanka kingdom. In Ramayana he was told to be the person having all ideal characteristics such as ideal son, ideal brother, ideal husband, ideal father, ideal king, ideal enemy and so on…………
He was very strong and very skilled in the battle as well with this we can tell that undoubtedly, he was one of the avatars of Lord Vishnu. In Ramayana it was also said that only the Lord Rama could able to lift the Shiva Dhanush during the swayamvara of Ma Sita. These are few case studies with that we can say that he is the avatar of Lord Vishnu. He never broke any promise given to anyone it maybe to his father or to his friend whether it is small or big this shows the Lord Rama why he is called an ideal person in Ramayana. To uphold his promise given to his father that he will go for vanavasa for 14 years though every citizen of Kosala wants Lord Rama to become the king of the kingdom he still went for the vanavasa along with Ma Sita and brother Lakshmana. During that vanavasa time, Sita was taken by Ravana so he has to fight with the Asuras to rescue Sita Devi so he worked with the vanara sanya for helping him to search for the Sita to where Ravana took her and also after finding the place to cross the sea by building a bridge across the sea using floating stones it shows whether he is a king how friendly he was with everyone without any pride or ego feeling. It was also clearly explained in Ramayana how unbiased Lord Rama was that during the war with Ravana when Ravana felt down when Rama was fighting with him, he gave the time to Ravana to get up and to recover from the wounds this shows the unbiases and honorability of Lord Rama during the war as well. This is the brief introduction of the ideal characteristics of Lord Rama told in the book “Ramayana.” Now we will see his ideal characteristics of Lord Rama considering some examples told in Ramayana.
Lord Rama as ideal Son:
As Lord Rama was the elder son among the 4 sons of King Dasharatha, he decided to announce Rama as the king of Kosala kingdom the day before he announces the crown ceremony Kaikeyi got brain washed by mandarah regarding the future of his son Bharatha that if Rama becomes the king of Kosala kingdom then what about your son Bharatha how he can be secured of his life in the future, initially Kaikeyi wants Rama only to become the king of Kosala kingdom but after listening to the words of mandarah she became jealous and she wants her son Bharatha to become the king of Kosala kingdom, then she recollected the two wishes got from her husband King Dasharatha as she saved the life of him once in a war then she was given to wish 2 wishes that she didn’t use at that time and she wants to use those two wishes at a time to make her son as the king of the Kosala kingdom. Then the day before the crown ceremony of Rama Kaikeyi went to the King Dasharatha and told that she want to wish the 2 wishes that she saved before, the first one is to make her son Bharatha as the king of Kosala kingdom instead of Lord Rama and second one is to send Lord Rama to vanavasa for 14 years, when the King Dasharatha heard these two wishes he was shocked and in a state of dilemma but on the other hand he was known to be king of his words. So, finally King Dasharatha went to Lord Rama and tells these two things he solved the crises of his father with one word that is he is willing to accept these two things that he is willing to go for vanavasa for 14 years and accepted to make Bharatha as king of the Kosala kingdom as well. Then Lord Rama went to vanavasa joined by Sita and Lakshmana. After Rama went to vanavasa King Dasharatha can’t bear and couldn’t digest the thing that his son left him and died thereafter. After Lord Rama heard the news of death of his father, he didn’t return to the kingdom to see the last sight of his father as he promised his father that he will return to the kingdom only after completing his 14 years of vanavasa. From this we can understand Lord Rama for completing his father’s promise he didn’t return to the kingdom this shows the dedication of Lord Rama towards his father’s words and also tells about his one of the characteristics i.e., Lord Rama as an ideal son to his father.
Lord Rama as ideal Brother:
Lord Rama and Lakshamana - About the Ideal Avatar of Lord Vishnu] In whole Ramayana Lord Rama was told as the person having all the ideal characteristics, so to prove that Rama was an ideal brother also we will take some examples from Ramayana book to prove that he was a good brother as well. It was told that Lord Rama being elder brother among those 4 people he was very responsible towards them and care, love and affection towards them. He never should that elderness towards any of the brothers at any point of time. He never dominated any of them as he was elder. He always treated Lakshmana equal to him at every time. When they were in the battlefield during the war with Ravana for rescuing Sita, Lakshmana got injured due to some hazardous venom arrow he was very tensed when he was seriously injured in the battlefield. He told Hanuman to put all the efforts for saving the life of Lakshmana to search for the medicinal plant that can save Lakshmana’s life from that hazardous venom. This shows the caring of Lord Rama towards his brothers and he was very closely attached with his brothers from childhood. The bonding between Lord Rama and Lakshmana in the whole Ramayana that remained as the strongest pillar of the brotherhood in the ancient of the whole India. Lord Rama also never felt bad if his brothers achieved what he didn’t and also encouraged them to do so and to achieve big success in their lives. He didn’t even tell no when his father told Bharatha will become the king of Kosala kingdom instead of him. This shows his characteristic as an ideal brother according to Ramayana.
Lord Rama as ideal husband:
In the whole Ramayana Lord Rama was told as the ideal husband in each and every situation. During the Sita svayamwara he qualified the test i.e., to break the Shiva Dhanush and got married with Sita Devi. When Lord Rama decided to go to vanavasa for 14 years he respected the decision made by Sita is to join him and come to the forest along with him and at the same time he is trying to convince her to stay back in the kingdom not to join him as Lord Rama don’t want Sita to lead the further life in the forest with many difficulties and problems. He tried a lot to convince her not to come to the forest with him as he doesn’t want her to face problems leaving her happiness. But Sita was not convinced to stay at the kingdom and Lord Rama finally accepted the decision taken by Sita and he also respected the decision of Sita to fulfill her duty as wife of Lord Rama. This also shows that he didn’t dominate her wife like you should listen to me only you don’t have right to take decision on your own unlike the modern couples their fights are not due to ego or selfishness but to do their duties. When he tried to convince her wife, he told in a very peaceful and pleasant tone without shouting at her at all. And when they were doing vanavasa also he gave all the respect and attention to Sita what all she deserves as a wife and also fulfilled her wishes.
It was also told in Ramayana that when Sita wished to have the golden deer though Rama knows that it was a trap by the Ravana then also he went to bring and give it to her. When Lord Rama got to know that Sita was kidnapped by Ravana at first, he got emotional and after that he came out from that and brought his all skills to rescue her from Ravana and started searching for her. He even helped Sugriva to kill the King Vali as Sugriva promised if he gets the kingdom then he will help in finding Sita and to rescue her. So, in this way gathered the army of vanaras and also got a great devotee i.e., Hanuman as well. So, after gathering the whole army of vanaras he went to Lanka and defeated Ravana rescued Sita and brought her back to Ayodhya which is the capital of Kosala kingdom. After reaching Ayodhya some discussions were started so, to close all those murmurings by ordering Sita to perform Agnipariksha to prove her purity. He had complete faith in Sita that she was pure and Sita successfully passed the test and they both returned to the Ayodhya and after that she became pregnant. In Valmiki Ramayana it was told that even after the Agni pariksha the people of Ayodhya were not believing in Sita that she was pure then Rama was crushing in between his duties as a king and duties as a husband. So, due to this she was been again sent to exile because he was forced to fulfill the duties of King. Though Sita was not there with him Lord Rama didn’t even look at other women and when he did Aswamwdha yagna also he made a golden idol of Sita and kept beside him and performed the yagna. This shows the ideal character of Lord Rama as an ideal husband.
Lord Rama as ideal King:
Lord Rama was very well known as a warrior and as well as noble king. He was blessed with many good qualities such as Vedic knowledge, ideal characteristics and many more. He was very responsible towards his duties and as well as very clever. When the sage Vishwamitra came to the king Dasharatha for help for defending the asuras who were disturbing the yagna doing by Vishwamitra he chose Rama for that task as he knows his warrior abilities. And also, he qualified the test at Sita swayamvara that to lift and break the Shiva Dhanush this will shows the abilities and skills of Lord Rama as a warrior and a king as well. He fulfilled all the duties as a king by fulfilling all the wishes of people of their kingdom. After defeating Ravana also he went to him and asked about few qualities and responsibilities that an ideal king should have. This shows the characteristic of Lord Rama as an ideal King.
Lord Rama as ideal enemy:
In Ramayana it was clearly said that Lord Rama was a great warrior containing all skills which are required during the war. This the main reason why sage Vishwamitra also selected Lord Rama to destroy the asuras though King Dasharatha told he will come instead of his son Rama as he was a child at that time but the sage Vishwamitra not accepted his proposal and asked only to send Lord Rama and his brother Lakshmana to send along with him to protect his yagna during the journey from Ayodhya to the yagna place he taught many things to both Lord Rama and Lakshmana about the rules of the war and also few slokhas and also few mantras to develop their skills which are required during the war he also taught him though you are an enemy to anyone we should be honest and we follow all the rules and regulations of the war. We already observed this when we discussed about when Lord Rama was fighting with Ravana when Ravana felt down Rama gave him enough time to get up and also to cure his wounds and to be stable enough to find with him this shows the Lord Rama’s ideal enemy character. These are the few examples taken from Ramayana to explain the ideal characteristics of Lord Rama.
Conclusion:
Through all the case studies told in Ramayana we have taken few ideal characteristics of Lord Rama from all these examples we have to understand how we should be in each and every part of our life how we should behave in the society and also to remember all our duties and we have to manage them according to the situation what is correct and what is wrong and what is correct to do according to the situation. And also, we should be honest in every point of time in our life. Ramayana and the ideal characteristics of Lord Rama are very much necessary to the present society these are only few we discussed here about the ideal characteristics of Lord Rama and Rama was the role model for the present culture.
