Reading Notes: Week 14, The Seven Secrets of Vishnu (Part E)


Ram's Secret: Part 1
  • Vishnu's stories are either from beings that are timeless or bound to time (mortal or immortal)
  • The battle between Manavas and Devas is a moral battle
  • It is verticle: about heaven and earth (Dharma and adharma)
  • Justice alone does not truly define Dharma because notions of what is right and wrong change over time in different cultures and perspectives
  • Dharma enables a man to see his divine potential (humans only have the ability to reject the law of the jungle)
  • Positive rejections mean empathize (something animals cannot do) helping the helpless
  • Adharma is about domination, and Dharma is getting away from this
  • Ramayana: Ram is the only avatar to be worshipped as king
  • Vena is a king that plundered the earth so much that it ran away and it created chaos
  • The sages then chanted and used grass to kill the king
  • The new king is Prithu, a form of Vishnu. 
  • He tamed the earth in order to feed humanity, but he must do it with moderation
  • Growth: domestication of ecosystems (it can be "checked" with emotional and spiritual growth) 
  • Bull: symbol of balance from Prithu 
  • excesses exploitation of the earth and material things have rules (that would be against Dharma) 

Ram's Secret: Part 2

  • A wife is seen as property, but less so as modern culture evolves in India
  • She is expected to be faithful, fidelity is enforced
  • Renuka marries a priest and is very faithful. 
  • One day, she sees a handsome man swimming, and falls in love
  • Her adulterous though makes her powers go away, and the priest wants her beheaded
  • He asks their 5 sons to behead their mother, and all but one refuse. The one acts obediently and is granted a boon. His wish was to resurrect their mother. 
  • The priest does so, because he has the power to do so. 
  • The priest kills the king at the time because he tries to take away a cow that was given to this
  • Because of this, a huge battle happen and it makes lakes of blood
  • The blood is all shed from the royal family
  • He encounters Ram, and he never uses his power for personal gain (avatar of Vishnu)
  • Ram is born into a family of kings and is the son of Dashartha
  • He sends Rama into exile for the next 13 years and brings his wife Sita
  • Rama's brother does not take the throne either because Rama was exiled, so he went to go live in the jungle as a hermit as well
  • Ravana is an enemy of Rama, he does not act like an animal but he acts selfish
  • Rama killed Ravana, and he is crowned king




Image: Rama, Sita, and Lakshma in the jungle Wikimedia

Bibliography: Pattanaik. The Seven Secrets of Vishu. Videos. 






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