Adhyātma Rāmāyaṇa
- Language:
- English
- Translation:
- Rai Bahadur Lala Baij Nath
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~140,000 words · 665 passages
Cite this work
- APARamayana. (n.d.). Adhyātma Rāmāyaṇa. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/ramayana/the-adhyatma-ramayana
- MLARamayana. "Adhyātma Rāmāyaṇa." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/ramayana/the-adhyatma-ramayana.
- ChicagoRamayana. Adhyātma Rāmāyaṇa. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/ramayana/the-adhyatma-ramayana.
What it is about
The 'Adhyatma Ramayana', the Vedantic version of the Ramayana: the same story of Rama, read as an allegory of the soul and the absolute.
Context and history
It should not be confused with Valmiki's Ramayana, which is the original epic poem and far older. This is a later work — around the fourteenth or fifteenth century — embedded in the Brahmanda Purana, and the change goes deep: Rama is no longer chiefly a hero but Brahman himself, Sita is his power, and every episode is read as what happens to the soul seeking liberation. It contains the 'Rama Gita', a doctrinal dialogue in the manner of the Bhagavad Gita. Its historical importance is great: it is the text that inspired Tulsidas's 'Ramcharitmanas', the Hindi version which in northern India is the religious book of everyday life. If what one wants is the epic, one must go to Valmiki.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
Thb Adhydtraa RAmayana is a canonical T>ook of the Vaishnavas and is a park of the Brahm&nda Purdna. Jt is very highly respected by all classes of Hindus for the beauty of its language, its flow of verse, its clear statement of the doctrines of the Veddnta, and, like the Bhngavada GitA, for its combination of the path of devotion with that of knowledge. It is a dialogue between the God Mahddeva and his consort PArvabl on the divinity of RAma and opens with the question as to why when RAma was the Supreme Being, he forgot his real nature and had to he reminded of it by another. The allusion is to VA’.miki RAmAyana (chapter 117, Vudha KAnda) where RAma is sunk in the ocean of sorrow at the ordeal of SitA and BrahmA reminds him of his being the Supreme self. If, on the other hand, Rama always knew his true self, why did he grieve for tho loss of SltA. The reply of MahAdeva was that in truth RAma was the Supreme self (ParamAtmA) who never moved or did any thing, or was ever subject to joy or sorrow, birth or death, pleasure or pain. All these were superimposed upon him through error beginningless (a nddiavidyd). To expound this mystery is the task set before it by the Adhydtraa Rama* ynna. The work is divided into seven KAndas or books like the RAmAyana of VAlmiki. These are the Bdla (childhood), Ayodhyd, the Arawya (forest), Kishkindhd, Sundara (beautiful), the Yudd/ta (battle) and the U tiara (sequel). It consists of 64 ohapters and 4,200 verses mostly in the