1.

Power of Bad Association: It was a known fact in Ayodhya

that Kaikeyi loved Lord Rama more than his own son Bharath,
then how could she become so evil. It is by her bad
association with Mantara.
2. Attachment to service & not to the position: Lord Ram was
willing to become the king as a service to Maharaj Dasarath
and He was also willing to go to the forest as a service to His
father.
3. Mission of Life should be to vanquish the demoniac
tendencies in our heart: Lord Ram’s purpose to kill the
demons was fulfilled by His banishment to the forest.
4. Even extreme reversals if taken in the proper spirit will
help us fulfill our mission in life: For example, Law of
gravity is only in effect in the Earth’s sphere and not beyond.
So also Laws of material nature act only in material
consciousness not in spiritual consciousness.
5. Ram or Aaram, A test for every seeker: Citizens of
Ayodhya wanted to go with Lord Ram to forest and leave
behind all the comforts (Aaram) of the City Ayodhya.
6. Alertness in Spiritual Life: Lord Ram leaves Ayodhyavasis
when they were asleep. If one is inattentive or lazy, one will
loose taste in Bhakti.
7. (Sometimes) Saintly persons might cause pain to others
not to hurt them but benefit them: Bharat disowns Kaikeyi,
or Prahlad disregards Hiranyakashipu, a Doctor may cause
pain (operation) to patient to cure him.
8. Goal is to please the Lord: For Bharat, he wanted to stay in
the forest which was easier than to return and rule the
Kingdom but he did it to please Lord Ram.
9. Lord is the Proprietor: Bhoktaram Yajna tapasam
(Bhagavad Gita 5.29). Bharat was ruling the kingdom on Lord
Ram’s behalf by keeping the Paduka’s on the Throne. We are
only caretakers, He is the real proprietor, He can give and
take away. The Caretaker acts according to the will of the
owner.
10. Anybody can make a show of greatness: The reversals
test us who we are. When Lakshmana cuts Surpanaka’s
nose, gone was the charming form, gone was the facade and
then the real ugly form manifested. One’s greatness is tested
by one’s ability to tolerate provoking situations.
11. Bhakti (Sita) cannot be achieved by Deception: Ravana
wanted Sitadevi, but he gets Maya-Sita at the end. Greed and
lust are never satiated, they lead to arrogance and envy.
12. Maya’s attractions creates traps and makes us
suffer: Marichi takes up a golden dear form and traps
Sitadevi. We should see the substance through the eyes of
the scripture. Marichi was all about false promises. For
example, spider web is most attractive to the fly but actually
it’s a trap.
13. Maya knows our weaknesses: She can make our
strength into weaknesses and take us away from the circle of
instructions of great souls. Ravana uses Sitadevi’s attitude to
serve great souls to disobey Lakshmana.
14. Always stand by the Right: Jatayu’s integrity. Real
success is to please the Lord. Jatayu lost his life fighting for
Lord Ram but achieved the purpose of Life to please the Lord.
It is better to lose & win than to win & lose.
15. Patience, Determination & Enthusiasm: Example of
Shabari. Long time ago, Guru had asked her to wait for Lord
Ram while all other disciples and Guru himself went back to
Godhead. She showed her enthusiasm by working hard
everyday to clean the place, plucking flowers & fruits for the
Lord. She had complete faith in the words of Guru and
patiently waited with determination. The Lord reveals only
when He wants.
16. Honesty, We can’t put a facade before the
Lord: Hanumanji disguises when he went to meet Lord Ram.
Lord knows within who we are, we have to be honest to
receive the mercy of the Lord.
17. Obstacles on the path of Bhakti: The demons who came
to stop Hanuman during his jumping across the ocean.
Mainaka (Gold Mountain) – temptation to seek comfort before
achieving our real purpose. Surasa (Shadow catching
demoness) – While striving for Bhakti, people will chastise,
criticize and misunderstand us, we should have the
willingness to tolerate. Simhika (Serpent): Being envious of
people in higher position and try to stop their progress. This is
jealousy of the mind. By devotional service, we have to
devour Simhika who represents Envy.
18. Arrogance cannot understand wellwishers: The world
is a mirror of our own consciousness. Ravana was thinking
Mandodari was envious of Sita, but actually he was envious of
Lord Ram. Ravana was thinking Vibhisana was disloyal and
taking the side of Lord Ram, but he was disloyal to Kubera,
his step-brother. When we think we know, we are not willing
to listen to good counsel. Spiritual progress means simplicity
 and humility. If they are lacking, we won’t listen thinking that
we know better, that was Ravana.
19. Big or Small, we can swim the ocean of Samsara by
chanting Lord Ram’s holy name: Big or Small, all the
stones floated by writing Lord Ram’s name.
20. Pride or Attachment leads to loss of
intelligence: dhyayato visayan pumsah (Bhagavad Gita
2.62). Every stage of this sloka was exhibited by Ravana.
Loss of intelligence – Even when all his stalwart warriors
including Kumbakarna, Indrajit died but he still didn’t give up.

ध्यायतो विषयान्पुंसः सङ्गस्तेषूपजायते ।

सङ्गात्सञ्जायते कामः कामात्क्रोधोऽभिजायते ॥
६२ ॥
dhyāyato viṣayān puṁsaḥ
saṅgas teṣūpajāyate
saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ
kāmāt krodho ’bhijāyate
While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person
develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust
develops, and from lust anger arises.

Hearing about the Lord – Revival of dormant love: Lord

Ram being Paramatma in the heart of everyone including
Ravana could have killed him just by turning off Ravana’s
heart. But the Lord and His pleasure potency Sitadevi went
through this whole ordeal so that we can hear about the Lord
and revive our dormant love.
21. Sacrifice even of Family to Surrender to Lord
Ram: Vibhishana comes to take shelter, all the monkeys were
 against, except Hanumanji. Vibhishana was willing to be
misunderstood or even chastised to surrender to the Lord. He
told Lord Ram about celestial nectar in Ravana’s heart.
22. Counsel and Advise in battle against Illusion: In battle
against Illusion, at every stage association of devotees to put
us straight without which we will fall. Lord Ram doesn’t need
but takes the counsel of Vibhishana.
23. Grace of Devotee needed to kill demons
within: Agastya muni’s arrow was used by Lord Ram to kill
Ravan by piercing his heart.
24. Welcoming the Lord in hearts with lamps: That is
Dipavali festival. Lord Ram is welcomed back into Ayodhya
with lamps. Dipavali is not just physical fire but lighting the
hearts with light of Lord’s grace and process of devotional
service. When heart is fully illuminated, then we can
experience Lord Ram within ourself. When our love awakens,
in that love, compassion for all living beings awakens. Then
Ramrajya is awakened within the heart and then without (i.e.
out in the world).
25. Millions of years ago, according to Vedic sources, the
Supreme Lord appeared on this planet as the warrior
Ramachandra, in order to execute His will and display the
pastimes of the Personality of Godhead. As it is stated in the
Bhagavad Gita, “From time to time I come, in order to vanquish the
demons and rescue the devotees.
The Pastimes of Lord Rama are revealed in the famous vedic
scripture called “The Ramayana”, written by Sri Valmiki. Before
being empowered to write The Ramayana, Valmiki had been a
plunderer; but, by the grace of the great saint Narada, he became
a Vaishnava that is, a worshipper of the Personality of Godhead.
Narada had first asked Valmiki to please chant the Name of the
Lord, but Valmiki had replied that he would not. He was a
murderer, and so what had he to do with chanting God’s Name?
Narada then asked him to meditate on his murders, by saying the
name of “Mara, which means death. Valmiki agreed to this, and
meditated on “Mara”. “By rapid repetition of the word Mara, Mara,
Mara he found himself saying Rama, Rama, Rama, and by the
power of reciting the Holy Name of God, his heart became purified.
26. The Ramayana is written down as an historical epic, but it
contains all the information of the original Vedas. Vedic literature
such as The Ramayana and The Mahabharata (of which the
famed Bhagavad Gita is a chapter), are especially recommended
for this age, even more so than the highly intricate vedas, or the
philosophical thesis of the vedanta sutra all of which are prone to
misinterpretation by the fallen mentality of this age of quarrel.
27. So diminished is the capacity for receiving God
consciousness in this age that The Bhagavad Gita, which was set
down 5000 years ago and was especially intended for the less
 intelligent, is today not understood by the greatest so-called
scholars. These men generally attempt interpretations of the Gita
leaving out the importance of the Personality of Godhead, Krishna,
Who is the essence, Speaker, and goal of the Gita.
28. Lord Ramachandra appeared on this earth as a man. This
means that He actually walked the earth. What is written in The
Ramayana, we should note here, is best understood as it is. When
the pastimes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are narrated,
there can be no question of allusion to a higher principle. Allegory
means that there is a truth higher than the literal sense of a given
text. But the highest realization of spiritual perfection is that the
Absolute Truth is a Person which precludes any possibility of going
beyond Him. God means the Highest Reality. He is the One from
whom everything emanates. Although He appeared as a man out
of kindness to His devotees, Ramachandra is the Supreme Lord.
His history is, therefore, very marvellous and filled with wondrous
feats, as we’ll see.
29. Ramachandra was the son of King Dasarath, in the line of
King Ikshaku, the first ruler of earth, and an early recipient of the
Bhakti Yoga system of The Bhagavad Gita. Lord Rama was the
darling of His father and mother, Queen Kausalya, as well as the
hero and darling of all Ayodha, the capital of what was then the
single world kingdom.
30.
31. Rama had all the admirable qualities of leadership, even
from earliest youth. Ramachandra possessed all physical strength,
all beauty, religious wisdom in submission to truth, fame for
prowess with weapons, royal wealth, and complete renunciation.
He played the part of a human, and yet His stature as a human
 was praised by all His contemporaries as being worthy of the gods.
Inseparable from Rama was Lakshman, His younger brother.
Lakshman was born of Sumitra, one of the 350 queens of King
Dasarath. His position is like that of Rama’s Own Self, and nothing
is dearer to Rama than Lakshman. Together, the two brothers
appeared on earth to vanquish the almost invincible atheist King
Ravana and his numberless host of rakshasa (man-eating)
warriors.
32. Ramachandra is described as being of greenish hue, His
bodily lustre like fresh green grass. And Lakshman is golden-hued.
Lakshman is as attractive and as a formidable warrior as Rama
Himself. During the course of one of the blood-drenched battles
against Ravana’s army, Lakshman was rendered unconscious by
rakshasa magic, and at that time Rama gave vent to a
spontaneous expression of love for Lakshman: “If I lose kingdom
that I can bear, but I could not bear the loss of Lakshman! I cannot
go on if Lakshman is lost to Me!“ Lakshman was likewise
dedicated to the service of his brother, and had no other pleasure
than to please Ramachandra.
33. Sita, the wife of Rama, is not considered an ordinary being. It
is understood that, as Lord Ramachandra was Vishnu, the
Supreme Lord Himself, so Sita was actually Lakshmi, the Goddess
of fortune, who serves eternally at the feet of Vishnu in the spiritual
sky. Being the daughter of the royal saint Janaka, she is also
sometimes called Janaki. Actually, Janaka found Sita when she
was a baby. He had been plowing a field, and he upturned her in a
clod of earth. It is stated in The Ramayana that Sita came to earth
for the destruction of Ravana, who was a villifier of married
women. As Ramachandra was the greatest warrior and expounder
 of religion and morality, so Sita was the greatest beauty among
women, and the most chaste.
34. Valmiki compares the sight of Rama and Sita together to the
moon and the brightest star. The Ramachandra worshipper,
therefore, never makes the mistake of thinking Sita an ordinary
wife. Throughout the Ramayana, the poetry again and again turns
to images of the various moods of natural beauty in the jungle, in
the sky, and in the night with its wonderful galaxies for
comparisons to the loveliness of Sita. And always the worshipper
addresses first Sita, and then Rama like Sita-Rama.
35. Kidnapping of Sita by Ravan and Lord Rama’s alliance
with the monkeys:
36.
37. In the absence of Sita, Ramachandra was plunged into
unalloyed grief. He was crazed, and His understanding appeared
clouded. He was going through the forest asking the flowers and
trees if they had seen His wife. He feared that she had been eaten
by the rakshasas. He and Lakshman searched everywhere. Rama
questioned the sun: “Where has My darling gone? “ He asked the
wind if she were dead or alive or stolen, or had he seen her on any
path?
38. Lakshman attempted to draw off Ramachandra’s despair by
sensible words, but he was paid no attention. Finally the brothers
found signs of Sita, pieces of clothing torn while resisting Ravana,
and ornaments which had fallen from her as she rose up in his
chariot. They also found the bloodied dying body of Jatayu, the
ancient king of birds, who had made a valiant attempt to stop
Ravana’s might. Frothing in his last blood, Jatayu informed
Ramachandra that it was Ravana, the king of the rakshasas, who
 had taken Sita. The brothers got further information that they could
obtain the help needed to find Ravana’s kingdom by making
alliance with Sugriva, the king of the vanaras, a monkey race who
lived in the Pampa region of rivers and lakes.
39. This chief of the monkeys, Sugriva, beholding Ramachandra
and Lakshman within his province, was at once fearful. The
Vanaras were taking refuge from their enemy Vali, who was the
chief’s brother, and Sugriva thought that Rama and Lakshman had
come to do some harm, as they appeared so formidable with their
weapons. The monkeys ranged from peak to peak, and joined their
leader for a conference on what to do about the two mighty young
men who were walking amongst the trees and lakes. The chief
counsellor to the King, named Hanuman, assured Sugriva that
their enemy Vali had no access to the Pampa region. Therefore,
why should they fear these two godlike warriors?
40.
41. Hanuman approached Rama and Lakshman on behalf of the
king, and with eloquent words invited them to meet with the
monkey chieftain. Rama was at once delighted with the eloquent
speech and appearance of Hanuman, and a meeting was
arranged. Seated on giant Sala leaves, Rama, Hanuman,
Lakshman and Sugriva spoke out their hearts and concluded a
pact of honorable friendship.
42. Sugriva narrated how he had become confined to this region
of the Pampas in fear of his life, having been deprived of his
kingdom by his brother Vali. Ramachandra acknowledged that the
expression of friendship is good service, and He agreed to kill Vali,
who had also abducted the wife of Sugriva. Rama accepted the
hand of Sugriva in embrace, and the monkey chief promised to aid
 Rama in His search for Sita by employing his vast, worldwide army
of Vanaras.
43. Sugriva, however, had some doubts that Rama could
actually subdue Vali. In order to assure him, Rama Chandra shot
one arrow which traversed through seven palm trees, a rock,
through the innermost region of the Earth and in a minute returned
to Rama Chandra’s quiver! He then set out, and soon met Vali,
and slew him.
44. After some delay, while Sugriva tasted the sensual pleasures
of his regained kingdom, he mobilized his forces and sent them out
to all quarters in search of Lanka, where Sita was imprisoned. But
after months of futile searching, the armies began to lose hope.
Some returned, and some dispersed in foreign lands. It was
Hanuman alone who received information that the kingdom of
Lanka was an island far across the Indian ocean.
45.
46. Hanuman is eulogized by all sages and scholars of the vedic
science of God, for Hanuman is the ideal servitor. He simply
wanted to carry out the order of Ramachandra effectively. His
career in finding Sita and battling the rakshasas on behalf of
Ramachandra sets the highest spiritual standard, surpassing all
mechanical yogic practitioners and speculative philosophers and
scholars in search of the Absolute Truth.
47. It is clearly stated in “Teachings of Lord Chaitanya” by A.C.
Bhaktivedanta Swami, that at the last stage the highest spiritual
perfection is favorable service unto the Personality of Godhead.
The exact example of Hanuman is not to be imitated, but his
service attitude is to be followed. That is, each of us has some
capacity. Hanuman had the capacity of enormous physical
 strength and agility. He used every ounce of that strength, not in
pursuit of sense gratification or for conquering some land or
women, but in humble devotional service to the Lord of the senses,
whom he worshipped exclusively as Lord Ramachandra. We
should do likewise.
48. There cannot be any exaggeration in praising the stature and
exploits of this formidable monkey warrior. He is not great because
he was wonderfully powerful, but because he used all his strength
even his anger in discharging service unto the Personality of
Godhead in the matter of vanquishing Ravana.
49. Hanuman resolved to travel through the air in search of
Janaki. He was the son of the wind god, Vayu, and thus had the
facility for flight. Passage across the ocean is arduous, even for
one who can fly like the wind, but Hanuman made it in one leap.
His monkey brothers had gathered to watch him off. With a great
contraction of strength, Hanuman stood at the edge of the sea and
grasped a mountain in his arms. He held his breath and tightened
all his limbs. He then spoke these words to his brothers, “I shall
reach Lanka with the velocity of the wind, just like an arrow shot by
Rama, and if I do not find Janaki there I shall at the same speed
go to the region of the gods. And if I do not meet with success
even there, then I shall uproot Lanka itself and bring Ravana here
in bondage.
50. “With these words, he sprang up with ease. Like Garuda, the
eagle of Vishnu, Hanuman flew over the water, raising great waves
by his speed, and exposing the aquatics below, who fled in fear. At
times rakshasas rose from the sea for his destruction, but he was
not deterred in his mission. Sri Valmiki says that when Hanuman
 landed in Lanka and went over the city wall, it appeared as if he
had planted his left foot on the crown of Ravana.
51. The perfection of Hanuman in action is open to anyone who
will use to the full his own personal capacities in serving the Lord.
There is a nice story that occured at the time Ramachandra and
the monkeys were building a bridge across the ocean to reach
Lanka. Hanuman and the other Vanaras were hefting huge
boulders and throwing them into the sea. In the course of such
tremendous labor, Hanuman spied an insignificant spider, who
appeared to be brushing some specks of dust into the water with
its back legs. “What are you doing, worthless?” Hanuman asked of
the spider. “I am helping Ramachandra build His bridge” the spider
replied.
52.
53. Hanuman was about to move the spider out of the way of his
own serious work, when Ramachandra interposed, saying, “What
are you doing, Hanuman? This spider is worth as much as you are
by doing his utmost for Me.
54. “The gist of this is that the topmost position of loving service
unto God is made manifest by directly applying whatever you have
in the way of words, thoughts and energy. And that will be
accepted by the Lord as first class devotion.
55. Lord Ramachandra’s whole program was based on the
concept of the ideal king, and it is in that light that we can best
understand Him. As the perfect ruler, Ramachandra followed the
principles of morality and ethics just as they should be followed by
the perfect human king or ruler. Ramachandra submitted Himself
to those principles, though He was actually the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, and not subject to any moral code. At this
 instance He showed that a good leader must think only of the
welfare of his people, setting aside his entire life for that purpose,
with no private pleasures withheld.
56. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains the mood of
the Lord in His Appearance as Ramachandra: “The comparative
studies on the life of Krishna and Ramachandra are very intricate,
but the basic principle is that Ramachandra appeared as an ideal
king, and Krishna appeared as the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, although there is actually no difference between the
Two. A similar example is that of Lord Chaitanya. He appeared as
a devotee and not as the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
although He is Krishna Himself. So we should accept the Lord’s
mood in His particular Appearance, and we should worship Him in
that mood. Our service should be compatible with the attitude of
the Lord. Therefore, in the shastras, there are specific injunctions,
such as: The method to worship Lord Chaitanya is chanting Hare
Krishna.
57.
58. Sri Valmiki declares that he who always listens to this epic
becomes absolved from sins. He who listens with due respect
meets with no obstacles in life. He will live happily with his near
and dear ones, and get his desired boons from Ramachandra, the
eternal Vishnu, the Personality of Godhead.
59.