Secrets of Ramayana

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The epic Ramayana is like a beautiful garland in which numerous pearls of rasas, alankaras, politics, vastu, astrology, duties, dharma and adharma have been tied together but the thread, woven between those pearls is spiritual in the form of Ramayana. Here an effort has been made to understand that thread woven as Ramayana.

Dr. Radha Gupta was born in Deoband (U.P., India) where she did her initial schooling. She finished her M.A. (in Sanskrit) from Meerut University at the top of her class, following which she did her Ph.D. and D.Litt. from Devi Ahilya University, Indore (M.P., India). Her research work for D.Litt. on 'Yogavasistha' was published as a book and is available with Parimal Publications, Delhi. She has also written two books 'Rahasya' and 'Ramayana Rahasya' based on the esoteric aspects of Shrimad Bhagavata Purana, Mahabharata and Valmiki Ramayana (also available through Parimal Publications, Delhi).

She also helped her brother Shri Vipin Kumar in preparing a reference book on Vedas and Puranas named 'Purana Vishayaanukrarmika'. Two parts of this reference book have been published and the remaining unpublished material of this book has been made freely available via google drive searchable as 'puraanic subject index. 'The present book is the English translation of her Hindi book 'Ramayana Rahasya' .

As I belonged to a religious family, I was somewhat familiar with the Puranas like Bhagwat Purana and the great epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata. But I never had a deep faith in them because whenever I got a chance to read them or to hear them, my mind raised various questions about their content.

The doubts and questions would arise, wander for a while and then drown out for lack of any answers or clarity in the matter. Despite this, the moral values and ideals derived from these treatises surely made way deep into my subconscious and became a part of life just like sugar gets dissolved in the milk.

It was like I was in search of water that could quench my thirst for the right answers - give me satisfaction and a feeling of mental fullness - but it was simply not available.

Since I was anyways fond of reading, life kept moving on its course. But passing through the different situations in life, my mind continuously kept oscillating between happiness and sorrow - both of which I did not like. I was continuously asking myself - is there no way to get rid of sorrow? But since I was living only a morals based life, it was not possible for me to get rid of sorrow or to get that nectar of bliss which I yearned for.

They say where there is a will, there is a way. And one day I did find the way forward. After completing my Ph.D work, I started to study Yoga Vasistha for my D.Litt degree. Strewn all over, I found it written that for a peaceful, stable life, one has to know his Real Self - the soul first. Everyone is living in this great illusion that they are a body. Actually they are a soul and have to come out of this illusion of being just the body.

In the beginning, I could not understand the meaning of this description and these words appeared very difficult. But as soon as my understanding developed, I came to know the real meaning of Knowing one's Real Self - the soul i.e. Atmagyan.

I had already read a small book of Swami Ramtirth, in which he had written that if you wish to know yourself, you have to attentively see your own body first from top to bottom and then ask yourself - who am I? And when you can see that this body is mine, enquire who then is running this body? I practiced it and over time I also came to know that I am not this body, that I am separate from this body. I am an energy or soul who runs this body. With constant study and introspection though my intellectual under tending definitely increased but I did not have the clarity by which I could manifest this knowledge in my practical life. Thus in search of something new, my D.Litt work got completed.

In this period, my brother Shri Vipin Kumar (a scientist and scholar of Vedas and Puranas) was deeply engaged in making a subject Index of Puranas, Mahabharata and Ramayana etc. The work was very tedious and complex. So as soon as I finished the work for my D.Litt, he called me and inspired me to help out in preparing that subject Index. In the beginning, I was reluctant and kept pushing back because I was not really interested in reading the Puranas. But one can call it God's Wish or The Law of Karma, I eventually jumped into that voluminous work involving Puranas, Mahabharata and Ramayana etc. Reading these books, a totally new thinking started developing in my mind. I came to know that these books are not the direct source of knowledge. The knowledge is covered by a thin veil of beautiful stories just like a medicine is covered with a sweet coating. My brother was already engaged in such work and he was opening the knots of knowledge which were intricately entangled. Now I also got attracted towards it and with the help of previous knowledge, I also started to untangle and pick up these strings of knowledge covered with stories.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages