रिश्तों की कसौटी पर राम

                                                                             Week 3

                                                                      राम ही आराम है 

Mistake is a single page in a part of life. But relation is a book of dictionary. Do not lose a full book for a single page.

Because it can takes years to build strong relationship BUT possibly only a moment to tear it apart.

So Trust , Keep the faith, Have Courage to Forgive, Give another chance

Emperor Akbar's enthronement ceremony was going on. He asked Birbal what he wanted from him as he was becoming the King. Birbal said he did not want anything. On being asked again, Birbal said, " I want you to keep your hand on my shoulders when you walk towards the throne". Akbar was astonished at Birbal's wish. The next day Akbar kept his hand on Birbal's shoulder. On seeing this everyone was thinking that hopefully Akbar will support them just the way he has supported Birbal.
It is important to support the one on whom we have kept our hand as well.

In our life, do we want to hear Ram's good deeds, do we want to know Ram, do we want to meet Ram or do we want to become Ram? We have to remember God while doing whatever we do and we will do the right thing. God's love is pure love towards us.


Do we have strength in us to become like Ram?
We have to follow theses steps to become like Ram:

R- maintain Relations
A- Attitude
M- Moral

1. Relations:
Maintaining relations is the biggest challenge. Ram had maintained pure relation with Bharat, Dushrath, Jaanki, Lakshman and Kaykayee. Which one would we select in comparison to wealth, health, power, success, luxuries and relation. Which of these will be our top priority. The relation between a Guru and his disciple, God and his devotee, a father and his son,between a husband and wife,  between brothers, will be tough to maintain but it depends on us what we want.

A bird flying in the sky is God's love and a bird in the cage is man's love that is impure.

A goldsmith was making jewellery with his hammer. A small piece of gold went and fell near the place where the blacksmith was hitting the iron with his huge hammer. Iron was making a lot of noise while being hit, whereas gold did not make any noise. Gold asked Iron," Why are you shouting so loudly?" Iron replied, " I am being beaten by my own brother and so I am shouting". It is very painful when we are hurt by our near and dear one's than by a third person.
When a river flows, it first fills the holes nearer to it and then fills the far one's. In our case, our mentality is different. We don't care for our near ones as much as we care for others. Why doesn't our love flow first towards our close ones. If we want to maintain our relations, we have to keep everything else aside and give first priority to our relations.

“Live for yourself and you will live in vain;

Live for others, and you will live again.” 

During Kaykayee's swayamvar, a lot of King's had come to marry her but she had selected Dushrat. The other King's who were jealous tried to attack Dushrat. At that time, Kaykayee saved Dushrat. Dushrat asked Kaykayee what she desired and he will fulfill it. Kaykayee said she will ask for her wishes later.
When time came, Kaykayee said, "Oh, king! send Rama to forest for fourteen years. Let Bharata be made as king of this earth". Rama having been sent to forest for fourteen years, your son will stand firmly, having laid his roots and will stay in power for the remaining period". 
When Dushrat asked Ram to go to the forest for 14 years, he did not question or argue. He agreed to go to the forest. Sita and Laxman both went with Ram. When Sita went to ask Kaykayee permission, Kaykayee said, " My son is a Kshatriya and he will be able to conquer all the difficulties, but you are like a delicate flower. How can I send you?"  Sita replied," I have married Arya Putra and I will go along with him".
When Laxman came to know about this, he also decided to go with Ram. His mother said, " I would allow you to go the forest only if you consider Ram as your father, Sita as your mother and the forest as Ayodhya" Laxman agreed. He instructed his wife Urmila to take care of his mother. Urmila made such a big sacrifice and stayed back only to take care of Laxman's mother.
Here we can see the beautiful relation between:
Ram and Sita
Ram and Laxman
Laxman and Urmila
Ram and Kaykayee


Today we hesitate in doing even these smaller things, and that’s why when the foundation is weak how can the building survive.As brothers grow up they start quarelling about bigger things like land, property etc. If we learn to shape ourselves right now then future problems will never arise.  


There are three important things to remember in life:
a. Never make promises to anyone when you are happy.
b. Don't take decisions when you are unhappy.
c. Don't reply back when you are angry or aggressive.

2. Attitude:


"Right attitude sees the silver lining in a dark cloud while the wrong attitude sees only the dark cloud!"

Ram's attitude was positive when he was asked to go to the forest. He did not think wrong about Bharat, Dushrat or Kaykayee. It was Ram’s principles to follow what his father promised and it was Bharat’s principles not to take what was in reality his loving brother’s. If we are in a family, there will be injustice. Are we ready to bear the injustice and yet save our relations, just like Ram did?
When we view a coin from the front, we see a circle. When we look at it from the side, it looks like a straight line. Same coin, different views. In the same way, if we look at a situation from different angles we get different views. That is attitude.

3. Moral:
Ram was a man of principles. If we want to become Ram, we have first learn to follow our principles.

"Principles are something that show you path even when their is utter darkness, they can be your teacher, mentor and inspiration"

Maryada Purshottam Ram

Maryada Purshottam Ram loved and respected his father more than anything in world and knew that Dashrath’s pride and honour was his word. Raghukul’s principles mandated it’s followers to fulfill anything they had promised even if it means sacrificing their lives for that.
 Dashrath was a staunch follower of his principles and hence infinite pain he must have suffered, couldn’t refuse Kekayi’s wish. Althought Ram could refuse this order(as Dashrath wished)  for whole ayodhya was with him and Bharat could easily have become king(as kekayi wished) for whole administration was with him but both followed their principles of truth and love.