No ancient story, not even Homer’s Iliad or Odyssey, has remained as popular through the course of time. The story of Ram appears as old as civilization and has a fresh appeal for every generation. – David Frawley (The Oracle of Rama) Did Lord Ram love Sita as much as Sita loved Him? In the Ramayana, spanning over 24,000 verses, the descriptions of Ram’s lamentation after losing His wife are heart-wrenching. It’s obvious He was dedicated to Her as she was to Him. Rishi Valmiki has devoted four chapters to describe Ram’s intense separation from his wife (Aranya Khanda-chapters 60-63). In…
Author: Venugopal Acharya
Venugopal Acharya
Venugopal Acharya has done his Honors degree in Economics, Masters in International Finance, and is also a post-graduate MBA in Finance. He has worked with the Times Group and undertook projects for prestigious organizations such as ICICI Bank and KPMG Pete Marwick before he accepted monastic discipline in ISKCON. He travels globally spreading the Vedic wisdom. Read more of his passages on his website http://yogaformodernage.com.
But that determination by which one holds fast to selfish results in religion, economic development and egoistic gratification is of the nature of passion. – Bhagavad Gita (18.34) Although human history reveals men and women of great character, these pages also contain names of people who teach us what not to do in life. Men with strong determination, yet misdirected ambitions, have wreaked havoc on civilizations. One such case is the invader Babur, the founder of Mughal Empire in India. At the age of eleven, Babur became the king of Fergana valley (in present day Uzbekistan) with his interests in…
Emperor Dasharat of Ayodhya was coerced by his favorite wife Kaikeyi into granting two boons: banishing Rama, the rightful heir, to the forest for fourteen years; and proclaiming Bharat, her own son, as the king. The king incessantly lamented at the folly of trusting his wife; he cried inconsolably as Rama happily left for the forest, and eventually, unable to bear the separation from Rama gave up his life. Bharat furiously disowned his mother for her nasty act of banishing the faultless Rama. That’s when realization dawned that she had fallen prey to the evil designs of Manthara, her hunchbacked…