A NEW TEMPLE FOR LORD RAMA

After centuries of struggle, devotees of Lord Rama will be happy to see a temple dedicated to their beloved Rama-lalla ( as the Lord is fondly called) being inaugurated at His birth-site in Ayodhya.

When the Lord descends, He can choose any part of the material world as He chooses. But just like a nation can have their embassy in any city of their choice, still the nation’s capital city is their preferred choice. Similarly, the Supreme Personality of Godhead can appear anywhere, but He chooses the tract of land called Bharata-varsha as His choice. And that’s why that spot on earth is glorious. Not only does the Lord descend for His pastimes or lilas, but He also brings His entire paraphernalia with Him.

The Lord’s paraphernalia includes His parents and other relatives, His teachers and equals and subordinates, His weapons, His teachings, and His dhama, etc. Thus Ayodhya (literally meaning the city which cannot be conquered), being an eternal kingdom in the spiritual world of Vaikuntha, also descended on our planet. Lord Rama’s parents, King Dasaratha and Queen Kausalya are also not to be considered mundane parents, as they are His eternal devotees. Although they are devotees, their love for their Lord is so pure that it attracts the Lord to reciprocate as their son. Normally, a materially oriented person approaches the Lord for some materialistic goal, but pure devotes relishing the parental mellow (vatsalya-rasa) do not want anything material. Instead, they want the Lord to take the role of a dependent child and ask that they take care of Him. This is the exact position of Dasaratha and Kausalya.

Similarly, in the Rama- lila, the Lord also has three brothers, namely Lakshman, Bharata and Shatrughna. All four of these personalities correspond to the four Catur-Vyuha namely, Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. The Lord’s consort Sita is also not a mundane personality, but His eternal pleasure potency personified. This energy is called Hladini-sakti or the energy that bestows bliss.

Lord Rama is also famous as Maryada Purushottma. The Sanskrit word Maryada is used in the sense of boundary, limitation or proper conduct or etiquette. This is a very important point. God is described as possessing full independence. Nobody or nothing can command Him to perform any act or prevent Him from performing anything. So which power can put a limit or boundary on Him? The only explanation is – His own sweet will!

Thus, the reason that Lord Rama agrees to retire to the forest, or accept only one wife, or tell Sita to undergo a trial by fire, or even give up the company of His wife, and keep her in the hermitage of Valmiki RIshi, etc. are all to be understood His pastimes. To the extent we humans are directly instructed to follow, we should obey. And simultaneously, we must avoid blind imitation of the Lord’s pastimes, just because they appeal to our materially conditioned taste.

One doubt still remains – What if Sri Ramachandra was just a pious and just king, and only a handful of followers have exalted His position? Here is how Srila Prabhupada answers the question – The Supreme Lord is always the Supreme, and no living being, even up to the standard of Brahma, can claim to be one with the Lord. One should not be misled when people worship a great man as God after his death as a matter of hero worship. There were many kings like Lord Ramachandra, the King of Ayodhya, but none of them are mentioned as God in the revealed scriptures. To be a good king is not necessarily the qualification for being Lord Rama, but to be a great personality like Krishna is the qualification for being the Personality of Godhead. If we scrutinize the characters who took part in the Battle of Kurukshetra, we may find that Maharaja Yudhishthira was no less a pious king than Lord Ramachandra, and by character study Maharaja Yudhishthira was a better moralist than Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna asked Maharaja Yudhishthira to lie, but Maharaja Yudhishthira protested. But that does not mean that Maharaja Yudhishthira could be equal to Lord Ramachandra or Lord Krishna. The great authorities have estimated Maharaja Yudhishthira to be a pious man, but they have accepted Lord Ramachandra or Krishna as the Personality of Godhead. The Lord is therefore a different entity in all circumstances, and no idea of anthropomorphism can be applied to Him. The Lord is always the Lord, (Vishnu-tattva) and a common living being (atma-tattva) can never be equal to Him.

—Syamananda Dasa