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Chapter 10
CONTEMPLATION OF GOD’S MANIFESTATIONS
53. God In The Animals
20. How many such examples should I give? I am just illustrating a point. The essence of the Ramayana lies in such fascinating ideas. In the Ramayana, there is depiction of love between father and son, between mother and son, between brother and brother, between husband and wife etc. But the Ramayana is dear to me not because of that, but because of Rama’s friendship with the vanaras[1] (monkeys). Now it is said that the vanaras were in reality people belonging to the Naga tribe. It is the job of the historians to dig up the past and make such discoveries. I do not intend to join issue with them. But why should it be impossible for Rama to befriend the monkeys? Rama’s greatness and the charm of His personality lie precisely in this friendship. Similar is the relationship between Krishna and His herd of cows. Worship of Krishna is based on that relationship. In every picture of Krishna we find Him surrounded by cows. He is adored as Gopalkrishna (Krishna the cowherd.) Krishna without the company of cows and Rama without the company of vanaras are simply inconceivable. Rama saw God in the vanaras and struck a relationship of love and affection with them. This is the key to the Ramayana. Without it you would miss the charm in it. You would find the depiction of relationship between parents and children elsewhere too, but the beautiful relationship between nara and vanara—men and monkeys—is found only in the Ramayana. The Ramayana made us realize that there is God in the monkeys too. The sages admired the monkeys fondly. Those monkeys would travel from Ramtek to the Krishna river[2], skipping from tree to tree, without ever touching the ground. Such dense forests and the monkeys playing therein with gay abandon would move the sages to write poetry. In an Upanishad, Brahman (God) is described as having monkey-like eyes. A monkey’s eyes are very restless; they are always watching everything around. Brahman’s eyes ought to be like them. God cannot sit still with closed eyes; we may. If God sits still, what will happen to the world? In the monkey’s eyes the sages see the eyes of the Brahman watching all of us solicitously. Learn to see God in a monkey. |
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