Rama Fact not fiction Understanding the approach R

Rama: Fact, not fiction

Understanding the approach R: Reach A: Acceptance M: Method

Reach “The Ramayana is geographically very correct. Every site on Rama's route is still identifiable and has continuing traditions or temples to commemorate Rama's visit. Around 1000 BC or earlier, no writer had the means to travel around the country inventing a story, fitting it into local folklore and building temples for greater credibility. ” - Historian Nandita Krishnan

Reach Ayodhya Chitrakuta Nasik Sri Lanka

Reach The concurrence of literature, archaeology and local tradition

Reach � � � � Burma (Myanmar) - Yama Zatdaw Cambodia - Reamker Indonesia - Kakawin Ramayana & Ramayana Swarnadwipa Laos - Phra Lak Phra Lam Malaysia - Hikayat Seri Rama Philippines - Maharadia Lawana Thailand - Ramakien

Reach "Probably no work of world literature, secular in its origin has ever produced so profound an influence on the life and thought of a people as the Ramayana. " - Macdonall

Reach "How could an Epic so dear in India to the memory of the people, so deeply rooted for many centuries in the minds of all, so propagated and diffused through all the dialects and languages of those regions, which had become the source of many dramas, which are still represented in India …. - Ralph Griffith

Reach "How could an Epic … which is itself represented with such magnificence year after year and to such crowds of people in the neighbourhood of Ayodhya, a poem which at its very birth was welcomed with such fervour as the legend relates, - Ralph Griffith

Reach "How could an Epic … that the recitation of it by the first wandering rhapsodists, has consecrated and made famous all the places visited by them, and where Rama made a longer or shorter stay, how I ask, could such an Epic have been purely allegorical? ” - Ralph Griffith

Acceptance Even non-Vedic tribes and non-Vedic religions such as Jainism and Buddhism don’t question Rama’s historicity

Method Research led to discovery of underwater Dwarka near the coast of today’s Dwarka. Similar intensive research needed; absence of evidence is not evidence of absence

Method Miracles are not against science; they are above science S Ramanujan, “An equation for me has no meaning unless it represents a thought of God

Method The net of material knowledge can’t net God Eg fishing net can’t catch fish smaller than the size of its holes

Method “Which engineering college did Rama go to? ” “Which school did you go to learn the basic definition of God? He is the source of all the knowledge in all the world’s colleges. ” Eg. Rama’s building bridge – Rama is source of gravity & suspender of gravity

Method Attraction to the supernatural is natural Eg question half-man half-lion, but enjoy half-man half-bat

Fantastic, but not fantasy � Quality of lovers � Explanation of life � Elevation of consciousness “Prescription wrong. ” “Patient cured. ”