Ramayana- A Way to Attain Moksha

Difference between Adhyatma Ramayana and Valmiki Ramayana

The events in the Adhyatma Ramayana unfold itself through the narration of Lord Shiva to Sri Parvati. All major characters are incarnations of gods and goddesses contrary to Valmiki Ramayana; Rama as the incarnation of Para Brahma, Sita as Yoga Maya, Lakshman as Adi Shesha. Rama shows his ‘viswaroop’ (his real image) to Kausalya in Adhyatma Ramayana version. Narada visits Sri Ram before his coronation function arranged by Dasaradha to remind him of his real mission on Earth. Another noteworthy change is that as per Adhyatma Ramayana, the real reason behind Mandhara’s gossiping against Rama is to make a way to Rama’s ‘vanavasa’. It is depicted as Goddess Saraswathi makes Mandhara and Kaikeyi for this purpose. The story of Sage Valmiki being a barbaric thief in his prior life is an interpretation seen only in Adhyatma Ramayana, not in Valmiki Ramayana. The most important deviation is that Ravana really didn’t kidnap Sita, but Maya Sita only, an illusion created by the goddess. In other words, Rama questioning the chastity of Sita after the killing of Ravana has been justified by the poet here. In Adhyatma Ramayana, we could see Rama worshipping Lord Shiva before his mission to kill Ravana, maybe a development to satisfy the Shiva tradition also. These additions along with the events in the real Ramayana confirm author’s intention of telling the story of Rama, the ultimate god.
Adhyatma Ramayana is divided into several sections named ‘kanda’, as,

Bala Kanda
Ayodhya Kanda
Aranya Kanda
Kishkinda Kanda
Sundara Kanda
Yuddha Kanda and
Uttara Kanda

Bala Kanda
Sri Rama! Rama! Rama! Sri Ramachandra! Jaya
Sri Rama! Rama! Rama! Sri Ramabhadra! Jaya
Sri Rama! Rama! Rama! Sitabhirama! Rama
Sri Rama! Rama! Rama! Lokabhirama! Jaya
Sri Rama! Rama! Rama! Ravananthaka! Jaya
Sri Rama! Mama hridi ramatham Rama! Rama!
Sri Raghavaatmaarama! Sri Rama! Ramavata!
Sri Rama ramaneeya vigraha! Namosthuthe!

Ezhuthachan begins his great epic work by worshipping all his gods and teachers. Most critiques try to find out clues for the background of the poet from these lines. Then, he discusses the advantages of reading, and listening to the life-story of Rama. Those who read Ramayana every day and even listening to the very name of Rama will sure to get ‘mukthi’ or ‘moksha’. The story develops through the conversation between Lord Shiva and Goddess Uma.

Goddess Uma requests Lord Shiva to talk about the story of Rama and the importance of listening to the story of it. She says ‘Rama’ is the most precious name in the world, so she needs to tell the story so that she will get to know the ultimate truth. Lord Shiva narrates the story of Rama in a nutshell to Uma and then asks her to reveal the ‘Rama Tatva (the real idea or truth behind Rama to Hanuman, the devotee of Rama.

Rama Tatva
Rama is the one and only one Para Brahma. He has no qualities, emotions, birth, decay or death. He is omnipotent, omnipresent, god of all gods, witness of everything. You need to know this is Rama."

“Many Ramayanas”- Questioning the homogenous interpretations of the text

A.K. Ramanujan wrote his “Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation” to foreground different versions of the story of Rama. As I did not read the particular text, I cannot clearly say the nature of the work to invite much criticism from the Hindutva ideologues. As far as traditional knowledge is concerned, there are three sources for studying Ramayana: Valmiki Ramayana, Jaina Ramayana and Buddha Ramayana.

Valmiki Ramayana
Valmiki Ramayana is the composition by Sage Valmiki. It is believed that Valmiki conceived Rama as a good human being only, not as god. Besides, the story of Valmiki being a barbarous thief in his “Poorvasrama” as envisaged in Adhyatma Ramayana cannot be seen in the version of Valmiki. This version is propagated in Adhyatma Ramayana, an ancient Sanskrit text written by Ramananda. It has been discussed in the ancient wisdom that there were “many books of Ramayana” by Lord Brahma itself, which were equal to the four Vedas. However, human beings find it difficult to learn all these as there are a lot of books. Therefore, Lord Brahma asked Sage Valmiki to compose a simple version of it for the common man to get familiarized with. As Valmiki got enlightened by reciting the Rama mantra, Lord Brahma thought Valmiki would be the appropriate person to do so. Sage Valmiki got the help of Sage Narada in the composition work.

The story behind composing Ramayana is that Valmiki saw two love birds being shot by a hunter when they were exchanging their love. The sage composed the Ramayana from the “soka (sorrow)” of seeing this. “Manishada pratishtatum samagah sashvatisamah yat krouncha mithunadekam sokam avadhim kama mohitam.” This is the first utterance of the sage. Later, there were many other adaptations to this book based on the work of Sage Valmiki in which Adhyatma Ramayana is the most famous.

Buddha Ramayana or Dasaradha
It comes in the series of Jataka Tales, we can see one version of Ramayana. In the Buddha Ramayana, Rama and Sita are siblings who left their land to protect themselves from the evil doings of the step-mother. Most of the characters in the Valmiki Ramayana is not get their place in this version. Not much literary value is given to this version by critics.

Jain Ramayana
As per Jain Ramayana, Rama is not the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, but a follower of Jainism. Besides, in some versions, Sita is the daughter of Ravana. In Sanghadasa's Jaina version of Ramayana of the 5th century BCE, Sita, entitledVasudevahindi, is born as daughter of Ravana. According to this version, astrologers predict that first child of Vidyadhara Maya (Ravana's wife) will destroy his lineage. That's why Ravana abandons her and orders the infant to be buried in a distant land where she is later discovered and adopted by Janka.( Wiki).