Ameyatma das (ACBSP): “Understanding the Pastimes of Sita Ram”

According to Hindu tradition, the Ramayana takes place during a period of time known as Treta Yuga. In its extant form, Valmiki's Ramayana is an epic poem of some 50,000 lines.

Ameyatma das (ACBSP), 5 May 2010: Brenda, as stated earlier, you must accept an authority as a point of reference. ie: A spiritual master and spiritual guide. This material world is like a thick forest, it is very easy to get lost without an expert guide. At this point, it is obvious that you have not yet accepted Srila Prabhupad as that guide and master. You are reading from so many view-points.

I also, before finding Prabhupad’s books, I also read a wide variety of Vedic oriented books by all sorts of masters and teachers. Up until I found Srila Prabhupad’s teachings I also was gathering some thing from here, some from there and was cooking up my own hodge-podge philosophy of what is right or wrong. That is how many charlatans are born, mix in a little of this from here, a little that from there and walla they create their own hodge-podge.

Srila Prabhupad had pointed out, the perfect leader means that one has become the perfect follower. As I said, this world is like a thick forest, without an expert guide it is so hard to get lost. You are read this, and that, and quoting from here and there – what is the basis and standard of the Authority of each of those sources? There are so many people out there who claim to be THE Authority on Vedic studies. Yet, there conclusions are all different.

Last week I was able to give class at the University of New Mexico – oddly it was to the honor’s students in Biology. Why Biology? Because they wanted to hear from different religious perspectives how religion views modern science.. It was a great opportunity, I was able to lecture for 2 hours and then has 1 hour for open discussion taking very intelligent questions from a very intelligent class. I was told that before I would give my class that the class had spent 2 weeks studying the Vedic perspective.

Since everyone in the class was from Judaic-Christian background and they wanted to get a wider view of other religious thought, once they had scheduled me to deliver the Vedic perspective they felt obliged to pre-study the Vedic views. They had a University professor of religion give them a class a week before on his rendition of what Vedic science was and how it ‘evolved’. I was given notes from his class before I gave mine. The students were all totally receptive to my class.

Anyway, the point is that the previous professor’s class had taken the view of the history of the Vedas that was made popular by Max Mueller, a German born, Oxford educated scholar of the 1800’s who helped bring the Sanskrit Vedas to the attention of the West. Mueller was a Protestant Christian and even though he had a personal fascination for the Vedas, and respected them as great works, he could not accept the Vedic knowledge as Absolute, but, rather, treated them only as MYTHology. He outright rejected the Historical times tables of the Vedas given in the Vedas themselves.

The reason was that at the time Judaic Christian religion taught that Adam and Eve and Genesis took place about 4-5,000 years ago. Yet, here were the Vedas speaking about activities that took place 1,000’s, 10’s of 1,000’s, even millions of years prior to that. To accept the Vedic version would mean those Christians would have to reject their own scripture – at least regarding the history of mankind. Rather than going this path, Mueller chose instead to discredit the Vedas.

He created his own time-tables of what HE said the Vedas were written. He looked at the grammer of the different Vedic writings that are attributed to Vyasdev, and he clearly denoted each book had it’s own distinct grammar. Thus, he SPECULATED that Vyas could not have been the author, that no one man could be the author, as the grammar is all different. So, he fabricated a whole separate time table for when HE said the Vedas were written. He put the Rig Veda around 3,500 years ago, and spread the other scriptures over thousands of years later, putting the Gita at around 100 BC.

Thus, he complete rejected the history expounded in the Vedas themselves, and create a history that would put the whole Vedic history within time frames acceptable to Christianity. Since he was a prominent scholar at Oxford his seemingly scholarly works on the Vedic MYTHology and the time-tables he gave became THE accepted view in the West.

And, the British taught this View of the Vedas to the people of India – in the Universities that the British set up there. Thus, even ‘Hindu’ scholars, for the past 100+ years in India, have felt obliged to view the Vedas in the ‘Intellectual – View’ of the Western scholars, and thus reject the Vedic versions as mere MYTH – And, they accept that the Gita, the Puranas, etc., were not written by one person Vyas, but, that Vyas, according to Mueller, was just the name of a Post of those who wrote Vedic books. (Why there is different Grammar for each of the books, because Vyasdev is the COMPILER of the Vedas, not the Writer, exactly. He had many students, and he assigned the actual task of Writing each book to a different student. That is explained in the Srimad Bhagavatam. This explains the difference in grammar).

According to the Vedas Ram Chandra appeared on this planet somewhere between 800,000 to 2 million years ago. The minimum time period is 800,000 years because Ram Chandra appeared in Tretya Yuga which is before Dwapara Yuga, and Dwapara Yuga lasted for 800,000 years. Tretya Yuga lasted 2 Million years, so Ram Chandra appeared sometime between 805,000 years ago to as long as 2,805,000 years ago.

We say about 2 million years ago. That is, IF you accept the version given by the Vedas themselves. (In Bhagavad- Gita Krishna tells Arjuna that He had spoken the Gita previously over 120 million years ago to the Sun God – thus, the Vedas provide a Cosmic view of History, not the limited view as the Judaic-Christians have had).

Srila Prabhupad, even though educated at a British standards college, accepts the Vedic version as expounded by the great Acharyas of our disciplic line. He rejects the speculative and offensive views as given by the British so-called scholars.

If we understand that the pastimes of Sita Ram took place no less than 800,000 years ago, and as much as 2 MILLION years ago, then it is understandable that there may have developed over the ages various differing stories. Even if it were 5000 years old story, that is enough time that many different story lines could emerge. Which ones are right, which are speculative and wrong? It is like a forest, you can easily get lost. Unless you have an expert guide.

You are still looking around. You may think that you can find your way out of the forest yourself, without need of a guide. Good luck – but, so far, no one else has… We accept Srila Prabhupad as our guide, and thus we accept not only the Vedic version, but, specifically that version as comes down in our disciplic succession. And, if there are even variations among Vaishnav Acharyas, we accept the guidance given to us by HDG AC Bhaktivedanta Swami. In Srimad Bhagavatam it only refers to Sita as the Daughter of Janak Maharaj,  Janaki Devi.

I have seen some very OFFENSIVE versions about Sita in the past. And, I saw the venum in their motives. Mostly the people who spew the offensive views of Sita and promote them as coming from ‘authoritative’ sources have a very bent agenda. There real agenda is to BREAK people’s Faith in their religion, to break their faith in God, and thus introduce atheism. One person who very much promoted these offensive views of Sita was working for the UN to promote Equal Rights for Women.

They spewed all sorts of non-sense about Sita as evidence that Ram was not the great King, and great husband, but, he abused Sita by banning her. That Ram was a low and dispicable ‘MAN’, like all the other men of the world. Obviously, I have no interest in hearing from such offenders. I have accepted the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupad as my shelter, and he as the captian of the ship. I have my guide, and i accept his guidance. I have no interest in any other so-called versions….

Here is what reveals your actual bias: (and i have seen you make similar comments a number of times in the past)

you said:

< <<< I honor Sita in every imaginable context…however, I don’t think that the men in India at the time would have…since they viewed women mostly as sexual objects or possessions…perhaps that’s why a story about Sita’s real father was never mentioned in the context of ISKCON. A Sita scarred by incest would have been someone to cast out, (as they did)…not someone to have compassion upon… >>>>

You have a very biased view of what you think of saintly men. First, the soul is not male or female, the soul is eternal and as such you have had many births in both male and female bodies, and so have i and so have all of us. You need to transcend the sexist views. You are so caught up in identifying with your female body. Get off the bodily platform, you are Not that body, and are not a woman, you are a Jiva Soul.

You ‘think’ that men in Vedic culture would not Honor Women, that they only view them as sexual objects shows your complete lack of understanding Vedic culture and Vedic teachings. Stop identifying with the body. ‘Perhaps’ this is why Prabhupad avoided the idea that Ravan is Sita’s real father….. Perhaps, I think… All PURE Speculation.

Listening to one’s own Mind. Until you are able to control the mind and get the mind engaged 100% in the service of Krishna, the mind must be seen as one’s worst Enemy. A mind that is not poised in Krishna’s service is succeptable to all sorts of nasty speculations. Taking guidance from one’s own mind is the worse situation one can be in. Look where it got you this life, in another material body born into this material world. Go on listening to your mind will get you nowhere.

If you go on listening to your mind ‘I think, Perhaps this’ you will reap the same result as you are in today. Take guidance from a truly self-realized soul. Stop listening to your materially deluded mind. Obviously Vedic culture honors women, motherhood, but, it also respects the sexual attraction and understands the nature of the material energy, that sex life Bonds one to the material world. If one wants to break the bonds of the material world, one has to break the bonds of sex life. Thus, those who are on the path of spiritual enlightenment will avoid too closely associating with the opposite sex because they respect the power of sexual attraction.

To avoid being snagged into that force of attraction and avoid being bound up by the reactions of sexual unions, those in the renounced order must avoid association with the opposite sex. There is no dislike, no hatred, no animosity by a mature person on the spiritual platform, there is simply an understanding of what is needed and they do the needful. I am out of time, so, my advice, accept one guide or stay forever lost in the jungle. Srila Prabhupad is the only one I can point you to, his guidance is pristine, and he has made the path crystal clear.

Shed off your mundane views and bodily non-sense, quit listening to your own mind, following a mind that is not enlightened, and learn to control the mind by engaging it always in Krsna’s service. Chant japa at least 16 rounds everyday. If you are not doing that yet, then, set aside all the books you are reading and Chant, that is the Yajna of the age. After completing your 16 rounds each day, then take time for 1-2 hours of reading Srila Prabhupad’s books, hear from the pure devotee, then, if you have time, engage in bhajans and aratik – and worship the Form of the Godhead.

I suspect that you have a keen interest in reading about Sita because of some desire to worship the Goddess. Goddess aspect of the Supreme is the Hladini Shakti, the Internal Pleasure Potency of the Supreme. But, the best way in this age to understand this Hladini Shakti is to study the life and teachings of Mahaprabhu, as He is the embodiment of both aspects of the Godhead in one.

ys ameyatma das