O RAMAYANA (2008) - "O mais belo poema da humanidade" - Lúcia Helena Galvão

Today's lecture is a very ambitious proposal, which is to tell you one of the great classics of the history of humanity, I wouldn't even say of India. We could, if we had a list of the 20 most traditional and most classic books in the history of humanity, with you, Ramayana would be there, in this medium. Ramayana is an epic, which is the spirit of India itself. We can see that much of Ramayana's symbolism has a lot to do with us. It is a very beautiful book, it is a poem, in fact, a great poem, composed

of 24 thousand verses, do not be afraid, because there are some larger ones, such as Mahabharata, which is another epic poem, has 100 thousand verses. The verse of Mahabharata, Ramayana is small, it is a quarter, both very old. You will see that India has a period of, let's say, where their sacred books are written, which is called the Vedic period, which goes from about 1200 BC to 600 BC, which is where the four Vedas are written, where various Upanishads, Puranas, Upaveda, a lot of sacred books are written, then there is the so-called epic period, this

period goes from 600 BC to 200 AD, which is where the two great Indian epics are written, which are Mahabharata and Ramayana. And then there is the school-futra period, which is where some books are written of the six great Indian schools, which are the school of Vaiseshika, Yaya, Yoga, Sankhya, Vedanta and Mimamsa. So, the Indian literature is very vast, very vast. You may say, well, but it was only from 1200 BC that these books began to be written, so they are new, in fact, they are not new. There is a tradition in the history of

India that says that when you need to write a book, you need to write a sacred book, because the civilization is already decadent. The habit, people, was that the Brahmins decorated these books. For example, the Rig Veda was an exercise of memory of every Brahmin, you had to know all the decor. When you need to write a book, and the Indian tradition says that these are not my words, they are theirs, it is because you no longer trust men so much. As men become sleepy, traditions need to materialize to become a little more, let's say,

trustful over the years. But there is no way to calculate when exactly the principles of Vedas emerged, for example. Or even when the story of Mahabharata or Ramayana emerged. It probably came with India, it was born with India. And then it's another long story to imagine when India emerged. I was doing a comparative research in relation to the opinion of historians. I never saw so much controversy and dissension about one subject. It's impressive. They are like this in the house of two thousand years from one to the other. It is certain that it is known

that India comes from a diaspora of a people, which is a people of Indo-European origin. The Indo-Europeans are a group, a group of peoples, who shared a linguistic root, which is this Indo-European root, who lived at a certain time, around three thousand BC, in a region south of Russia, around the Cacti Sea. It is known why they migrated, migrated, migrated, and settled there. It was a region that at that time was a little safer, with a climate a little more bearable. It is probably assumed that from the great glaciers comes this Indo-European migration. And these

peoples settle there. When the glaciers leave, when the climate starts to become a little softer, more pleasant, then these peoples begin to migrate in all directions. And then you will see that people come like the Greeks, like the Scandinavians, like the Celts, like the Persians themselves, like the Persians, the Persians that we know. And the first of all these migrations are the areas of India. They come down, a group, a group of peoples, come down towards the Indian subcontinent. Then there are those who say it was in three thousand BC. There are those who say

it was in five. Then it is the taste of the fregues. It is impossible for you to need this date. The fact is that at a certain moment these peoples arrive there and begin to work a battle for the conquest of the land. There were people living in India. It was not a uninhabited continent, it was not a uninhabited region. There was a great civilization, which is called the Dravidian civilization, which built large cities. Today, archaeologists have already found the rest of these cities. Harappa, Amon-Hinjudaro. People, they are constructions of the fort of an Egyptian

base. They are huge cities and with equivalent technology. No one knows what is the origin of these peoples. But there were very advanced peoples in India. Already very decadent morally, but very advanced technologically. When these areas arrive, conducted, divided into castes, with all the basic beliefs they have to this day, reincarnation, transfiguration of souls, basically the profile they have today in terms of beliefs. Already divided into castes. The only difference between this area and the old India is that they were not commanded by the priests, by the Brahmins. They were commanded by the chakras, by

the warriors. So the first god of the Indians was Indra, who was the god of the chakras, the god of the warriors. Then Indra was in the background, the chakras were in the background, and the Brahmins took over the front of society. Then we have this caste regime, which over time deteriorated and became a social class regime. At first it had nothing to do with it. This people, when they come, there were already certain names among them, certain traditions, it was already said that the people of India, the seventh incarnation of Vishnu on Earth, would

have been a Rama, long before the Ramayana had been written. Long before. The first written version of the Ramayana is around 500 or 600 BC. Three thousand years BC, the name of Rama was already modelled between this area and the Vata. The Indian religion, as well as most religions, this is an important thing for us to understand, this classic, it is based on a triad, a trinity, which they call Trimurti. The father, son and Holy Spirit. The Egyptians had the Ives, Osiris and Horus, then they had Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. This is the trinity, the

triad. However, there is a detail that is important for you to understand. They consider that this trinity comes from a previous unity. This is a very big confusion that we make these days, to think that the polytheistic peoples thought that the universe came from multiplicity. None of them thought that the universe was born in multiplicity. They always thought that the universe came from the UNO. Then came the primordial duality, then came the three, which was the trinity, and then came the multiplicity. This idea that monotheistic religions are only Christianity, Islam, Judaism, is very dubious. All

these religions have a great God behind them. The way we see Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, when we see, for example, Ramayana, we don't understand it very well. Because there are two Vishnu. There is this Vishnu, which is part of the trinity, but there is another, which is greater than him, which is Lord Narayana, the UNO, from where everything came. In fact, the word itself, UNIVERSUS, comes from that. Versus, in the direction of UNUM. In Latin, versus UNUM, that is, in the direction of UNUM. Everything comes from the unity and goes back to the unity. So,

this Lord Vishnu, Lord Narayana, the great creator of the universe, the great song of the universe is the voice of Narayana, this Narayana, from time to time, descends to Earth. It is what they call the phenomenon of the Avatares, which are incarnations of the divine, who descend to Earth to lead men. Rama would have been one of the incarnations of Narayana. It would have been the seventh incarnation of Narayana. So, we will understand history from this context. Rama was a very special being, which was already very famous for a long time. As I told you,

the book is composed of 24,000 verses, a very special Indian metric, which is called Sloka, or Vedantic metric, and also divided into seven chapters. Each chapter narrates a moment of Rama's life. Well, basically, this is the structure. If we analyze any sacred book of the type of Ramayana, in fact, any sacred book in general, if you take a Bible, a Koran, the Vedas, any book, you can analyze it in three aspects. It is the historical, the mythical and the mystical. What is the historical? It is always talking about something that happened, at least in some

way. Something there is historical. The historical is never entirely fictional. There is always something of history in sacred books. But not everything. Some things are symbolic, and it is necessary to know how to interpret them. So, there is the historical aspect, the mythical aspect, which is the symbolic aspect, which has to be interpreted, which is sometimes narrating a fact that seems like a war. But this war is internal. It is the man fighting against his defects. It is symbolic. And there is the mystical aspect. What is the mystical aspect? The central character of these stories

is always a moral example to be followed. It is always a reference. There is a Roman philosopher, named Epictetus, very famous, very interesting, who said the following, the seeds of greatness in man need an image to flourish and germinate. And this is a fact. It is as if he were a sculptor or a painter, even if it is in his mind, but he has an image to produce a fruit, to be able to sculpt his work. The great work of man is to sculpt himself. He needs a model. He needs an image. So, he has

an image. He has a model. He has a model. So, if you see the central character of all these sacred books, he is a reference. He is a model to be followed. And, above all, Rama is very interesting because he is the perfect model of a king. Not only does he reign over a society, but he reigns over himself. A control, a serenity, a capacity of resistance against adversity. It is difficult to have a classic book that shows in such a prodigious way a perfect king, as is the Ramayana. How he led his people politically,

how he put himself in critical situations, when he put himself when someone disrespected him, how he put himself when he was unjustified. It is perfect. It should be a policy manual for today's society and for all who will come. Because Rama is perfect as a king. So, he is also a mystical example to be followed. He is a reference. So, we are going to address, evidently, I will not go into the historical aspect, because otherwise I would have to keep talking about it, I would have to keep making bridges with the history of India, and

that is not the case. I will tell you the story of the Ramayana, trying, as far as possible, to make a bridge between the symbolic aspect, what that means, and also a little bit of the Nis, the moral example that Rama is for any society, for any man of any time. Well, the story of the Ramayana, in fact, I will put it for you, it has numerous versions, for the beginning of the conversation, numerous. It was translated even by the Muslims, changing the name of Rama for a sultan, just so you have an idea. It

was translated for... everyone took the Ramayana and transcribed it according to its values. I will take a more traditional, more classic vision of the Ramayana, within the procedures that are more accepted in present-day India. The story of the Ramayana, I will start telling it to you a little bit at the end. I will start telling it at the end. Because reading the book, it, in fact, the meaning of the whole story, you will only find out at the end. Now, in the book, it is easier to understand this. Within an oral exposition, it gets more

complicated. The book is a great ode to the Dharma, the Law of the Universe. It is an absolute awareness that the Universe is cosmos and not chaos. That there is a Law that organizes the whole Universe. And that this Law is so powerful that it can do more than the Indian Gods themselves. The Dharma. The Ramayana is a great... It is the cornerstone of the Dharma. In fact, the whole Ramayana is an ode to this. The Ramayana is an ode to this Law, as if it were a thread that passes through the beads of a

necklace, that crosses the whole Universe. This thread that gives meaning, that directs, and that is the essence, that is the soul of all beings, which is the Dharma. The Ramayana is an ode to the confidence that the Universe has order, has Law, and respects this Law. It all starts with the story of a kingdom called Ayodhya, where there was a people called the Kozalas. In this kingdom, that mythical moment, where the people of the Gold and the men lived in close communication with the Gods, there was also, in fact, the story of the Ramayana is

rich in beings of all kinds, there was a series of beings, half demonic, half diabolical, who are called Asuras, who are called Rakshasas. At a certain moment, these Asuras decided to attack the Earth, in the sense of causing a great drought, that would end all the plants and cause a very intense hunger. So, this made the Gods declare war on these Asuras, trying to destroy them. But these Asuras were also very magical and very powerful beings, and they face the Gods themselves. Then the Gods ask help from the Men, from the Kings of the Earth.

And one of the greatest Kings of the Earth is the King of Ayodhya, very powerful, maybe the greatest of all. So, they ask the King of Ayodhya to fight alongside the Gods against the Asuras of the Dry. And the King, as he was already, who was very old, sends his son, who was very young, very brave, who was Dazaratha. Dazaratha then goes to war and fights alongside the Gods, and fights against these Asuras of the Dry. Who drove the Dazaratha's war car was one of his wives, her youngest, Kaikei, who was very brave and did

not know fear. And she drove her war car. But it happens that these demons were so powerful that they began to win the battle against the Gods, including seriously the Prince Dazaratha. And Kaikei, who was very young, manages to drive the war car in such a way that he can bring it to Earth and saves the life of the Prince Dazaratha. And at this moment Dazaratha comes to her and says, look, I grant you two requests, because you saved my life. Anything you want, I grant you. But she says, look, I am already your wife,

I love you so much, what more can I want? He says, okay, so you keep these two requests with you. The moment you want, whatever you want will be answered. This point is fundamental in the Ramayana. And the war, as the Gods start to lose, Indra, who was the general of the Gods, says, no, wait, the thing is getting a little complicated, let Narayana go, who is the great lord, the great king, only he can turn this game around, because we will be defeated. And he goes to Narayana and asks her to intervene in favor

of the Gods, to defeat the Asuras of the Dry. Narayana comes, but he comes already enraged, the audacity of those beings to face the gods. He comes enraged, he alone ends, he de-exhausts those Asuras. And it is that bombardment, the gods all gather, they are all on earth, together with the demons, watching Narayana fighting alone against the demons. And a rain of lightning, of explosions, it's crazy, he in a few minutes, ends with all of them. And in this, two of these beings, two of these Asuras, flee, terrified, and descend to earth, and enter in

Ayodhya, they arrive at the house of a Brahmani. And when they arrive at the house of this Brahmani, this Brahmani, his wife was there, who was very kind, very compassionate. And they kneel, terrified, and ask her to protect them. And she gets nervous about these beings. They are afraid, they are so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so. They are persecuted by Narayana, and she gives them shelter in her house. She says, All right, you

are asking for a peaceful shelter, I'll take you. And that's where Narayana comes. Crazy, because they were the only two that he hadn't killed yet. He comes crazy after him. And then, and he puts himself at the door and says, no, they are my guests, Naraí. I received, I used the right, because one of the laws of India is the man being hospitable, the receptivity to the guests. She had used this law, so she had the right to defend her guests. She says, no, here you don't enter. I received, the house is mine, all right,

you are the lord of the cosmos, but this house is mine. And I'm protecting both, I used my rights, so you don't enter here. And Naraí, enraged, throws her to a corner, kills, involuntarily, but kills, enters and kills the two demons that had been missing, in his little account. And in this, the men stay, and the gods, and everyone is perplexed in front of that scene. And there was a Brahmani, a simple Brahmani, a simple priest, who was the main priest of Ayodhya, the Avis. When he sees that, he throws his stick on the ground

and gets enraged and says, you, Naraí, broke with Dharma, so Dharma will turn against you. At some point, I condemn you, you will come to earth as a man, and as a wife of Brahmani. Dharma will separate you from your beloved wife, through an injustice. And Narayana, who is the lord of the cosmos, turns humbly in front of Vasistha and returns to heaven, knowing that this was Dharma and that it was going to happen. See what an impressive thing. A man, a simple man, next to Dharma, can do anything. And he confronts Narayana. Dharma is

inexorable and does not forgive. And Vasistha was with Dharma. Therefore, he confronts Narayana, the lord of the universe, the creator. And he says, you broke with Dharma, so Dharma is against you. And I condemn you, he curses Narayana. And then the story goes on. As the years went by, and in this time it is said that men lived for millennia, then it goes on to be more than ten thousand years. But Arata, who was very young, the prince of Ayodhya, his father passed away, he became king. And he takes two more wives, besides that young

woman, who is Kaikei, he takes two more wives. He has three wives. However, as the years went by, he had no children. And at a certain moment, ten thousand years later, he was already well aged. And he was worried about his descendants, who would be the king of Ayodhya. And then he calls his priest Vasistha and says, look, do some rituals in your gods. So that I can have heirs, so that I can have children. Because the situation is already getting a little complicated. And Vasistha does that. As he was a pure Brahmani, he has

authority, which is very interesting, very beautiful. Because when a man is pure, is clean, as Vasistha was, a life dedicated to Dharma, he puts himself before the gods and practically invokes the gods. The gods come to him. So Vasistha goes to the forest and starts invoking Indra. But he didn't know how chaotic the sky was at that time of the championship. The sky of Indra was in chaos. In this meantime, in this interim of these ten thousand years, a citizen named Ravana was born. This Ravana belonged to a species called Rakshasa. Rakshasa are beings that

are not necessarily evil, but when they are meant to be evil, they are terrible. They are demonic. And Ravana was from this group. He was one of the worst he had. Very selfish and very morbid. He was a being with ten heads and ten pairs of arms. Very powerful and very ambitious. And he realized that if he put himself according to the law of Dharma and made sacrifices insistently to Dharma, he would bend the gods at his will. As he was very determined, he started doing that. He simply sat on top of a mountain, the

mountain of life, together with his two Rakshasa brothers, who were Vibhishana and Kumbhakarna, the three sat down and said, let's stay in sacrifices permanently, until we summon the Lord Brahma to come to our presence. And they stayed. Ten thousand years doing sacrifices. In deep meditation and doing sacrifices. And Ravana made the following proposal. Every thousand years, I would cut one of my heads and put it on the sacrificial altar of Brahma. So, after a thousand years, he would cut one of his heads and put it on the sacrificial altar. And he continued there, in meditation,

in sacrifice. Another thousand years, he would cut the second one. When nine thousand years passed, he got the knife to cut the last one. The will, the power of that sacrifice, made for ten thousand years and with such intensity, that there was no way Brahma could not attend. Brahma was forced to come before him and say, stop! Stop with this! I do what you want! Take what you want! So, his sacrifice gave him a power, a will, a determination so great, that Brahma was obliged to come to his presence and to answer his wish. He

said, I want that I cannot be killed, neither by gods nor by demons. And Brahma, without having how to escape, said, ok, your request is answered. So, Ravana starts to acquire this power. He could not be killed, nor defeated, neither by gods nor by demons. But there is a detail there. He forgets about men. And later they will say that he was careless. And at the end you will see that he will defend himself and say, I was not careless, I did it on purpose. He forgets about men. His other brother, who was very different

from him, who was Vibhishana, was very wise. By the way, I think this request of Vibhishana is beautiful. He says to Brahma, the only thing I want is this, that my will, my desire, never be, not even a comma, different from Dharma. And Brahma looks at that request and says, wow, what a request! And Brahma says, not only will I give you this, but also immortality. Because this is a request worthy of a man who deserves to be immortal. And finally, there was the third brother, Kumbhakarna, who was a giant, huge, and he constantly devoured

men. And for Kumbhakarna, Brahma did not let him make his own request. Kumbhakarna conceded the following, that he would sleep 364 days a year, and would wake up only one day. And on that day he could eat whatever he wanted. If he stayed awake all year, he would destroy all humanity. He was a huge giant. And you will notice, it is very interesting, that Kumbhakarna is associated with two defects, two vices, which are laziness and gluttony. He sleeps all year and wakes up only one day, and devours everything that appears before him. So, Kumbhakarna sleeps

deeply. And then it starts, well, Ravana gets everything he wanted, nobody can defeat him. Now I will become the lord of the world. He declares war on the gods. Nobody can defeat him. He declares war on the gods. So, there in the sky of Indra, a war begins between Ravana, with his army of Rakshasas, and all the gods together. Except Narayana, who does not interfere in this. But all the gods, and he defeats them all. He cannot be defeated by anyone. Defeat comes to the point of imprisoning Indra himself. Brahma has to go down and

negotiate with him, so that he liberates Indra. Ravana has a son, which is very interesting for you to understand. This character represents something. He has a son called Indrajit, who represents illusions. He is an illusionist. He creates illusions, he creates hallucinations, and he manages to arrest Indra. Indrajit manages to arrest Indra. He creates in Indra the panic, the illusion that he was already trapped. Indra is trapped by the networks of illusion. So, chaos is created in the heavens. Ravana can defeat everything. Then he descends to earth and defeats everyone. Anyway, no one could with Ravana.

He becomes the lord of the earth. And in this Indra gets angry. He gets furious. He goes to Brahma and says You are crazy! How did you give this right to this demon? No one can defeat him. Look what he is doing! Look what he did to my heavens! A ruin, all broken, all burned. He is destroying the heavens and the earth. What can happen to this man? Brahma says, look, someone can go against him. Notice that he was careless at the end. Go to Mr. Narayana who is the almighty. He explains to him the

situation. Narayana was already aware of everything. He says, I need you to go. At that moment, Brahma was there, the bassist, making invocations so that Indra would give fertility to the king's wives. Very propitious! Then, he says, I am going to the earth. And he says, I am going to the earth. And he says, I am going to the earth. Then, Indra comes and says, Look, go down, like the son of the king of Dharata. It is the perfect occasion. You and your wife, Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune, you and your wife incarnate in the

world as men. Only then, Ravana can be defeated. Then, Narayana says, I promise, I will go down and incarnate as the four sons of Dharata. Each of the attributes, Narayana is a god that has four hands, with four attributes, the mass, the sword, each of the attributes of Vishnu, of Narayana, incarnates in one of the sons of Dharata. He has four sons. The oldest is Rama. Then, the bassist receives this news from Indra and runs to tell the king, you will have children. The king, very satisfied, runs and announces this to his wife. And so

it happens. A year later, from his oldest wife, Rama is born. From his youngest wife, Bharata is born. And from his middle wife, a couple of twins is born, Lakshmana and Satrughna. It is curious, because they form two pairs. They are inseparable, the four. But Lakshmana becomes the shadow of Rama and the shadow of Bharata. They are inseparable. They live permanently together. And the four young princes grow. And while that happens, Ravana is doing everything you can imagine. Massacring gods, men, demons, and everything you can imagine. And the princes grow. At a certain moment, the

princes are 16 years old. And they are already the great pride of Ayodhya, especially Rama. They have a control, a balance, a love for those he ruled over, an attention, an interest in the problems of each person, a patience. People looked at him as a boy, but he was already a king. He was loved by everyone. And when they turn 16, a Brahmani comes. He was a very respected ascetic by his holiness, called Vishwamitra. He arrives in Ayodhya and he was very connected to the sacred, he was very respectful to the divine. He says, for

a Brahmani like you, you can ask anything you want. Vishwamitra says, I've been coming for millennia, not exaggerating, trying to make my sacrifices in the forest. Every time I put the altar to start making my sacrifices, the demons begin to torment me. Ravana dominates the world. No one can celebrate a ceremony anymore. You can't do that. Without him, the demons will interfere, they will spill blood on the altar, they will destroy everything. Life is becoming impossible. I need you to lend me your children so they can go to the forest with me and win the

ravana's rites. Then the king gets scared. My 16-year-old sons are only boys. No, only they can do it. Well, in the face of a request from Vishwamitra, he gives it to Ravana. He is terrified, but he gives it. The two never separate. They are still boys. When they get there, they fight. There is a first fight, not with Ravana, but with this army of Ravana. And they defeat the raksasas, they defeat the demons. The forest demons go. Vishwamitra, very grateful, says, in gratitude to this, I will take you to meet one of the most just

kings of the earth, King Janaka, from the kingdom of Mithila. Exactly at that time, King Janaka was celebrating a tournament to give the hand of his only daughter, Sita, who was a beautiful princess. Sita was nothing more than the incarnation of Lakshmi, who was already waiting for Rama. So he takes Rama and Lakshmana to Mithila and there he sees a great bow. The tournaments are always with bows. Did you notice that? Siddhartha Gautama wins the princess's hand with a bow. The dispute of the contenders, the hand of Penelope, was with the arrow. It is always

the bow. It is the human personality that bends before the will so that the man projects himself and reaches his goal. All great heroes are great archers. They always dominate their own personality and project their will towards their mission, their destiny. And the bow was so big that it had to be loaded in a big ox cart. Shiva's bow was huge. No one could even hold what he would cast. And, evidently, Rama takes the bow very easily and cast it with so much force that Shiva's bow breaks. People are surprised. Who is this young man?

Siddhartha falls in love with him. He is already married. He goes home already married with Siddhartha. When he arrives there, everything goes very well. On a certain occasion, his two younger brothers, Bharata and Satrughna, go on a trip. And the king, in this interim, he decides, the king of the Aratas, that, being already very old, his son was already 18 years old, Rama, and he was going to make a succession. He would give the throne to Rama. He announces it. Everyone thinks it's wonderful. Everyone is very happy. One of the most beautiful parts of the

book is the king's councilors' speech saying why they loved Rama and why he was a perfect king. Very beautiful. And then, everything is arranged. The next day, Rama will take the throne. He is put on a fast, with all those ceremonies that are typical of the coronation eve. There was a... There was a element of disturbance because his karma was not this. You know that he came to Earth to fight Rama. So he had to get out of there. So there had to be a historical agent to make him not be there. And yes, in

Lanka, fighting Rama. And this happens through the envy of an old ama. This old ama, Korkunda, called Mantara, she goes to Kaikei, who is the youngest wife. Remember? The one who drove the war car from Nazareth. And she says, if you let Rama take over, he is not your son. He will submit you as a slave. And his mother will put you as a slave. Because you will let another prince who is not your son, take over the power. You can't allow that. And she is surprised, Kaikei, because she would not be like a son

to me. Because all the princes were raised by all the mothers. But she was like a son to me. No, you can't allow that. If you allow another prince who is not cheap to take over the power, he will submit you and put you as a slave. Your son has to take over the power. But how am I going to do that? Use your two wishes. Use your two wishes. And then Kaikei falls into temptation. And she gets desperate and starts to pull her hair. And she starts to cry. They call the king and say,

what happened to me, to you, my wife? Did someone hurt you? What did you ask? Tell me what is happening? I want to use my two wishes. Of course, whenever you want. I want Maratha to be king. And I want you to send Rama to exile in the forest for 14 years. All this is instructed by Mantara. Because after 14 years, if he returns, the people will have already forgotten him. If he is not banished, he will be the Baratha of power. So I want Rama to go to exile in the forest for 14 years

and that Baratha be king. And the king is desperate. Oh my God! This is madness! Change your mind, Kaikei! And she says no. And he says, ok, I will do what you ask. But this will be my death. And he does. This is one of the most beautiful parts. Very beautiful. Because he calls Rama. Rama always with Lakshman behind. The two of us announce, look, my son, you will no longer be king. And you will be banished to the forest for 14 years. Your brother, Maratha, will take over. It was asked by Kaikei. And the

king himself, desperate, says, please, disobey me. Don't do that. Please stay. Because this is an existence. And Rama is super serene. No, my father, I can't do that. There is a law in the universe. There is a Dharma. Every time a promise is fulfilled, a little of the Dharma is crushed. And the day the Dharma is crushed, the stars have no reason to fulfill their promise not to roll over the earth. Or the seas have no reason to fulfill their promise not to fall on men. The whole universe will be destroyed when the Dharma is

broken. And the Dharma will fall. If I break with the Dharma, no merit of mine will justify this act. Therefore, every promise must be fulfilled. Protect the three worlds. Fulfill the Dharma. Let me fulfill mine. And he is absolutely serene. The desperate father curses. The tradition of curse in the Indian tradition is very powerful. A just man like Darsara, when he curses, it is law. Rama says, no, raise your curse. She did what she did and it was necessary. The look of men is very superficial to understand the needs of the Dharma. Respect. Remove your

curse. He protects the mother who had banned him. Remove your curse and forgive her. She does nothing more than being the invisible hand of the Dharma. She does what the law is done. She does what the law is done. She does what the law is done. He is serene and everyone is outraged. Everyone is asking him to revolt. He is serene. I find it impressive that you do not see beyond appearances. The order of things is what it is. Things are what they are. A man who revolts against the Dharma has no chance or hope

to find his place within the Dharma. To be welcomed by the Dharma. But very beautiful, very interesting. There comes a time when the king's coachman turns to the king and says to him, this is a matter of cowards to disobey the Dharma. This is not a matter of men, not even warriors like you. What man do you know who turns to the Dharma? He says, Rama turns to the Dharma. And he goes to the forest. Obviously, his brother, who never separates from him, goes with him. And Sita, who also does not accept to separate from

him, goes with him. And the three of them go to despair of the whole kingdom. The three of them go to the forest. To exile. And immediately, Dajaratha dies. The king, your father, dies of disgust. And Bharata, returning from his journey, finds that cause, that madness. What is happening? Then they tell him everything that had happened. He says, but, damn my mother, why did you do that? And Rama goes to the forest. He asks Rama to come back. And Rama says, no. Listen to your heart. Your heart has the echo of the Dharma. Our father

does not deserve it. He, who was a servant of the Dharma, now we are his successors. We break with his promises. Listen to your heart, because there resides the Dharma. The Dharma echoes in your heart. And then Bharata asks for Rama's sandals. To put Rama's sandals on the throne. So that when Rama returns, 14 years later, his sandals would be waiting for him. Rama delivers his sandals and continues in exile. It is very, very interesting that at a certain moment, they enter the forest, a citizen who was a savage and who was the king of

the forest, called Guha. And this Guha had been very friend of Rama's father. And then, when Rama and Sita go to sleep, always Lakshmana is very interesting, because he is willing to be the guardian of the brother and the wife. Therefore, during the 14 years that they spend in the forest, Lakshmana does not sleep. He veils the night for his brother. He veils the sleep of his brother. He swears by dharma that he would serve his brother. Therefore, he opens the brother's hands and sleeps every night and veils the sleep of his brother. And then

he is talking to Guha, who is this savage, saying this is absurd, why does Rama do this? Why does Rama obey something unfair like this? It seems that injustice does not touch Rama. It seems that he is totally indifferent to injustice. Why does he obey an absurd like this? And then Guha says to him, look, as the king of the forest that I am, I know how to understand the language of animals and the smells of nature. And one day I heard the rivers talking to each other. And they said the following, that in a

conversation they had with their father, the ocean, they heard the ocean say that during all the millions of years that the ocean exists, he has seen many times trunk, frondous, he has seen many times huge plants, but he has never seen a leaf of a branch that bent to the wind, being dragged to the rivers to him. Only the one who bends, who is humble, has never been pulled by the rivers and taken to the ocean. The one who is rigid, hard, resistant, these rivers pull and take him. That is, this humility, this sweetness of

Rama to bend to Dharma is what makes him so solid and so vertical. He has his roots deeply ingrained in the soil of Dharma. Therefore, the ocean will never see a man like Rama. He is not rigid, he is not hard, he is not proud, he has the humility to bend to Dharma. No river will ever drag a man like that. Lakshmana begins to understand a little better and the three of them continue in the forest. And then there are adventures and more adventures. The whole book is very interesting and very beautiful. The first time

they choose a place to spend a few years there, Lakshmana builds a house for the three and Rama, before entering this house, he remembers many principles of Feng Shui, he gathers herbs, plants, flowers, and makes an offering to the spirits of nature of that region, so that they bless that house. Only then does he enter with life. Everything in his life is ceremonial. It is a very beautiful and very interesting thing. They live there for a few more years, then they go on walking and so the years go by. Until the 14th year of the

exile. And there, in the kingdom of Ayodhya, Bharata did exactly what he had said. He puts the sandals of Rama on the throne and he goes to the temple. And he humbly, every morning, turns the sandals of Rama. And an interesting phenomenon happens, because when he does not feel safe to govern as king, when he has doubts, he goes and asks the sandals of Rama. When the answer is positive, they clash with each other once. When it is negative, they clash twice. And so, in one way or another, Rama guides his own brother, although it

is far away. And they stay there, it is interesting, because as Rama takes the clothes of Eremit, they also wear Eremit's clothes. To guide Rama and live like him, waiting for his return. And then, after the 14th year, at one time, Rama was passing by a forest, Dandaka, which was very close to the sea. And right ahead there was an island, which was the island of Lanka, where our friend Ravana lived. Ravana, who at that time was the Almighty, his servants, his demons, his army, were doing misery to everyone outside, massacring human beings, stealing women.

He lived in a castle in Lanka, a wonderful city, all made of gold, because he forced the Celestial architect, Vishwakarman, to build a city in gold for him. So he had a wonderful city in gold, as he submitted to God, he could do everything. And he had the most beautiful women in the world, who he would go there and kidnap by force. And they lived with him in Lanka. He had many, hundreds of spouses. And there was that woman, who was the goddess of life, where he dedicated himself entirely to the pleasures. On one occasion,

when Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita were in the forest of Dandaka, a demon, Surpanaka, a Rakshasa, who was Ravana's sister, saw the three and fell in love with Rama's beauty, who was a splendid young man. He fell in love with him and says, why are you staying with this girl? Why don't you come with me? I'll make you my husband. And she rejects him. Then she goes to Lakshmana, who also rejects her. She gets angry with Sita and she throws herself at him. Lakshmana goes and smashes her ears and says, I'll kill you for being a

woman. She gets angry and calls the Rakshasa's army. Then Rama says, Lakshmana, take care of Sita. And he alone faces the Rakshasa's army and kills everyone. He brought the Rakshasa's army. And she looks at him and says, I'll take care of her brother. The army that was in the forest was all angry. Who were they? Were they gods? Demons? No, it was a man. Why did he do that? Because he was against his wife. And, by the way, his wife, Ravana, was worthy of being yours. Because she is a beautiful woman. You never had a

woman like Sita in your arms. If you were, you would go there and give her a little look. Ravana says, oh, really? Then he got interested. And he goes to the forest of Dandaka. The Rakshasa's have the power, and Ravana in particular has this power, to take the form that they understand well. They are very plastic beings. And then he builds a whole trap to catch Sita. He makes one of the Rakshasa's, Marisha, take the form of a golden deer, a beautiful golden tail. And that tail runs in the forest in front of Sita. Sita

says, look at this beautiful animal, and Ravana says, stay here. And Lakshmana keeps her. And he goes after the animal. The animal runs after him. It's just an illusion. And when he gets there to catch the animal, he will catch the animal and turns it into a demon. He kills this demon, which is Marisha. But Marisha, before dying, makes a scream imitating his voice. Asking for help from Lakshmana. Help! And Sita and Lakshmana hear. Then Sita says, go there, help Ravana. It's just an illusion, I'm not going. There is no animal like that in the

world. It's just an illusion, I'm not going. She says, no, how can I do it? I'm going. Lakshmana says, ok, it's ok. Then he draws a circle on the ground and says, don't leave here, because inside this circle you are protected. He draws a circumference and puts it inside. He says, don't leave here. And he goes. He goes after Rama. And Ravana appears, a Brahmin, an old man, a very tired person, and says, my daughter, can you give me some water? And she, very attentive, goes to the old man. And he starts talking to her.

And suddenly he starts pulling her out. And she leaves the circle. Trusting, she leaves the magic circle. He says, I came here, in fact, to take you as my wife. She says, are you kidding? He takes his real form. He says, I am the king of demons. No one can eat me. I am more powerful than the gods. I want you as my wife. I will put all my power at your feet. And she, no way. He takes her by force. He climbs into a flying car that he had, which had also been made by

the Celeste architect. He climbs into this flying car and flies to Lanka. She is screaming, asking for help. And he kidnaps her. Then there was an Abhutri, who was the king of the Abhutris, Jatayo, who had also been a friend of Rama's father, of Zaratha, who sees and sits against Ravana and fights fiercely. He is wounded, but tries to get down. He can't. He sees it as a way to be found. She takes out the bracelet, the lens, everything she can, and throws it along the way, as a clue to show that she had passed

by. She is taken to Lanka. And there, Ravana tries to seduce her. She doesn't even want to see him. To avoid that she is infested, she refuses to eat anything he offers. He says, then she will starve. Then Indra appears, secretly, and gives her some food. If she consumed it, she would not be hungry for a year. She is held captive in the back of the castle of Lanka, in a small garden, being watched by a series of Rakshasas. She is there, a prisoner. Ravana is always trying to seduce her. And then comes Rama with

Lakshmana. Where is Sita? Nobody knows. Then he meets an Abhutri, seriously wounded, already agonizing, almost dead. The Abhutri tells him, it was Ravana, he took Sita, I don't know where, and I tried to avoid it. I was very close to your father, I tried to avoid it, but unfortunately I am too old to do it. And he dies, he dies in Rama's arms. Rama says, see how in all species you can find heroic beings? Then he leaves, together with Lakshmana, trying to find his wife, in search of her. And he walks, and at a certain

moment he meets an old woman. It is interesting that all the story was already written. This very wise old woman was already with her funeral pyre set up. She was just waiting for Rama to pass by to tell him what he should do to find Sita. And then she says, look, there is a kingdom near here called Kishikindya, where a unjust king reigns, Vali, it was a kingdom of monkeys. And this Vali took the power of his brother, who is the legitimate king, Sugriva, and Sugriva, along with his faithful servant, who is Hanuman, of the

monkeys, longs to return to the throne. His brother was so unjust that he even prevented him from seeing his own wife. He stole his kingdom. If you help Sugriva and Hanuman, they will help you find Sita. I lived until this moment just to tell you this. And then Rama thanks and goes in search of Sugriva and Hanuman, two monkeys. And he puts himself at the service of the two so that they could fight Vali, who was the unjust king, and fight later with him to be able to reconquer Sita. And it's done. Rama helps him.

They fight, kill Vali. Sugriva becomes king of Kishkindha, which is the kingdom of monkeys. And he commits himself, along with Hanuman, to help Rama to find his wife Sita. He summons all the animals in the world. He was a very powerful king. Kishkindha summons the bears, a series of animals to help them. The bear king, Jambavan, comes and they go around the world, in four directions of the world, looking for Sita. Jambavan was the son of the wind god, Vayu. So he had a capacity, he was very agile. He was able to make prodigious jumps

in the air and jump great distances. He follows the tracks of Sita and decides to look for Sita in the island of Lanka. And he finds her. He finds Sita in the island of Lanka and says, I came here to rescue you, come with me. She says, I can't go with you because I'm not the only hostage in this kingdom. There are hundreds, there are thousands of hostages unjustly kidnapped by Ravana. It is necessary that Rama come with his army and rescue everyone, not just me. Rama has to come here. So he tells Rama to

come. He says, come with me, I will not go alone, I will leave all innocent and unjustly enslaved by Ravana. And then Hanuman accepts, greets and says he will take her message to Rama and before that he decides to talk to Ravana. It is very beautiful, very interesting this moment in which he puts himself in front of Ravana and gives Rama's message, return Sita. It is a very interesting thing because Ravana says, have you seen how beautiful she is? How can I return her? Hanuman, who was the monkey, says to him, I am an animal,

these considerations of beauty that you men speak to me is indifferent. It does not exist for me, I do not understand your reasons. It is a very interesting reaction that shows that we must limit the human conscience as aesthetic, aesthetic as something eminently human. Do you understand that? If I put a rose in a vase, on top of that table, it would make sense for you. If I put a rose in a vase, for a puppy it would be food. There is no such aesthetic sense. The aesthetic, in a certain way, within the Hindu tradition,

is very clear, is something that through beauty a man sees God. When the universe organizes itself and is beautiful, it is because he reproduces a celeste archetype. Through beauty, in a certain way, a man is seeing God. Beauty is sacred to Indians. So Hanuman says, only you have this consideration and you are not with the others. I see Dharma, and you are not with the others. And Ravana, despising his advice, he leaves back towards Rama, who was with that army of animals who had already looked for Sita in all kinds of places, had not found

her. He came with the good news, found Sita, says everything, tells where she is, says he spoke to Ravana, Ravana refused, says, well, let's gather all the armies and go to Lanka. How to go to Lanka? It was an island. And the ocean, how does it do? Bears, monkeys, animals, all in one place, and an ocean to see. How does it do? And he thinks about it and feels melancholy, and feels pain, feels discouraged, and says, well, I will not be able to get to Lanka, no matter how many of my followers are, no matter

how many animals are willing to fight, I will not be able to get to Lanka. And at some point he realizes that his abatement actually hurts Dharma. Because there is a law that says that Sita was his, and that, therefore, if there was a law, there was a way. And then he turns to himself, and this part is very beautiful, from today on, never again, I, Rama, would have a thought of sadness or discouragement. A will, a projection, a determination, from today on, I would never again have a thought of discouragement. He approaches the ocean,

and asks to talk to the ocean, and asks the ocean to give him some advice. Then the ocean god arises and says, look, with you there is a monkey, a little monkey named Nala, and this monkey is the son of the architect, Vishwakarman, the celestial architect. And this monkey has a very special gift. Everything he throws into the water, floats. He can take the heaviest rock, if he were to throw it, it will not sink, it will float. It is a special power that he has. So this monkey can build a bridge over the ocean.

And I, the ocean, I promise not to swallow your bridge until the Dharma is fulfilled. And then Rama thinks that news is wonderful, calls Nala, and Nala had already realized that he had this power. He threw things into the water, and the water did not swallow them. Then he joins all that Nala army, goes ahead of the animals, bringing objects, and Nala throwing them into the water, and they build a bridge over the water, over the water, until Lanka. It is interesting, one day I received an email, I do not know to what extent you

will see it, because email you can never take too seriously, internet in general, but it showed an aerial photograph of NASA, where it was discovered that there is a coral structure, it is as if it were really a row, a bridge that connects Lanka to the continent. It became known as the branch bridge. So they do, they throw stones, and Rama is not looking at Lanka, I do not believe it, how are they doing that? They throw stones, and they reach Lanka, with a bridge of stones. Then they cross all the animals. Rama goes ahead,

he always goes ahead, it is an interesting thing, it is the characteristic of a king, the greatest risk is his, the greatest effort is his, he always goes ahead. And behind him is an army of bears, led by Jean Bazin, and an army of monkeys led by Sugriva. A lot of animals cross Lanka. Once again, he sends a messenger, Hanuman, who is the white macarco, his messenger, sends Ravana to try to negotiate, once again Ravana does not want to negotiate, does not argue. Ravana tries all the strategies, because he knows that if he touches Citta,

Citta becomes impure and Rama will not want her anymore. So he tries all the strategies to seduce Citta, and Citta resists, does not even want to hear him talk. He creates an illusion where he creates an illusory head, entangled by Rama, to tell her that Rama died, and yet she does not believe. He cannot seduce Citta, and the army of Rama approaches. Until the battle begins. Unlike Rama, who was a great king, who always went ahead, Ravana did not go ahead. He sent his warriors first. And each warrior of his embodied a certain attribute, a

defect, a human vice. Their first was General Prahastha. General Prahastha was the incarnation of cholera, with all the intensity that you can imagine. He had a car, an interesting description of the car that Prahastha made, which was made up of bad thoughts, bad moods, resentments, all the bad things that you can imagine from the emotional plane. It was the energy that moved the car of Prahastha. And he was choleric, he was angry. And then, at that first moment, who fights Prahastha? That little monkey, Nala. The one who can make a bridge that does not submerge

in the sea, he can fight Prahastha and kill him. He can beat Prahastha. It is interesting, for those who do a course in philosophy already know a little about this symbology, because the sea, the water, the horizontality is always associated with matter. It is the material world. So, the one who can walk on the water is the one who can not be swallowed by materialism. Who is not swallowed by materialism, is choleric. Nala has this ability, because the sea is not able to swallow him. Matter is not able to swallow him. He is above material

interest, desires. It is from material desires that choleric is born. So, Prahastha is impotent against him. He goes against Prahastha and can defeat him, can kill Prahastha. And then, Ravana sees that and says, our, his greatest general has been defeated right away, and it was not even by the army of Surya Rama, it was by a little monkey. Then, he resolves a radical attitude. No, I will not risk it. I will go for the most powerful weapon I have. My brother, Kumbhakarna. Do you remember Kumbhakarna? The one who slept 365 days and one day he

just woke up? 364 days and one day he just woke up? It was not the time for him to wake up. But he decides to wake him up. Kumbhakarna was a giant that when he stepped on the earth, he trembled. He had an unparalleled strength. And he decides to wake Kumbhakarna. When he is in the middle of the sea, he wakes up hungry like a madman. Sleeping all that time, hungry like a madman. He is then instructed by Ravana to fight Rama. Kumbhakarna himself alerts him. Beware! Because these animals are nothing more than the animals

of Mr. Narayana. Dharma is with him. The giant with a meat was more wise than Ravana. So crazy that he was in despair. He says, look, I'm going to fight. But it's hard to defeat Rama. Because he is at the service of Dharma. And no one can fight Dharma. These are the animals of Mr. Narayana. They serve Dharma. And you broke Dharma. You violated the worlds. Therefore, Dharma is against you. And no one fights Dharma. But you ask, you say, brother, I will. And he goes. And he marches. And every time he marches, the world

trembles. And then Rama personally fights Kumbhakarna. And he goes. He had some powerful arrows that had been given to him for a brahmani in the forest, the gassya. They were arrows that had a silver tip and a body of herbs, of plants. It was the union of heaven and earth. The silver, the moon and the herbs of the earth. The union of the two worlds. So the arrow had a magical power. And he can come with a meat. With an arrow he can hit the head of Kumbhakarna. And then Ravana, from the top of his

tower, is watching. Now, the thing got complicated. What am I going to do? I'm going to put this person against him. Then he remembers his son, Indrajit. Indrajit, who was the lord of illusions, was practically impossible to defeat. First, because he could become invisible. He fought invisibly. He hid. He could not be seen. Second, he could take the form that he wanted and disappear, disappear, and to make all kinds of mistakes. He was the lord of illusions. He had defeated Indra himself. He decides to summon his son Indrajit to go to the battle. He was

really the most powerful farm. He had imprisoned Indra himself. It's very beautiful. I even separated it to read for you. Guys, the Ramayana is a poem. And maybe the most beautiful poem. The Hindu tradition says it. It is the first and most beautiful poem in the history of the universe. There are passages like this that you get dazzled. How can it be? They are so perfect, so beautiful. This passage that Indrajit presents himself and challenges the army of Rama and says who he is, is very beautiful. He is the lord of illusions. It is difficult

for someone not to be poisoned by illusions in a world like this. This is Indrajit's speech. Look how beautiful it is. O man, I am the warrior demon Indrajit. Difficult to see yourself. I fight, invisibly, hidden from your sight by enchantment. I attack behind the wild winds of bad thinking. I extinguish many lights that are unguarded. I know you. And the good works done in your life will be your only shield when you need to die and pass alone by me on the way to the other world. You can hide even from the sun at

night, but not from your own heart where Lord Narayana lives. All worlds observe your action and therefore forgiveness is Dharma. This is Indrajit's speech. Do you remember that Ravana had a brother who was righteous? Do you remember? At this point, his brother was just. He revolted against Ravana and went to the army of Rama. He said he would not fight against this injustice, he went to the army of Rama. There was one demon, one of the Rakshasas who was a demon. He was fighting alongside Rama. This helps a lot. In Vrishana, he can see that

Indrajit is somewhere, invisible. He says, look, Indrajit entered the battle. Be careful, he is the most powerful of the Ravana warriors. And indeed Indrajit was a traitor. He brings his most powerful invisible war car, loaded with deadly arrows. He doesn't even know where he is. He hides behind bad thoughts, and he starts to attack Rama's army. He kills everyone. Everyone. Even Rama himself. Only Hanuman, the monkey, and Jambavan, the bear king, are left alive. Everyone dies. He kills everyone. And Ravana returns victorious. Very happy. Jambavan, the bear, tells Hanuman, the monkey, that there is a

mountain, the most sacred mountain in life, of the Indra Mountains. If you bring the plants that are born there, they are so medicinal, they are able to bring the dead back to life. But you can only do it because the distance is too long and you can't spend much time. And then Hanuman goes flying. Hanuman has another characteristic, he was a magical monkey, he was the son of the wind, he can change his size. He can be very small or huge. When he arrives at the mountain of life, he says, well, the army of Rama

is so big and has so many dead, I'm not going to take a few plants, I'm going to take the whole mountain. Then he takes the mountain of life and flies in the air with the mountain of life in his hands. I don't know if you've seen this drawing, it's very common when you talk about Rama and Ana, there is this image of Hanuman with the mountain in his hands. He uses this era and brings the whole army back to life. With the exception of the dead Rakshasas. The Rakshasas had a habit, when a warrior

died, they immediately threw them into the ocean. Only the Rakshasas are not benefited by this plant. But the whole army of Rama is saved. The Rakshasas dived into the ocean. What is the ocean? The matter. The terrace of his palace, there he dances, he does a ceremonial dance with all his ten pairs of arms, invoking the winds. It's a farewell dance of life. There he dances ceremonially, he dances, dances, dances, and then he stops and goes down the stairs to go towards Rama. When he is going down the stairs to fight the final battle, what

is put in the middle of the path? Because he had submitted all the gods. And at this time, when he starts to lose, the gods start to take revenge. Then the god of time, Kala, gets in the middle of the stairs and says, I caught you, Rama, Ravana. Now you will die, and I will swallow you, and I will swallow you, and you will never again rise on earth. Now I will end you. You thought you had won me, you had won all the gods, now I caught you, Ravana. Rama will kill you, and I

will swallow you, and no one will remember you. I will defeat you, definitely. And Ravana turns to him and says, look, you are a fool. I am dying for love. And love is above time. You are a fool, you rule fashion, you can't do anything about love. So go away, I can do more than you. You can't do anything against Ravana, who died for love. And Kala really gets in the way and gets scared, and leaves. He is so powerful that he faces time. This is very symbolic, so he eternizes on earth. He will always

be present while there is a Rama fighting for Sita, the man fighting for his soul. There will always be a Ravana. He wins time, so he eternizes on earth. And he prepares himself, then he says goodbye to his main wife, who was the princess Mandodari, and goes to battle. When he arrives in front of the army of imposing, gigantic, even the men of Rama, the great men of Rama, they are scared. They think he is a glorious king. And Rama, very courageous, goes and fights with him. It is a very hard battle, but it is

a very interesting detail, very beautiful in history. Before Ravana leaves his palace, he writes a testament letter and gives it to his general, Sukha. And Sukha says, when the battle is over, you give it to Rama. That is, he already knew he was going to die. And then he goes and leaves, and puts himself in front of Rama. And Alatari is terrible. However, Rama, using all the war ethics, all the law serving the Dharma, manages to fight. He cuts one by one of his heads and manages to finally lock one of the aghastya arrows in

Ravana's heart and kills him. And he dies. At the moment he dies, at the feet of Rama, the war ends, everything dissipates, the princess Mandodari comes, cries, the king dies, and the war ends there. Then comes General Sukha with the testament letter from the dead king to you. And he gives it to Rama. And this is a phenomenal thing, also very beautiful. It is Ravana's testament letter where he will explain what I told you, that he had not been careless in forgetting the men, who he was and why he had done everything he did. This

testament letter, literally, directed by Ravana, the king of the Rakshasas, to Rama. Lord Narayana, you are this witness. You make the moon walk in splendor and the stars fade in the light of day. Dear Rama, lord of the worlds, think and remember that you promised Indra one day to kill me forever. Nothing is forever but you. If I did not die by your hand, what other way could I do to accept myself in your own self? I was only a Rakshasa and you were very difficult to approach. However, seeking wisdom, I learned a lot. You

do not know again who you are, but I knew it for a long time. But even so, you do not know. Nothing you do is evil. Just a glance at your eyes so that the people can sing the good and old songs again. You go everywhere and you know all the things that have already been done or will be some day. I did not ask protection against men. Why was I so careless? Did you judge that the dark was evil? Oh Narayana, look, I looked, I marveled. Men are mines. Men are precious mines where Mr.

Narayana lives. See that everything that happens protects all creatures. I saw that the sky was impermanent and the hell itself did not last. I saw that the time of each existence is only one full day and I saw that all creatures separated from you from when they are reborn always changing. I do not like the things that come and go and pass with time and I hate time itself. I myself warned how we met that I took it as an enemy. I did not know how to love and I never did. I took it as

a luxury to attract you here. I offered you my life and you accepted it. You are Narayana who moves on the waters. You flow through all of us. You are Rama and Sita born on Earth. And Ravana, the king of demons, and Indra, you are the poet, the actors and the play simultaneously. And born as a man, once again you forget it. You forget who you are. You lose your memory and face again the ignorance of man as you will always face. So, welcome back your Sita with love. The war is over. And so we

close our letter. That is, we are going to read the whole story. The story of Narayana is a little bit of the whole story. He was never careless. In fact, he saw that men were women, precious women in which Mr. Narayana lived. And the way he had to make the man discover that he was divine is by putting himself in the hands of the poet, the actors and the play simultaneously. And by overcoming Ravana, the man reaches the awareness of what he is. Ravana is the step, the obstacle that elevates the man to his divine

condition. Therefore, he offered his life and Rama, when accepting it, reached the condition of a true king on Earth. Very, very beautiful this passage. With the war over, Narayana returns to the kingdom of Ayodhya. He returns to reign over the Kozalas. He is received there festively by Bharata. He takes the throne again. And reigns for 11,000 years. A justice that says that there was no peace on Earth. There was no king like Rama. Until 12 years were left, just before the end of his reign, 12 years were left to complete the tenth millennium of Rama's

reign. A fact happens that was expected. Sita gets pregnant. His son is waiting for her. And as every pregnant woman has her desires, he asks, is there something, my dear, that I can do for you? And Sita says, yes. I would like to visit those holy brahmans who live on the banks of the Ganges, that we had the opportunity to meet in our exile. They have been there for so many millennia and they have been there for so many years. And they ask Lakshmana to accompany them to the forest. Everything was fine, everything was as

agreed. Until Rama, on that same day, walking on the streets, meets his ministers. And as he always did, he asks his ministers, how is life in Ayodhya? What does the people say of me? Are people happy? Do people speak well? Do they listen to the appeals of their governors? Does anyone say anything about me? Does anyone complain? The ministers, contrary to what they always did, at that moment they shut up. They say, well, there is something. What are you hiding from me? And he says, look, there are a few envious men, vulgar and ignorant men,

who say that they do not know how you accept Sita by your side, after she had been with Ravana and you are not worthy of a king who you accept Sita after she has been with another man. But these are the few, vulgar men who say that. And Rama returns very thoughtful to his house and decides to make the decision he had to make. This is something that is out of the ordinary for the standards that we understand as a leader today. A leader, in the profile of Rama, who is very similar, for example, to

the one who was at the peak of Egypt, does not have a personal consideration of any kind. They are entirely servants of the good of the king. There is no personal consideration. They are entirely servants of the nation, of humanity. And they do not make concessions. So he arrives and decides that he would abandon Sita. He would separate himself from Sita. And he calls Lakshmana and asks Lakshmana, look, tomorrow when you take her to the borders of the world, the angels, explain this to her and leave her there, do not bring her back. Lakshmana gets

horrified. But how? You know she is pure. Yes, I know. But a king cannot have personal considerations. A king is a servant. And you have to understand, it may be that you have not understood until now, that all things, even if apparently unfair, serve the Dharma. It is a Lakshmana cycle that closes. Everything is according to the Dharma. At that moment he already understood what? What you saw back there. That he was the Lord Narayana. And that he owed this to the Dharma. To be unjustly separated from his beloved wife. And that this also marked

the end of a cycle. It was approaching the moment of him withdrawing, paying the debt he had with the Dharma, withdrawing again to heaven and letting men live in this experience. It is not possible, Lakshmana, that after all we have lived, you still see only appearances. Do, do what I command you. Lakshmana goes with the tape and does exactly what Rama commands. He leaves the tape on the margins of the Ganges, explains to her everything that happened, tells the story back there, how it all started, why this was according to the Dharma, and says, look,

I revolted when many millennia ago, Rama was banished from Ayodhya. I was not able to understand beyond appearances. But now I have to admit, all this was written from the beginning of time. And that's how it should be. This is very interesting. There is a very interesting legend from the history of another people, who is not the Indian, but the Celts, who speaks about the true king. The true king, who he calls, is the taboo king. He says that one of the characteristics of the true king is this ability to understand that behind appearances, no

matter how incongruent, there is an order that escapes your understanding. And they tell a whole story. It's the story of the taboo king. They say that there was a kingdom, this is a Celtic story, a small part that I'm opening for you. There was a kingdom where this king was extremely just and his wife was very vain. And one day, his wife says that his daughter was more beautiful than the goddess of the sea and Khoranda. And the king of the sea gets furious with that heresy, with that disrespect to the gods. And he throws

a series of plagues, floods, floods on that kingdom. And the king, wanting to quench the wrath of the gods, goes to an oracle and asks what he could do. And in this oracle they tell him that he should take his eldest daughter and take her to the top of a mountain. Because there would come a sea monster and unite with her. And what would happen would happen. And in this happens a whole revolution in that kingdom. People say, that's not fair, that's not fair, that's not fair, that's not fair. And the king says, look, nothing

that comes from the gods, nothing that comes from the Dharma, because the sky doesn't use this expression, but it's the same thing, disrespects justice. Things are the way they have to be. And serenely, without doubting, a solar hero emerges, who fights this sea monster, defeats it and unites with the princess. And becomes the new king, his successor. That is, until the last moment appearances are adverse and he is serene. He trusts. He remembers that biblical passage of Abraham when he offers his son. Remember? This is a sign of a king, a true king who never

doubts the Dharma. For many appearances are adverse. But appearances are chaotic, adverse, because he trusts. Serene and always trusts. There is an interesting passage in another author, another philosopher, Saint Augustine, he says the following, that distrust, belief in injustice and revenge are a kind of unconscious atheism. It is the man who doubts the law. So, the Rama at this moment does what he has to do, and he does not trust. At that moment, it is very interesting because there was a sage, an eremit, who was the greatest of all of that time, who was Valmiki.

Valmiki is the author of this book, this book was written by Valmiki. Valmiki was for millennia in meditation. He was deeply overwhelmed by the lack of virtue of human beings, by the vices of men. So, he gathered in deep meditation for so many millennia, that the sages began to build houses on top of him. He was for millennia meditating on Valmiki. No one took him from there. When Vita was abandoned by the Ganges River, he was abandoned very close to where he was meditating. Then, the Brahma god up there sends a messenger, the sage Narada,

to awaken Valmiki, to save Vita and collect her. Valmiki was there, under a lot of cupindeiros, immobilized by millennia, and he says to Vita, get out of there, I need you. Valmiki says, no, leave me alone. Get out, I need you. But Valmiki says, tell me the name of the only being on earth, the only man on earth, who is just, and I will leave. Narada shouts, Rama! Then, all that mountain that was in the vicinity of Valmiki, he goes in search of Vita, collects Vita from his hermitage, takes care of her, and in the

hermitage of Valmiki the two children of Rama are born, Kusa and Lava, the two young princes. And she keeps living there with Valmiki. And Valmiki sends the message, the mission of the Brahma god, that he should write that story. That story was worthy of being known, it was a story that had an unparalleled power and that it was necessary that it was known by men that someone had to write it. So, Valmiki writes the story of Ramaiana and educates the two boys, Kusa and Lava. And educates the boys to memorize all that story, a song

of 24,000 verses. At that time, it was very common, all the brahmanas decorated Rig Veda, it was very common. The boys decorate 24,000 verses of Ramaiana, written by Valmiki, and begin to present themselves reciting Ramaiana. It was several days, a person playing the instrument, reciting the verses of Ramaiana. And they became very well known. It reached the point that everyone talks about the two, two boys who sang a wonderful story as never had been on earth. And in Ayodhya, a festival completed 10,000 years of the Rama government. So, he decreed a year of parties when

the greatest artists in the world were invited. He hears about these boys and sends them to call, to have the slightest idea that they were his children. Then the boys go to Ayodhya, secretly, and all the kingdom, all Ayodhya, together, sing to Rama, the Ramaiana. And he was seeing how these boys knew all these details of this story, in such a wonderful way, all in rhymes, all in verses, all his life. And he is deeply moved by this. When the singing of Ramaiana ends, Valmiki arises and says to him, here, in this moment, before all

Ayodhya, call Sita back, because I will take Sita back. His love was so great that when Sita is left at the margins of Ganges, he sends her to make a gold statue of Sita and puts the throne next to him. He says, I love her, I opened her hand for you, but I love her. And he says, in this moment I call Sita back. Then Sita comes. Sita has a detail that I didn't tell you, because the story has many details. Sita is the daughter of the Earth. Her father, who was a very just king,

Janaka, married the Earth and had a daughter with her. Sita was the daughter of the Earth. Then Sita arrives in the middle of that circle of people, of beings, of animals, of everything, and says, look Rama, allow me at this moment to prove to everyone my innocence. Rama says, yes, of course. She calls her mother, and says, mother, you were innocent. Come out of the Earth and take me to your body. Then suddenly the Earth starts to roll on everyone's feet and a throne from within the Earth, with the God of the Earth, and takes

Sita as if she were a baby. She takes her on her lap and takes me from the Earth. Rama says, while I live as a man, I will not see my Sita anymore. It was a moment to close the cycle. Soon after, Lakshmana dies. There are a number of other details. Lakshmana, who was only the Earth's shadow, takes Sita as well. Then comes the moment when God says, look Rama, it's time for you to go back to your own. Let the men now live their saga. You are Narayana, go back to yours. Go back to

your own. Lakshmi is waiting for you. Then he announces that he would return. And that those who wanted to go with him could go too. Then he calls all those who fought with him, Vibhishana, who was the brother of Ravana, Hanuman, who was the brother of Sita, Hanuman, who is that wonderful monkey who served so much, Sugriva, all to say goodbye to him. And those who wanted to go with him could accompany him. So, a great procession is made towards the Sarayu River, where everyone would dive like a portal to go to another dimension. And

in that, Hanuman will say goodbye to him. Hanuman becomes immortal. The servant he is of Rama, he becomes immortal. The book of Hanuman is still there. Where there was the name of Rama, there he is. Hanuman never leaves the world. Hanuman then says goodbye to Rama. And Rama says, you are one of those to whom I owe the most, for his loyalty, for his love. Hanuman saved Rama's life and was his unconditional loser. Totally devoted to Rama. Then he takes a bracelet of pure gold that he had and says, this is a memory of mine.

Then Hanuman takes the monkey he was, takes that thing, smells it, looks, breaks it, looks at one side, the other, breaks it, and says, this monkey is crazy. It is a precious piece, like that of a solid gold. It breaks it, looks, licks, munches. Then he says, why did you do that, monkey? What madness is that? Oh, sir, Rama, it was false. It looked precious, but it was devoid of any value. Why was it devoid of value? Because in no place had the name of Rama been written. Then Vibhishana, who was the general, also wrote

the name of Rama. He did not write the name of Rama. Then Hanuman takes the monkey's claws and tears the face. And opens the face. When he opens it, in front of everyone there, there was not a single bone, a single vertebra of him, where it was not written Rama, Rama, Rama. Until the last vertebra of him had been written the name of Rama. Then Rama goes, closes, and says, Hanuman's skin, and gives him a ring where the name Rama was written. He continues as a servant of Rama eternally. Rama then dives into the waters

and all those of Ayodhya withdraw together with Vibhishana and return to meet himself, Lord Narayana, from where he again patiently waits on his throne, that Ayodhya returns to existence on the Earth. There is also a final passage of the book, which I think is very beautiful, very interesting. Here it is. I would like to read it to you. A small paragraph that says the following. Listening or reading Ramayana, you will obtain from Rama what you wish, but beware of it, do not think too little. Good luck to all. This is the first and best poem

in the world. I hope you will read it. Therefore, I will tell you when everything is sinking around you, just say Rama. Now we go from the spiritual to the passionate. After the passionate, ignorance will come, universal war. Say Rama and you will win. Your time cannot touch you. And finally, I would like to read to you a poem that is made about Ramayana. There is a compliment that is very beautiful, which is several times pronounced by the followers of Rama, which is like a compliment, like a Roman bird, Jaya. All the servants bend in

front of Rama and say Jaya. Hail to Rama, lord of the worlds, renewing who you are from the sacred flame, inspirer of nobility and hope, for your remembrance of your saga, eternal saga of the human species. All beings, your tools, all places, your eternal kingdom. Your own life feeds us, be radiant, implacable, eternal. It is still possible to find your steps and rescue from the dark and pure our enchanting and pure I bow to Rama, lord of the worlds. You renew us, guardian of Dharma. We return to polish our weapons and we take back our

armor. Behind the steel, behind the blades, our heart awakens and burns and cries. Whoever suffers and vibrates in your name, Rama, will never look at the earth in vain. Even if the world is on fire, the night falls, time ceases before your name, Jaya, and doubts cease in my heart. It is interesting that you realize that we are a school of philosophy. No one here is of a Hinduist, religious line, nor are we putting here a cult or a character, but to what he symbolizes, to what he represents. With this being who conquered his fate

because he discovered that she was divine, he is the one who is the soul. As this reference so that each one of us fights, so that each one of us gives the battle, bless your Ravana, realize that Ravana is possible to be defeated, it is possible to be defeated, that there is something divine within us and go, denodadamente, determinedly in search of your soul. For much greater, for much greater and for much more imposing than the obstacles. So, philosophically, we will take the image of an Indian character, Rama, religiously, to ask him to do things

for us. We will philosophically take the image of a being, Rama, as an incentive for us to become great, to become kings over the Earth. Because, as Ravana himself said, once again, made man, you forget who he is. All of us, once again, made men, forget who we are. Incarnations of Lord Narayana, incarnations of the divine, destined to overcome our daily lives and reconquer our soul, conquer nobility, reign over the Earth, worthy as men, as kings.