Indian Value System and Ethics: Development Through Introspection and Retrospection

Indian value system and Ethics: Development through

Introduction

Live your character at any cost, at all costs......

The very widely discussed issue all over the world is the inclination of ethical values and morals. It is being perceived by most of the intellectually and spiritual masters that the culture is slipping into red with a quick evasion of the standards as suggested by our ancestors. It is the need of the hour to introspect ourselves and retrospect the globe around with a deep analysis to know about the rich heritage of humane of the world in general and of India in specific. To the credit of our nation we do have lot of guiding literature to us from ages back to thousands of years and that provides the rays of light for each and every walk of our life. The introspection and retrospection can be done by even by an average intelligent person or even a lay man by going through the Ithihasas and epics. Now in this paper it is proposed to take the Holy Ithihasa for Hindus Ramayana, authored by Maharshi Valmiki, as the reference study. Each and every character of Ramayana depicts numerous characters which we could find in our every day life. The qualities, the acts, the thought processes and responses to various situations by all these characters teaches us some significant value that must be followed in our day to day life. This paper suggests the ways of human development through sane mind by following the ethics and values suggested by the Indian literature and heritage.Even though the study is confined to a few main characters of Ramayana, this paper attempts to focus and elaborates the way of introspection and retrospection of life through this wealthy literature.

Ramayana- Its Prominence

Ramayana is one of the greatest epics of the world and has a special place in Indian culture as well as Sanskrit literature. It's not a history or biography, a part of Hindu mythology. It's highly valued for its contribution to human values for centuries and has a universal relevance. It consist of 24,000 verses in seven kandas namely Bala Kanda, Ayodhya Kanda, Aranya Kanda, Kishkinda Kanda, Sundara Kanda, Yuddha Kanda followed by Uttara Kanda. Each kanda is sub divided into Sargas (sections) and each Sarga is composed of few slokas (verses).

Ramayana- Ethics and values

Ramayana was happened in the age of Treta Yuga, where the Satya, Dharma, standards and morals are followed very well by all. All of the people who followed Hinduism strongly believed that the character of Rama was the incarnation of God upon the earth planet because righteousness decays and unrighteousness prevails wildly, God incarnates Himself to vindicate the superiority of righteousness. In Dwapara Yuga god incarnated Himself as Lord Krishna. So, Rama in Ramayana of Treta yuga was also the incarnation of God. But the specific difference here is when we compare the God's incarnation of Treta yuga and other yugas - in Dwapara yuga Lord Krishna declared Himself a God and every stage his behaviour and his way of solving problems are not appear to be of a human. But in Ramayana the main character Rama's life in early stage from his birth to the last represented the human life like a common man he suffered, faced conflicts and problems as a son, as a husband and as a brother. In all stages Rama performed his responsibilities in a very well manner. He is an ideal for all ages. He was with all the good qualities. At first Valmiki asked the sage Narada a question.

"Is there any one in this world at present who is full of virtues and at the same time possessed of great powers, who knows what is right, is well versed in Dharma, who is conscious of service done (greatful), truthful and firm resolve? Who is possessed of right conduct and who is friendly to all living beings? Who is man of knowledge, who is powerful and who has a singularly lovable appreance? Who has subdued his life? Who has conquered anger? Who is possessed of splendour and who is above fault finding?" (From Ramayanaread.com)

Then the sage Narada immediately replied for all these questions with a single answer i.e, Rama. That's the greatness of Rama. It's the story we live at every moment of our life. Thus the story of Ramayana whenever read gives turmoil and we get the enlightenment.

Contemporary world and its practices

In the present globalization everything is in the aspect of business. Our education system, employment, our life from birth to death is completely expecting or seeking for something related to worldly mundane items. Most of the people are dissatisfied with their teams, with their professions, with their people and at last with themselves. In order to fulfil their wishes and reach their desired destinations they never bother about moral and ethical values. They are very much interested in Machiavelli's way of achieving things. That's why the cultural heritage and the moral standards are decreased day by day.

In this type of present confused conflict state when we recollect and remember the dynasty of Rama and his life in the time of Ramayana we can understand how we demoralized ourselves for our needs, how we ruin our human relations for our temporary results, how we destroy our value based strengths and moral standards for our easy way of going life are clearly visualised before our eyes.

Our life is chased between materialism (Artha) and sense of pleasure (Kama). In the process of this chasing we never think about Dharma in every stage. In Ramayana every character is symbolised with clarity and proximately to common man's life. Whatever the situations faced at present, whatever the incidents happened, whatever the thoughts flashing our minds are all there in that holy Ithihasa of Ramayana.

When we consider a person as good or bad, right or wrong while his/her deeds which depend on their way of brought up, their education, behaviour, values given by them to their lives, the society in their point of view and their way of maintaining relations.

Ramayana- Study of its Characters

For all these above aspects, we just need to revise Ramayana, then we can easily understand the way to maintain good relations and to achieve our goals. Not only the main character of Rama but also the other characters prescribed the dos and don'ts to the human society. And some other characters are the best examples which are under the