[Advaita-l] The Human aspect of Jnanis - 2

[S Jayanarayanan]

--- On Tue, 7/13/10, V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com> wrote:

[..]

> If we take up the life of Lord Rama as depicted by Valmiki,
> we see that He
> exhibited very intense grief on Sita being abducted by
> Ravana.  Are we then
> to assume that Rama was an ignorant, dejected, common
> person and not an
> incarnation?
> 

The above story has been narrated by Ramana Maharshi, who interprets Rama as only having *acted* like he was grief-stricken to the third person:

("Spiritual Stories as Told by Ramana Maharshi", Story: "PARVATI’S TEST")

---
RAMA AND LAKSHMANA were wandering in the forest in
search of Sita. Rama was grief-stricken. Just then Siva and Parvati
happened to pass close-by. Siva saluted Rama and passed on. Parvati
was surprised and asked Siva to explain why He, the Lord of the
Universe, being worshipped by all, should stoop to salute Rama,
an ordinary human who having missed his consort was griefstricken
and moving in anguish in the wilderness looking helpless.
Siva then said, “Rama is simply acting as a human being would
under the circumstances. He is nevertheless the incarnation of
Vishnu and deserves to be saluted. You may test him if you choose.”
Parvati considered the matter, took the shape of Sita and
appeared in front of Rama, as he was crying out the name of
Sita in great anguish. He looked at Parvati appearing as Sita,
smiled and asked, “Why Parvati, are you here? Where is Sambhu?
Why have you taken the shape of Sita?” Parvati felt abashed and
explained how she went there to test him and sought an
explanation for Siva saluting him.
Rama replied, “We are all only aspects of Siva, worshipping
Him at sight and remembering Him out of sight.”
---

Regards,
Kartik