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and Ramayana, is, in my opinion, the best
service I have rendered to my people.
At any rate, they embody the best joy I
have experienced; for in these two books I
helped our great sages to speak to our dear
men and women again in their own
language, elevating their minds through
the sorrows borne by Kunti, Kausalya,
Draupadi and Sita. The real need of the
hour is a recommunion between us and
the sages of our land, so that the future
may be built on rock and not on sand.
In presenting this English version to a
wider circle of readers spread all over the
world, I think I am presenting to them the
people of Bharat just as they are, with all
their virtues and their faults. Our classics
really embody our national character in all
its aspects and it is well the world sees u
s
as we really are, apart from what we wish
to become.
The
Ramayana
is
not
history
or
biography.
It
is
a
part
of
Hindu
mythology. One cannot understand Hindu
dharma unless one knows Rama and Sita,
Bharata,
Lakshmana,
Ravana,
Kumbhakarna and Hanuman. Mythology
cannot be dispensed with. Philosophy
alone or rituals alone or mythology alone
cannot be sufficient. These are the three
stands of all ancient religions. The attitude
towards things spiritual which belongs to
a particular people cannot be grasped or
preserved or conveyed unless we have all
these three.
The
Bharatiya
Vidya
Bhavan
has
achieved great work by the very wide
distribution
organised
by
it
of
my
Ramayana and Mahabharata books, which
seek to bring Valmiki and Vyasa near to
those who have no access to the unrivalled
original
classics.
The
characters
and
incidents of these two itihasas have come
to be the raw material for the works of
numerous poets and saints that came later
to write dramas and sing poems and
hymns to keep this nation in the straight
path.
Oral discourses have further played
with them in order to entertain and
instruct pious audiences and not a few
variations and additions have been
made to the original. All the languages
of India have the Ramayana and
Mahabharata retold by their p
oets, with
additions and variations of their own.
They are the records of the mind and
spirit of our forefathers who cared for
the good, ever so much more than for
the pleasant and who saw more of the
mystery of life than we can do in our
interminable
pursuit
for
petty
and
illusory achievements ill the material
plane.
We should be thankful to those who
preserved for us these many centuries-old
epics in spite of all the vicissitudes
through which our nation passed since