Rama Katha Rasa Vahini|The Sweet Story of Rama’s Glory

Rama Katha Rasa Vahini
(The Sweet Story of Rama’s Glory)

Ramakatha Rasa Vahini is a lucid narrative of Rama's life. Baba has announced that He is the same Rama, come again to carry out His mission through his horde of followers. Drawn by His Love, we have the same good fortune now to share in his task of remoulding man after His image.

The Ramayana (or the Rama Story) is an intensely human drama where God impersonates as man and gathers around Him, on the vast world-stage, the perfect and the imperfect, the human and the subhuman, the beast and the demon, to confer on us, by precept and example, the boon of Supreme Wisdom. It is a story that plays its tender fingers on the heartstrings of man, evoking lithe, limpid responses of pathos, pity, exultation, adoration, ecstasy and surrender, rendering us transformed from the animal and the human, into the Divine, which is our core.

Sai has declared that He is the same Rama come again, and that He is searching for His erstwhile associates and workers in order to allot them roles in His present Mission of resuscitating Righteousness and leading man into the Haven of Peace. While recounting the incidents in His life as Rama, Baba has included in His narrative, certain details of dialogues and diversions not contemplated by Valmiki or any other subsequent author. He mentions many additional events and encounters, which fill the lacuna that, have long disturbed admirers of the Ramayana.

He has now deigned to tell us Himself the story of this one epic Act in that Drama, wherein He took on the Rama role. As Rama, Sai instructed, inspired and invigorated, corrected, consoled and comforted His contemporaries in the Tretha Age. As Sai Rama, He is now engaged in the same task. While reading these pages, readers will often be pleasantly struck by the identity of the Rama of this story and the Sai Rama they are witnessing.

The controversy over whether Rama is to be reckoned as a historic prince or as God Incarnate has been set to rest by Baba. The ‘Ramakatha Rasavahini’ is the very nectar of the great epic, Ramayana.

The whole volume of Rama’s story is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the story of Sri Rama from His birth till His banishment into the forest and the installation of Rama’s sandals on the throne of Ayodhya. The second part begins with the stay of Rama in the forest till the installation of Lava and Kusha on the throne of Ayodhya, the end of Ramayana.

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Bhagavatha Vahini|The Story of the Glory of the Lord

Bhagavatha Vahini
(The Story of the Glory of the Lord)

The Geetha is a central gem in the crest jewel of the great Indian epic, the Mahabharata. Sage Vyasa wove this intricate tapestry of sublime heroism physical, mental, moral and spiritual. He had also codified the Vedic hymns and rituals. He prepared a magnificent garland of aphorisms summarizing the basic philosophic truths. In spite of His encyclopedic scholarship and great creative skill in the realm of thought, Vyasa was afflicted by a deep inner sadness. He had no sweetness or peace left in him.

Narada, the sage who propagated the validity of devotion as a means of achieving bliss, had advised Vyasa to describe the glories of God, who had incarnated as Krishna. The exposition that did emerge from this advice is called the ‘Bhagavata Purana’. Baba has given it to us again in a sweeter and a more concise form as ‘Bhagavata Vahini’.

Baba's Bhagavata Vahini flows clear and cool, straight from the page to the heart. The book splendidly narrates the leelas (divine sport) of Krishna and of the dedicatory acts of those who received His Grace. It also includes the regions mapped by Vyasa under the compulsions of scholastic norms. As a result, Bhagavata Vahini is not just a book, it is a tonic, a balm, a pilgrimage, a hallelujah, a clarion call and a beacon light.

It is designed by Baba to loosen our bondage from the trivial and to tame the wildness of our minds. Vyasa's son Suka had recited the Bhagavata for the benefit of King Parikshit who had been cursed to die at the end of seven days. The recitation occupied those seven days. Since the king had filled his mind with this narrative of the glory of the Lord, he died with the name of the Lord on his lips and the form of God before his eyes.

Each one of us is under such a sentence of death, only we do not know when death will confront us. The Bhagavata Vahini can save all those who choose to be free from the fear of death and prepare them for passing beyond the realm of life, cheerfully and hopefully.

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