Rama Rajya: What did Gandhi really mean?

(Lord Rama)

According to the Forum for Hindu Awakening, the real meaning of Ramrajya is far more spiritual than it is political. 

Since ayan means “the path” or “to go,” Ramayan means “that which leads one to the Supreme Lord” (Ram being an incarnation of Lord Vishnu).  The Ramayana is therefore the story of how Ram (the ideal son, brother, husband, friend, king – and even

enemy) and his divine family led lives of Supreme Righteousness.  Wikipedia states that the Ramayana thematically “explores human values and the concept of dharma.”  Dharma is defined as “Law or Natural Law” that is a “concept of central importance in Indian philosophy and religion.”  Adherents of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism agree that living in accordance with dharma facilitates the process of spiritual liberation.

Kulbhushan Singhal, who writes about “problems faced by Indian people and how they can be sorted out by revival of Hindu religion,” explains in his blog that Shri Ram and Mata Sita set an example for society of what the correct path was so that the “Vedas cannot be misrepresented” by false gurus.  He describes Ram Rajya as insuring that “the Dharmic laws, and the Civil Laws were appropriate and harmonious for the welfare of the entire society on equal opportunity basis.”

In 2007, Vinay Lal wrote that “Gandhi not only declared himself a votary of Ram, but increasingly, in the last years of his life, held on to the idea that the India of his dreams would be something of a ‘Ram Rajya.’”  In the same article (titled Modi, the Mahatma, and Mendacity), Lal criticized leaders such as Narendra Modi for hypocritically appropriating Gandhi’s Ram Rajya vision for their own political gains. 

Lal stated that some “Marxist critics” have been calling Gandhi a “Hindu chauvinist” – and warned that “Gandhi” has become “an empty vessel” that politicians have been pouring their own agendas into.

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma

http://forumforhinduawakening.org/articles/id/understanding/glory-hindu-dharma/real-meaning-ramarajya

http://awara32.blogspot.com/2010/07/ram-rajya-was-rule-of-civil-and-dharmic.html

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Gandhi/modi.html

Copyright March 23, 2012 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved