A Love Epic better than Ramayana – You Can Be in it LOVE LIFE

The long road to the triumph of good over evil, in ways that brings out the character of its heroes, has made the Ramayana a timeless epic. For this reason communities perform Ramlilas every year, especially during the Vijayadashami (Dussehra, Dasara or Dashain) festival, often based on literature derived from the Ramayana, such as Ramcharitmanas.

We Can’t Be ‘In’ the Ramayana

We Can’t Be ‘In’ the Ramayana
The Ramayana’s major shortcoming is that we can only read, hear or watch the drama. Some can participate in Ramlilas, but the Ramlilas are not the real story. Would it not be better if we could actually enter into the Ramayana world of King Dasharatha in his kingdom of Ayodhya and accompany Rama on his adventures?
The Epic We Are Invited To Enter ‘Into’
Though that is not possible, there is another epic, on the same scale as the Ramayana which we are invited to enter into. This epic has so many similarities to the Ramayana that we can use the Ramayana as a template to understand this real-life epic. This epic forms the ancient Hebrew Vedas, now often known as the Bible. But this epic plays out in the world we live in, allowing us to enter into its drama. Since it might be new to us, we can understand its story, and the role we play in it, by exploring it through the lens of the Ramayana.

Hebrew Vedas: A Love Epic like the Ramayana.
Though an epic with many side-plots, the core of the Ramayana forms a love story between Rama, the hero, and Sita, its heroine. In the same way, though the Hebrew Vedas form a large epic with many side-plots, the core of the Bible is a love story between Jesus (the hero) and people in this world who become His bride, as Sita became Rama’s bride. As Sita had an important role to play in the Ramayana, so we also have an important part to play in the Biblical story.
The Beginning: Love Lost
But let’s start at the beginning. The Bible states that God created man out of the earth itself, similarly to Sita coming from the earth in most Ramayana texts. God did this because He loved man, wanting a relationship with him. Note how God describes His love for people in the ancient Hebrew Vedas

The Heroine Captive by the Villain

However, though God created mankind for this relationship, a villain destroyed the relationship. As Ravana kidnapped Sita and imprisoned her in his kingdom of Lanka, so an adversary to God, Satan, often depicted as an asura-like serpent, brought about mankind’s captivity. The Bible describes our situation under his control in these words.

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath