Children, God incarnates on Earth to reinstate virtue in humankind when adharma flourishes and dharma declines. Lord Rama, who was born thousands of years ago, is believed to be the very embodiment of such an awakening. Avatars reflect on the limitations of the age they live in and teach people by personal example.
Like everyone else, they have to undergo trials and tribulations in life, through which, they teach us not how to evade problems, but how to live in their midst without compromising one’s ideals and values. They show us how to face great challenges with unshaken poise. Their lives serve as an inspiration for posterity to follow the path of dharma.
Many people might wonder why, if Lord Rama was all-knowing, he went after the golden deer. Did he not know that it was the demon Marica in disguise? Lord Rama assumed the human form with all its quirks and foibles. Therefore, like other human beings, he, too, manifested both knowledge and ignorance, and strength and weakness in himself. Once you have started playing a game, you cannot change its rules halfway through, can you?
Once, a prince was playing hide and seek with his friends in the palace garden. He forgot himself completely in the joy of the game. When it was his turn to find his friends, he ran around and searched in many places for a long time but could not find even one of them.
An attendant watching all this asked him, “O prince, why go through all this trouble to find your friends? Just order them, ‘Come before me!’ and they will come running to you at once, won’t they? All you need to do is to exercise your authority and command them.”
Hearing this, the young prince looked with pity at the attendant and said, “If I did so, what fun would there be in the game?”
Just like other people, mahatmas also face joys, sorrows, challenges, problems, and limitations. They do so in order to allow others to draw closer to them and establish a personal bond with them. In truth, avatars come with an aim that surpasses the safeguarding of dharma: they want to cultivate devotion in human hearts. They captivate people through their enchanting lilas.
The ways in which Lord Rama faced each and every situation in life are lessons for us to learn. He taught us how one ought to behave towards one’s parents, siblings, and friends; the ideal behavior of a king towards his subjects; and how to conduct oneself during moral crises.
Lord Rama was not overly elated when he learnt that he was to be crowned king, nor did he become disheartened when the prospect of kingship was snatched away. He continued to behave lovingly and respectfully even towards Kaikeyi, who was instrumental in this change of fortune. Thus, in every way, Lord Rama was an ideal example of the noblest values that we ought to follow in life.