Ramayana and Mahabharata: Common threads for modern times

Balaji Narasimhan
@sherlockbalaji
sherlockbalaji@yahoo.com
http://www.balaji.ind.in/

March 2017: Many people like to see the differences in the Ramayana and the
Mahabharatha--while the former is about brothers sticking together, the latter is about
a fight between them. While one deals with dignified Rama, who followed "eka patni
vratha" and had just one wife, the other concerns mischievous Krishna, who had over
16,000 wives.

But with lagna lord in the 9th house of dharma in Kumbha, the moolatrikona of Sani,
the younger brother of Yama Dharma Raja, I have another take--both deal with
Dharma. In Ramayana, Rama is said to be Dharma incarnate ("Raamo vigrahavaan
dharmah" says Maaricha to Ravana in Aranya Kanda [37-13]). In the Mahabharatha,
Yudhishthira is the son of Yama Dharma Raja and is often called Dharma Putra.

Thus, both stories have as protagonists two people who are the embodiments of
Dharma Itself (while the Ramayana is about Rama's travels, Krishna is better covered
in the Bhagavatam; the Mahabharatha is more about the Pandavas than about Krishna
Himself). And in both stories, the anti heroes--Ravana and Duryodhana--saw
complete ruin. I say complete ruin because, in both cases, the families and the
kingdoms of both Ravana and Duryodhana ceased to exist.

Dharma ensuring victory is a known concept; the motto of the Supreme Court of India
is, ' ' (Yato Dharma Tato Jaya, or "Whence dharma, thence victory").
Yudhishthira chooses the life of Nakula in the Yaksha Prashna because he is the eldest
son of Madri just as he himself is the eldest of Kunti and is rewarded with the lives of
all his brothers. This led to his victory in the war against the Kauravas. But in both the
great epics of India, we see that those opposing Dharma are completely crushed.

As a person who has learnt stories about these epics from my late paternal grand
mother from a very young age, I firmly believe that adherence to Dharma is the main
message that links these two stories. But we shouldn't study epics as just stories--we
should look for the message that they offer us today. As an astrologer, my take is that,
today, you will face complete destruction if you stand against those who follow
Dharma.

Astrologically, anybody with any link between the Lagna (self) and the 9th (Dharma)
can be said to be a person who follows Dharma. The 9th also represents God, and the
link with Lagna means that God is protecting that person. Anybody who causes harm
to such a person will soon face ruin. Since you can't have the charts of all the people
whom you meet--and since you will eventually be punished for harming anybody
anyway--it's better not to cause harm to anybody. And if you do--well, you may face
pain in this very birth at the hands of Dharma. And it may happen in the very next
Maha Dasha you run...

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