Who is Ram? There’s a big confusion about this. Even a great Divine personality named Sati… you might be more familiar with Her as with the name Parvati…even a great Divine personality like Her got confused about who Shri Ram is.
Most of you know the main Ram leelas. So you would have heard that when Ravan kidnapped Sita, then Ram was so much in separation from Sita that He was wandering in the jungles, asking the trees and the hills and the animals,
“Have you seen My Sita? Where is She?”
And He would faint sometimes in virah. And it was in this state, when Ram was in this way just acting as if He wasn’t all-knowing. God would know everything. He would know instantly who took Sita; where Sita is. I mean Sita and Ram are one and the same. Kumbhakarn is telling Ravan,
“Don’t you know Ram is supreme God and Sita is His yogamaya shakti? I’m telling you and you’re not listening. You’re not accepting what I’m saying.” But, in fact, Ravan also accepted. Ravan is saying,
“Oh Ram, I only think of You and I see You everywhere. So I know You are the all-knowing, all-powerful, omnipresent, eternal supreme Brahm.”
On one hand, we have certain Divine personalities that we probably believe to not know who Ram is. They are knowing who He is. And then someone like Parvati, the ardhangini of Lord Shankar, gets confused when She sees Lord Shankar going and doing pranam to Shri Ram.
“Oh Ram is behaving like an ordinary man. He’s walking around looking for Sita like an ignorant person. And Shankarji is going and doing pranam to Him and saying He’s the Lord of the three worlds. I’m so confused.”
So on one hand she knew Shankarji cannot make a mistake and on the other hand She couldn’t deny what Her eyes were telling her that Shri Ram is behaving as an ignorant person. So She decided to go and test Ram. She took the form of Sita. Not like we do when we’re performing a leela on stage with makeup and dressing up. She is also yogamaya shakti. Parvati ji and Sita are not two, They’re one. So Parvati took the form of Sita and went and sat on the path where Ram and Lakshman were coming. At that time She was called Sati, not Parvati.
So she sat there in the guise of Sita. And Ram who was looking for Sita everywhere, you would think that He would see Her and be happy, “Oh I found my Sita! Here You are! How did you get away from Ravan?”
But that’s not how He reacted. He immediately became composed and He said, “Mata ji, what are You doing here without Shankar Ji?”
So, He obviously passed Her test.
What I’m saying is even Divine personalities may get confused about who Shri Ram is. On one hand we are told He’s God and on the other hand in His leelas, He many times behaves as an ordinary person. So who is He? We would have to go to the Vedas, and Vedas tell us according to His very name exactly who He is. Ram Tapani Upanishad says,
रमन्ते योगिनोऽनन्ते सत्यानन्दे चिदात्मनि ।
इति रामपदेनासौ परः ब्रह्माभिधीयते ॥
Ramante yogino’ nante satyānande chidātmani.
Iti rāmap denāsau parah brahmābhidhĩyate.
What does the name Ram mean? It means the one in whom even the great yogis whose minds are absorbed in the bliss of nirakar Brahm. Even their minds get forcefully attracted to the beauty and love of Shri Ram and they just do ‘ramante’. They engross their mind in, and they revel in that bliss of the personal form of God Shri Ram.
‘Ramante yogino ’nante satyānanda-chid ātmani.’ He is sat chit anand. And ‘...parah brahmābhidhīyate’. He is Parbrahma. He is supreme Brahma, supreme God. So Ved is telling us exactly who Shri Ram is.
राशब्दो विश्ववचनो मश्चापीश्वरवाचक:।
विश्वानामीश्वरो यो हि इति राम: प्रकीर्तत:।।
‘Rā’ shabdo vishvavachano mashchāpīshvaravāchakah.
Vishvānaāmīshvaro yo hi iti rām: prakīrtatah..
Vedas are saying Ram with two syllables. The first syllable ‘Ra’ means ‘vishwa’ - the ‘universe’ and ‘ma’ means ‘Ishwar’ - the Lord, the governor, the controller. So Ram means ‘the one who is the Lord of the entire universe, uncountable brahmands’. He is Shri Ram. So He is supreme Brahm. When Vedas says in defining Brahm
यतो वा इमानि भूतानि जायन्ते। येन जातानि जीवन्ति।
यत्प्रयन्त्यभिसंविशन्ति । तद्विजिज्ञासस्व । तद्ब्रह्मेति ।
Yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante. Yen jātāni jīvanti.
Yatprayantyabhisāṃviśhanti. Tadvijigyāsasv. Tadbrahmeti .- Taittiriya Upanisad 3.1.3
Taittiriya Upanishad says, “What is Brahm? Brahm is the one from Whom all the souls emerge at the time of shrishti, in Whom all the souls currently reside and into Whom all the souls merge at the time of pralay and He who is the final goal of all the souls, that is Brahm. And that Brahm is Shri Ram.
So we understand, in gist, who is Ram? He is God. He is supreme Brahm.
