Ram has always been a God for the Hindus in India and he still continues to be so. People have faith in him and worship him
Cho Ramaswamy
Ram has always been a God for the Hindus in India and he still continues to be so. People have faith in him and worship him. The idea of Ram is the same all across India and has been like that for ages. You can’t dismiss the idea of Ram just like that.
There may be a difference in the intensity of worshipping him, but nobody can question the faith Ram generates across the country. There is rarely a part of India where you would not find a temple dedicated to Ram; rarely any part of India where his birthday isn’t celebrated.
It is the faith of the people that Ram is supposed to be the ideal person — Maryada Purushottam. There are different depictions of Ram and he is a pan-Indian deity. Wherever there are Hindus, there is Ram. Nobody, apart from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, has been questioning the existence of Ram and Ram Setu. It appears that the whole controversy has been given a political twist by Muthuvel Karunanidhi. It is religious issue, which has been given a political twist by Karunanidhi.
The Hindus have tremendous faith in Ram as a God and when religious sentiments are hurt people are bound to get agitated. There are alternative available for building the bridge to Sri Lanka, and they should be taken up instead of pursuing on construction over the Ram Setu.
As for Karunanidhi’s comments on Ram being a drunkard, there is no mention of any God taking Sura drink anywhere. Karunanidhi has claimed that the Valmiki Ramayana says that Ram was a drunkard. Nowhere in the Valmiki Ramayana is it stated that Ram is a drunkard.
Under fire, Karunanidhi later said that as per Valmiki Ramayana, Ram took a liquor called Somapanam, which is also not mentioned anywhere in the Valmiki Ramayana. Moreover, Somapanam is not intoxicating liquor, it is Surapanam which is an intoxicating liquor. Somapanam is a juice, which is considered equal to Amrut, the nectar.
Cho Ramaswamy is editor of Tamil magazine Tughlak. He spoke to Ameya Bhise.
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