Inviting Rama to family meals

What began as looking for answers to his sixyearold sonrsquos question became a curriculum at a university in America and is now a concise book with a clear goal To get families to discuss the Ramayana at the dining tableAbhiramrsquos question to his father Shantanu Gupta was this If they are both avatars of Vishnu how do Parshuram and Ram meet in the RamayanaldquoAt the timerdquo says the onetime software engineer ldquoI gave him a basic answer using tech terminology about Rama being one lsquoinstancersquo of the god software and Parshuram being another ie a part of the divine essence was contained in both avatars But I realised I didnrsquot know the real answer to this question and it became a good icebreaker when I approached sadhus at Ayodhya who had dedicated their life to studying the epic Srimad Valmiki Ramayana by Valmiki They are supersmart logical scholars who are well versed in multiple versions of the epicrdquoLike 90 per cent of Indians Shantanursquos exposure to the text was through producerdirector Ramanand Sagarrsquos television offering that ran weekly in the late 1980s Then when he was working on the biography of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for six years he would frequent Lucknow and the politicianrsquos home city of Gorakhpur ldquoAyodhya is less than three hours away from both citiesrdquo says Gupta ldquoso I began going there to know more about the text I eventually studied the 25000 shlokas with a book from the Gita Press which has codified the shlokas offering Hindi translation plus an explanation of each shloka It took me five to six years to do this reading 2030 shlokas a dayrdquoHe estimates the text weighs about three kilos too heavy to carry about and he would take pictures of the pages he intended to read on travel He found it to be like ChatGPT ldquoWhatever question you pose to it be it about plants war strategy governance the Ramayana had the answers I was looking at it from the lens of a modern parentrdquoAnd so he began discussing the text with his two childrenmdashnow 11yearold son and fiveyearold daughter Nakshatra putting it in daytoday context When the pandemic came around he conducted Ramayana classes for his childrenrsquos friends and peers complete with PPTs quizzes and crosswords to bring repetition revision and reflection With inquiries flooding from the Indian diaspora that harboured a sense of loss of culture this model became a startup The Ramayana School and Gupta gained traction as an expert in making the ancient text relevant He even became a faculty member at the Hindu University of AmericaAhead of the inauguration of the Ram Mandir on January 22 2024 in Ayodhya all these experiences have culminated into the book Teachings from the Ramayana on Life and Family R265 Penguin Random House released last week In chronological order it takes the stories from bal kand chapters about Ramrsquos childhood to yudh kand chapters pertaining to the war against Ravana then gives an everyday modern parallel with a reflection exercise at the endldquoRamayana has guidelines on how to conduct oneselfrdquo says Gupta ldquoLook at how King Dashrath and Rama both keep their promises as leaders to maintain the sanctity of the given word King Dashrath could have refused to make Bharat his heir His promise to Kaikeyi was on the battlefield with no one as witness but a lowly charioteer Similarly when Bharat goes to bring Rama back from the forest Rama refuses to return to Ayodhya on account of the promise he has made to his father He cannot even take permission to break his word given that Bharat does not want to be king because his father is dead When Shurpanakha comes to Ram he refuses her advances saying he is marriedhellipthis at a time when polygamy was prevalent remember his father had three wives We see the many things that Ram stands formdashmonogamy rules of warfare and governance are now considered rules of a progressive society worldwide The modernday equivalent is of a corporate outfit like the Tatasmdashgrounded in doing whatrsquos right even at the cost of losing businessrdquoAnd when was the last time Ramayana guided him in a mundane situation ldquoJust the other day a rickshawwala cut across and damaged my car my impulse was to swearrdquo says the Noida resident ldquoBut my son was with me and I had to gulp my words There is a responsibility when you are a leader which is why my blood boils when actors in Bollywood advertise pan masala They may have received five 10 crores for endorsing it and never touch it but they are heroes to children in villages who will get susceptible cancer because of it My aim is to have people do this Ramayan katha se uth ke breakfast table pe jayerdquo