Ram Rajya

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The story so far

Ram has been crowned. His vanara friends and Vibhishan have gone home, and Ram now rules Ayodhya.

Tradition holds Ram's rule as the ideal government, which is why good governance is still called ''. The texts say that in those days the rains came on time, the fields flourished, and no one went to bed hungry.

The Ramcharitmanas says that in Ram Rajya no one suffered any affliction, whether of the body, from the heavens, or from the world. People followed their own dharma, there was love among them, and no one bore ill will towards another.

Ram was not a king who merely sat on a throne. He listened to his people and wanted to know what they thought of him. For him a king's first duty was the welfare of his subjects; his own happiness came after.

In the Uttar Kand of the Valmiki Ramayan, when Hanuman takes leave of Ram, he asks for just one boon: may I live on earth as long as Ram's story is told in the world. Ram granted it. That is why devotees believe Hanuman is present, , wherever Ram's story is told.

दैहिक दैविक भौतिक तापा। राम राज नहिं काहुहि ब्यापा॥

In Ram's kingdom no one was troubled by any of the three afflictions: of the body, of fate, or of the world.

— Ramcharitmanas, Uttar Kand

A lesson for today

Leadership means responsibility, not power. At home, in class or on a team, a good leader thinks first of others' wellbeing.

Next chapter · 5 min readValmiki's Ashram and the Birth of Luv and Kush

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