Lord Ram Vs Ram

While I can think of endless qualities my father displayed, taught and lived which Lord Ram him self here are few:

Sensible and sensitivity in communication: What we have been taught about Lord Ram's communication from childhood was his way communicating with elders, peers, brothers, wife and his troops or whoever he dealt with. There was never a situation where the person receiving the communication from Lord Ram felt offended regardless of the content of the message. This is the most observable and spoken about trait of my father with whom ever he spoke. While as children me and my sister have always experienced all through our childhood and even after we were married to our spouses many people have spoken about this to me about this trait of my father. One example I would like to mention is from a person in very senior role in the corporate ladder telling me to learn about this trait to do a better communication. When my father spoke to me I felt assurance, sense of pride, received a bit of message, an experience of being loved, his accommodativeness etc.,. When I observed my father speaking to others I could see how was sensitive about the other persons situation was regardless of how the other person behaved with us in the past.

Righteousness: Many can agree that despite the life which might come across as a saga of struggles in no situation Lord Ram was less Righteous. From his childhood when he was taken by Vishwamitra to leave his parents to the times fighting Ravana to get Maa Sita it is a series of events with utter pain at all the times. But Lord Ram never backed from his values or dharma. I was a witness of how my dad sailed through all the tough times from loosing his dad in the childhood to all the way to raising two kids and making them successful in life. While he must have won or lost many battles I am proud of my father in the sense that he never resorted to unrighteous ways and maintained dharma regardless of the outcome. While in the societal scenario there are many people who practice a little of what they preach I saw my father who is self made and also lived the values we have been taught.

Ability to handle pressure: I feel Lord Ram's life victories overshadowed the amount of pressure absorbed during the process. The amount of pressure he must have faced from the time Sita Maa was taken by Ravana to the time when Lord Hanuman comes with the news of having seen and spoken to her is unsurmountable to any other person. Yet Lord Ram did not stop in despair and did what needs to be done all through the way and times to get her back. While I don't want to make the mistake of trying to fit Lord Ram into any easy framework that we use today for leadership skills ability to do the right thing in times of pressure is one of most warranted skill in current times to succeed in life. Me and my sister have seen my father( along with my mother) handling countless pressures of middle class life in terms of finances, family health issues, running a school in his non-native land, little personal background, societal pressures of people wanting to bring you down etc., He has at least handled all the pressures from his 10th class (that is when his father passed away) till the time me and my sister settled in our careers. I could never see a time when he was in inaction with a sense of despair even when the probability of winning/success of the family goals very low and appeared impossible.

While as I said in the beginning I could see and experience endless similarities between Lord Ram and my father Ramchandra Rao garu I could only articulate these for now. With the events of my father leaving us on August 10th 2023 and Lord Ram arriving in Ayodhya on Jan 22nd 2024 I felt my father has arrived again to comfort us and I feel I am equally close and equally distant from my father and Lord Ram. Probably they are at the same place!!!