Rama means goodness and ayana means journey, Ramayana is the journey to goodness.

Namastae, today I am going to speak on relevance of Ramayana in todays life. I believe most of us know Ramayana, as the story of rama and sita going to forest and Ravana being killed. Do we ever think more than that? Friends that is not Ramayana. Ramayana is one of the most valuable assets, manifested to elaborate human values. Ramayana is relevant because the stories embody timeless values and inspire us to broaden our consciousness from me to we. Ramayana offers us a panorama of jewel like personalities who embody the spirit of sacrifice. Ramayana answers the deepest problems faced by an individual and depicts the triple qualities of satwa, rajas and tamas.

We cannot have a person with all good qualities but Valmiki brought Rama as an epitome of virtue & an idol of dharma before us with all 100 % qualities to teach us what is duty, truth, bravery, being an ideal husband, ideal son, ideal brother, and ideal ruler, exemplifying righteous behavior to the individual, the family and society. Ramarajya is a nation of excellent prototype government, is what we want our bharat to be.

We should not just read Ramayana but understand the essence and make a dent in our personality. It exposes to us many values like dashratha fulfilling his promise to kaikeyi though he had to separate his beloved son teaches us to keep up promise.
Similarly, Rama’s sacrifice in accepting exile to honor his father’s words shows deep love and devotion to parents. Dashratha’s separation from Rama led to his death shows children how much parents love their child which will make them more respectful and devoted to parents.
Sita’s sacrifice in preferring to go to forest with Rama, offers value of marital bond, which has devalued today. Rama and Sita set the ideal of conjugal love.
Laxmana’s sacrifice to stand by the side of Rama serve as an antidote for the superficial relationships that is seen among today’s siblings.
Bharat’s sacrifice in refusing the kingdom offers a signal lesson for the many disputes among siblings for parental property.
Kaikeyis selfishness lead to the anguished death of her husband, inspires us to safe guard ourselves from selfishness.
Old Jatayu’s valiant fight against ravana teaches us to be courageous and challenging.
The most important shloka in ayodhyakanda –Raamam dashartham viddhhi, maamvidhi janakathmajaam, ayodhyam attviim viddhi gachchha tat yathasukham.
This is Sumitra advising Laxmana to look upon rama as dashratha, sita as me and forest as ayodhya and depart happily. Noble mothers like her are needed today. Rama’s forest journey teaches us to accept life’s ups and downs happily. Rama’s humbleness led to his victory but ravana’s excessive desires and lust ruined him.In Rama’s 14 years of exile, only 6 months after sita’s abduction was very tough, so we must understand that in life’s drama, both aspects of happiness, sadness, winning, losing, success, failure, will be present but we should play our role nicely.
Modern marechans attract us but they will end us up in trouble.

There are several MANAGEMENT lessons.
Team motivation by Jambahvan is a classic example of good manager helping hanuman to realize his potential.Hanuman’s first lanka trip guides us to ascertain our goals, make plans and analyze the strengths and weakness of our competitor.Rama has shown how to create competent leaders, believe and motivate your team. He teaches us no work is big or small by acknowledging the small squirrel’s contribution in making the bridge.Ravana’s last message to rama was things that are bad seduce us easily, we run towards them impatiently , but things that are actually good, fail to attract us, that is the wisdom of life.

You will object saying if we sacrifice like this we will be exploited and that’s why Ramayana is not for imitation but for inspiration, not for duplication but for appreciation of the principle of sacrifice. Ramayana is an educational medium demonstrating important values to imbibe in children and aspire them that these life redeeming lessons will enrich our lives and make us self oriented.
This was not written based on religion but for human beings to uplift themselves from ignorance to light.
Ramayana is still the reality so take a pledge for an inner rama to dwell within you.
Can you enjoy the taste of different dishes biryani, paysam, gulab jamun by just repeating the name. No, you can enjoy them only when you eat. Similarly, Ramayan is of no use if you just read. Practice it and see how your life changes.
Thank you