Faith Column | May 19, 2025

Love and affection backed by virtue and dharma will bring loftiness and excellence. Tiruvalluvar says love is the source of virtue for great deeds and helps overcome the evil done by others. As the sun burns the boneless worms, virtue torments the loveless ones (kural 76 and 77).

Lanka Jeyaraj said in a discourse that Ramayana portrays ample instances of virtue and love, which are corollaries to each other.

Rama went to see his mother Kousalya to inform her that he would become a hermit and go to the forest for 14 years, and Bharatha would be incarnated as ordered by his father. Kousalya told Rama that Bharatha would undoubtedly be three times better than Rama, which showed her highest esteem towards Bharatha. But what would happen to the tradition of incarnating the eldest son? She finally told Rama to uphold his father’s words.

Lakshmana insisted on going to the forest with Rama. He went to see his mother Sumitra, and informed her of his plan. Sumitra told him that wherever Rama and Sita are hereafter, it is Ayodhya to you. She also said not to go as Rama’s younger brother but as a devotee to render service to them and not to return from the forest if Rama and Sita had not returned. This is the genuine affection blended with the ethicalness that Sumitra showed towards Rama and Sita.

If virtuous qualities deplete, it only shows that true love and affection also diminish. Love with righteousness will never create distress; only affection without nobility may wreak havoc.

A person without uprightness will automatically be trapped by the same in one way or another. The devil Ravana, bereft of virtues, was made to be plunged into the abyss of darkness by the idea of abducting Sita, the embodiment of all virtuous qualities.