Rama- The Human Expression of the Divine

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RAMA -The Human Expression of the Divine of Lord Rama, Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore had said, "In The Ramayana, a God has not cut himself down to the size of a man; a man has become God by the virtue of his many qualifies." It is a fascinating dichotomy which, as the story reveals, eventually merges into a harmony. How Rama straddles both worlds, how Rama God morphs into Rama the man and how Rama as the man grows to become divine - that is the essence of this book. It talks of the varied places he inhabits, the numerous relationships he nourishes, the changeless values he cherishes, the eternal vision that shapes his kingdom of Ramrajya. It charts the growth of this great avatar from a confused Ramachandra, Dasharata's favorite son to Maryada Purushottama Sri Rama. How better can Rama's gentle humanity and lofty divinity be encapsulated than in Sant Tulsidas' evocative lines?

Chandrika, in a career spanning four decades, has transitioned several times. She started off as a teacher, then switched over to being an educator outside the mainstream, then chose to write for children, editing and producing a magazine called Nurture and now, for the past decade has ventured into the realm of spirituality. But through all her shifts invocations, one thing has remained constant - her love for stories. Even in her quest for philosophical understanding and her admiration for the passionate voices of the saints, she always seeks stories that are the bedrock of all truths. And then, wherever appropriate, she retells them in as engaging a manner as possible.

She began her spiritual journey with Atma Siddhi, In Search of the Soul, a translation from the original Atma Siddhi in Gujarati, an animated discussion between master and pupil on the journey of the soul by the Jain saint, Srimad Rajchandraji. She then brought out Bhaja Govindam, Follow Your Heart, a translation of Adi Sankara's Bhaja Govindam, the Sanskrit text that encapsulates Vedic wisdom in a mere 31 stanzas. In both books, her commentaries were enlivened by stories culled from sources as varied as The Bible, The Puranas, The Mahabharata, and The Jatakas. For her third title, she chose the challenging task of recounting the life of one of the most enigmatic yet mesmerizing, the most mischievous yet adored gods of the Hindu pantheon - Lord Krishna. The book, Krishna, a Joyous Celebration of the Divine, commemorated the life of the Blue God from his dynamic advent to his mysterious departure. In her present book, Rama, the Human Expression of the Divine, she pieces together the journey of the seventh avatar of Lord Vishnu from a variety of sources to bring to the fore a truly inspirational and poignant tale of a God who became man so the man could aspire to divinity.

Chandrika resides in Mumbai with her three dogs who teach her every day to live life with simplicity and dignity.

**Contents and Sample Pages**