Ra

“ Now Ra was very wroth when he heard their blasphemy, so he called together his followers, the gods and goddesses of his train, Shu and Tefnut, Geb and Nut, and Hathor, the eye of Ra.
The gods assembled secretly, so that the race of mankind might know nothing of their meeting. And when they were all gathered about the throne of Ra, he said to Nun, the oldest of the gods:
"O Nun, thou first-born of the gods, whose son I am, I pray thee give me thy counsel. The men whom I have created have conceived evil against me, even those men who have issued forth from mine eye. ”

“ When Ra had made a heaven for himself, and had arranged for a continuance of life on the earth, and the welfare of human beings, he remembered that at one time when reigning on earth he had been bitten by a serpent, and had nearly lost his life through the bite. ”

“ The Serpent- fiend Sebau hath fallen headlong, his forelegs are bound in chains, and his hind legs hath Ra carried away from him. The Sons of Revolt shall never more rise up. The House of the Aged One keepeth festival, and the voices of those who make merry are in the Great Place. The gods rejoice when they see Ra crowned upon his throne, and when his beams flood the world with light. The majesty of this holy god setteth out on his journey, and he goeth onwards until he reacheth the land of Manu; the earth becometh light at his birth each day ”

“ He cast down his load to the ground, and betook himself to flee swiftly; and his elder brother pursued after him with his knife. Then the younger brother cried out unto Ra Harakhti, saying, “My good Lord! Thou art he who divides the evil from the good.” And Ra stood and heard all his cry; and Ra made a wide water between him and his elder brother, and it was full of crocodiles; and the one brother was on one bank, and the other on the other bank; and the elder brother smote twice on his hands at not slaying him. ”

“ It formed an element in the native name of Babylon, which was Ka-ra, the Cushite equivalent of the Semitic Bab-il, an expression signifying “the gate of God.”
Ra is a god with few peculiar attributes. He is a sort of fount and origin of deity, too remote from man to be much worshipped or to excite any warm interest. There is no evidence of his having had any temple in Chaldaea during the early times. A belief in his existence is implied rather than expressed in inscriptions of the primitive kings, where the Moon-god is said to be “brother’s son of Ana, and eldest son of Bil, or Belus.” ”

“ The power of the priests of Ra declined somewhat about the close of the Sixth Dynasty, but in the reign of Senusert I [1] [Pg 134] (c. 2433 B.C.) the temple at Heliopolis was rebuilt, being dedicated to Ra and to two of his forms, Horus and Temu. In this temple were kept models of the sacred boats of Ra, the Manzet, containing a hawk-headed figure of Ra, and the Mesektet, a man-headed statue of him.
Primitive as is the nature of sun-worship, it possesses elements which enable it to survive where many more advanced and complicated cults succumb. ”

“ While the clergy of the twentieth dynasty were hymning the perfections of Ammon Ra—"so high that man may not attain unto him, dweller in the hidden place, him whose image no man has beheld"—the peasant may have been worshipping, like a modern Zulu, the serpents in his hovel, or may have been adoring the local sacred cat of his village, or flinging stones at the local sacred crocodile of his neighbours. To the enlightened in the later empire God was self-proceeding, self-made, manifest in the deities that were members together in him of godhead. ”

“ Another passage states: “the aten (disk) is thy body” (i. e. image or symbol) . In the legend of Ra and Isis, quoted above, the god is made to say of himself: “I am the maker of the hours, the creator of days, I am the opener of the festivals of the year.... I am he who when he opens his eyes [i. e. the sun and moon] becometh light, when he shutteth his two eyes, becometh darkness.” Brugsch tells us that Ra, whom he accepts as the day-sun, was addressed as the master of double or two-fold force, who illuminates the world with his two eyes and “was symbolized by two lions.” ”

“ It has already been seen that the god Ra, when retiring from the government of this world, took steps through Thoth to supply mankind with words of power and spells with which to protect themselves against the bites of serpents and other noxious reptiles. The legend of the Destruction of Mankind affords no explanation of this remarkable fact, but when we read the following legend of Ra and Isis we understand why Ra, though king of the gods, was afraid of the reptiles which lived in the kingdom of Keb. ”

“ The gods of the [244] south and of the north, of the west and of the east, have fastened chains upon him, and they have fettered him with fetters; the god Rekes hath overthrown him and the god Hertit hath put him in chains. Ra setteth, Ra setteth, Ra is strong at his setting. Apep hath fallen; Apep, the enemy of Ra, departeth. Greater is the punishment which hath been inflicted on thee than the sting which is the Scorpion goddess, and mightily hath she, whose course is everlasting, worked in upon thee, and with deadly effect. ”

“ His hands and arms shall not exist, his feet and leas shall not exist, and he is chained in one place whilst Ra inflicts upon him the blows which are decreed for him. He is thrown upon his accursed back, his face is slit open by reason of the evil which he hath done, and he shall remain upon his accursed back. ”

“ This myth agrees with another, according to which mankind had emanated from the eyes of Ra, though there was a different legend of the creation, which asserted that all men, with the exception of the negroes, had sprung from the tears of the two deities Horus and Sekhet. ”

“ His exile in the forest o'er, him home returned to Oude's high town, Oh happy those, that see once more, like Indra from the sky come down. No mortal men, but gods I deem,—moonlike, before whose wondering sight My Rama's glorious face shall beam, from the dark forest bursting bright. Happy that gaze on Rama's face with beauteous teeth and smile of love, Like the blue lotus in its grace, and like the starry king above. Like to the full autumnal moon, and like the lotus in its bloom, That youth who sees returning soon,—how blest shall be that mortal's doom. ”

“ Nilkant Rai rose to his feet with majesty.
“I go. Never shall the God be rejected and ask twice. But when your daughter, old and haggard, looks up at you, answer that it was her unworthy father who kept her as a drudge on earth, when he might have raised her to a throne in heaven.”
As the old man stood with clasped hands, Radha broke from the shadows and threw herself before him. ”

“ Also, the Rama story is so moving that a mere allusion to it stirs like a sentimental memory of childhood. It has the usual qualities of a good epic story: abundance of travel and fighting and adventure and magic interweaving of human with superhuman, but it has more than this. In both hero and heroine there is real development of character. Odysseus and Æneas do not grow; they go through adventures. But King Rama, torn between love for his wife and duty to his subjects, is almost a different person from the handsome, light-hearted prince who won his bride by breaking Shiva's bow. ”

“ After this successful combat, the ascetic, Vishwamitra, conferred on Rama a gift of strange weapons, which even the celestials were incapable of wielding. How very different the magic weapons received by Rama were from those familiar to the sons of men, will be apparent from the poet’s statement that the weapons themselves made their appearance spontaneously before Rama, “and with clasped hands, they, well-pleased, addressed Rama thus: These, O highly generous one, are thy servants, O Raghava. Whatever thou wishest, good betide thee, shall by all means be accomplished by us.” ”

“ Considering aright, dost thou speedily inform me if I have performed any improper act towards Rāma. O fine lady, do thou approach him in person and pacify him with soothing words. Beholding thee, that pure-souled one shall not be worked with ire; great men do never behave roughly towards the females. Approaching him do thou console him and thereafter I shall see that conqueror of foes having eyes resembling lotus-petals. ”

“ The walls of thy tomb are strong, thou hast planted trees at the edge of thy pond, thy soul reposes beneath them and drinks the water; follow that which seemeth good to thee as long as thou art on earth, and give bread to him who is without land, that thou mayest be well spoken of for evermore. Think upon the gods who have lived long ago: their meat offerings fall in pieces as if they had been torn by a panther, their loaves are defiled with dust, their statues no longer stand upright within the temple of Râ, their followers beg for alms! ”

“ O messenger, I shall keep my life so long I do not hear anything about my dear one." Having addressed that lord of monkeys with these highly sound and sweet accents, that graceful and worshipful dame ceased, with a view to hear again from him pleasant tales regarding Rāma. And hearing the words of Sitā the terribly powerful Māruti, placing his joined palms on his head said,—"The lotus-eyed Rāma doth not know that thou art here, and hence he hath not been able to rescue thee like unto Purandara regaining Sachee. ”

“ The folk of Tara said to him: "It seems to us that our bull-feast and our spell of truth are a failure, if it be only a young, beardless lad that we have visioned therein."
"That is of no moment," quoth he. "For a young, generous king like me to be in the kingship is no disgrace, since the binding of Tara's pledges is mine by right of father and grandsire." ”

“ Do thou hear, O large-eyed dame, what regal signs I have marked on the persons of Rāma and Lakshmana. O daughter of Janaka, Rāma has eyes like lotus-petals and a countenance resembling the full-moon and is gifted with great beauty and goodness. In effulgence he is like the Sun, in patience like the earth, in intellect like Vrihaspati352 and in fame like Vāsava.353 He is the protector of the world of creation and his own kinsmen. He follows right in all his ways and never swerves from his royal duties and is the slayer of foes. ”

“ Six days he sate, and mourned and pined for Rama all that weary time. At midnight on his wandering mind rose up his old forgotten crime. His queen, Kausalya, the divine, addressed he, as she rested near: "Kausalya, if thou wakest, incline to thy lord's speech thy ready ear. Whatever deed, or good or ill, by man, O blessed queen, is wrought. Its proper fruit he gathers still, by time to slow perfection brought. He who the opposing counsel's weight compares not in his judgment cool, Or misery or bliss his fate, among the sage is deemed a fool. ”

“ But Rama, stupefied, stood stock still where he was stricken, and stared, till his eyelids stiffened, at the desolate hut, at the desolate hearth.
Then all the angels in heaven, who had witnessed the crime of Rawunna, and his flight, passed into the forms of monkeys; and a million of them made a monkey chain, that the rest of the celestial host might descend into the banian-groves of Ayodhya. The tails glide swiftly through each glowing hand, and quick as lightning on the trees they stand. And Hoonamunta, their chief, prostrated himself before Rama, and said, "Behold, my Lord, we are here! ”

“ Beholding the monkeys slain in the encounter and Rāvana approach, the heroic and highly powerful Rāma, with Sumitrā's son in his company, delightedly set arrows on his bow. And as if rending the whole earth with that dreadful sound he began to draw the string of his excellent bow. With the sound of Rāvana's arrows and the twang of Rāma's bow hundreds of Rākshasas fell down on earth. And coming within the range of the arrows of those two princes, Rāvana appeared like Rāhu in presence of the sun and the moon. ”

“ And presenting him with many a charming fountain, trees will delight Rāma at the tops of mountains.146 Where Rāma is, there is not fear or failure. That mighty- armed son of Daçarātha is heroic. Let us while he is yet ahead within a short distance of us, follow Rāghava. Even the shadow of the feet of our master, so high-souled, would, bring us happiness. He is the lord of all these—he is the refuge—he is the accomplishment of our religious duties. ”

“ And, behold! when the goldsmith lad and the carpenter lad saw the awful, dreadful, unspeakable horror Raja Rasâlu had slain, they were exceedingly afraid, and falling on their knees, begged to be allowed to return to the city, saying, 'O mighty Rasâlu, you are a Raja and a hero! You can fight such horrors; we are but ordinary folk, and if we follow you we shall surely be killed. ”

“ As such, his images do not, like those of the avatārs so far described, avatārs which were sudden outbursts of divine energy exhibit either the four arms of the gods or the distinguishing Vaishnavite symbols of conch, discus, club and lotus. Human in form, but god in essence, Rāma is always represented as a royal personage of bewitching beauty, well developed in body, having broad eyes, long arms, curly tresses, ornaments and auspicious marks that indicate high birth and noble character. ”

“ Why is it that thou art not ashamed of it, O king, O lord of the Rākshasas? Conquering the three worlds with thy prowess thou didst attain thy glory; and it is unbearable, that a man, ranging in the forest, hath slain thee. Thou, who art capable of assuming shapes at will, hast been slain in conflict by Rāma, in the city of Lankā unapproachable by men. I do not believe that thy destruction,—who hadst always been crowned with success, before the forces, is work of Rāma. ”