Aai, or initially Papa for that matter, neither was religious in the ritualistic mode. Yet both of them had their own favourite stotras. If for Papa, it was the Vyankatesh Stotra, it was the Ram Raksha for Aai. Hence the title of this write-up, taken as it is from her favourite Sanskrit hymn.
The title means the ever present/powerful/all-knowing Lord Rama, He is our Lord, he is our Guide. Aai indeed had that kind of deep faith in Shri Rama. As long as her arthritis allowed her, she never missed her evening visit to the local Rama temple. Mornings she used to go all the way to Sai temple and back as a round tour kind of circular morning walk. She might miss it, but never the evening Ram Darshan. She had deep faith in Samartha Ramdas whose writing devoted to Shri Rama she taught as well for some time.
She used to teach the Ram Raksha to her siblings, says Balu Mama. It seems she loved the letter "ra" when it came to the ` pass the buck' game because she could recite the entire Ram Raksha, while the other team could not match her (eh!)r fluency.
In the initial stages of their marital life, Papa faced a Rama like fate, and Aai supported him like Seeta. No wonder, she loved the stotra. She loved the bouquet of virtues and values that Shri Rama glories in. Both believed in truthfulness, for instance. No wonder then that she bid Papa her final farewell with a shloka from the Ram Raksha, namely, "Mata Ramo Matpita Ramchandra..."
Aai, whose spouse was so aptly named "Ramchandra", believed in the " Ram rachi rakha" destiny wherein `all is well' because it `ended so well'. She liked the "Ram, Krishna, Hari" recitation. Let me hence conclude this write-up with a line from Samarth Ramdasa's "Karunashtak", namely, "Anu din anu tape taplo Ramraya".
pratima@Raghu Nayaka kai kaise karawe!/what to do, how to go about this life
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