Ramayana: Retold by William Buck

This is the best, most lyrical translation of an important, historical document that I have found.

I was first curious about this epic when I read that Sri David Hawkins, in his Power vs Force book, using kinesiology, had given this classic a fantastic rating, 810, a very high consciousness rating, higher than the Bible. So I was wondering why? How could it be? I found out when I read William Buck's retelling of the story, but only because I had this question in mind from the beginning. Because, the thing is, most people reading this, are going to just read it for the story on the surface, and look no farther. They will just read it as the fairy tale that it is, the life of Rama, and see it as no more than this, and otherwise irrelevant. But looking deeper I discovered that this is much more than a fairy tale. It is an allegory, an allegory of ourselves. And this is hugely interesting and relevant. We ourselves are the monster here, potentially; and we are the Divine here, in battle with our monster selves, and it is a life battle. And Sita? This is the rub for most Westerners. Reading the book simply as a superficial story, Rama, the Divine, comes off very badly. But discovering that this is an allegory, we begin to see that this ending is very appropriate. Sita stands for Nature, Prakriti. She is of, and from, the earth. She is born from the earth and returns to the earth, Mother Earth. Rama is spirit itself and must remain Spirit; Spirit and Nature must part company. That is the spiritual endeavor, and that is what we have. Rama and Sita, Spirit and Nature parting company leaving Spirit alone for the remaining years. Very appropriate and how the story should end: Rama vindicated and Divine. Seen in this way, we see that calling Rama, Rama, the mantra, means we are calling our deeper Self, with a capital S. Calling the Reality of our Selves. The Divine Self kills the small monster self, the ego self. And what could be greater than seeing this epic in this way. It's all about ourselves.

William Buck offers readers a wonderfully authentic but Western version of one of the greatest works of Indian literature. He captures the essence of the tale in a dramatic and poetic retelling of this age-old story. It is not a translation as such, but a deeply illuminating re-expression of this powerful allegory of the struggle between good and evil, between gods and demons.

I initially read this for a class in college. This is by far one of the most awesome (in awe insipiring sense) stories I have ever had the please of reading. The fantastical and absurd happenings in this story are most captivating. The imagination of this culture is mesmerizing. Thoroughly enjoyed it. So much so that I lost my original years ago and found the same one here. Btw, this translation is really easy to follow and understand. I'm sure there's others out there but Buck's interpretation is smooth.

Item arrived promptly and am very excited to read it. I have read William Buck's Mahabharata and he is an excellent writer. Love reading Indian books in a way that relates to today's reader.

The Ramayana is exceedingly good and this was a good and inexpensive translation. However, I should point out that this is printed in prose rather than poetic form.

Great edition and translation of a classic book.

Best version of the Ramayana since Valmiki's 3 volumn set, which is lush but tedious. Wm Buck tells it beautifully with more detail than you find in ordinary translations of the Tulsidas version.

For the English speaking reader, I don't think there exists a better translation.

Excellently written !