Thanks to my grandmother Shobha, the Ramayana and Ram were intrinsic to our growing up. My father Manharray was a voracious reader and someone who had internalized the Bhagavad Gita. My mother Snehalata's default temperament was religious devotion with an unbridled sense of joy. However, in keeping with the glorious tradition of my family, no adult ever tried to even subtly indoctrinate us children about anything religious. That might explain why I have always been what may be defined for the sake of understandable nomenclature as an atheist.
Atheist is not an adequate description of who I am though since I have willfully partaken of all the fantastic literature that has resulted from the articulation of religious ideas. For instance, in the midst of an exultant anticipation among hundreds of millions of Hindus of the January 22 installation and consecration of Ram at a grand new temple at Ayodhya, which is still a work in progress, what I instantly recall are these lines from the Sundarkand of the Ramayana that my grandma recited practically everyday and reflexively so. She wrote those lines on a piece of paper when I left Ahmedabad for Bombay in 1980 to become a journalist.
प्रबिसि नगर कीजे सब काजा
हृदयँ राखि कोसलपुर राजा
गरल सुधा रिपु करहिं मिताई
गोपद सिंधु अनल सितलाई
From what I know, it broadly means this:
When you enter the city and embark on a task
Do so with the name of the King of Kausalpur (that would be Ram) in your heart
For him, poison turns elixir
Enemies turn friends
Oceans become like a cow's hooves
Fires turn soothing cold
For the sake clarity, I am not sure about the simile "Oceans become like a cow's hooves" as derived from the original chaupai (Verse). Perhaps someone can explain that to me.
My point is that the profound power of the Ramayana across India and across languages is such that even someone like my grandmother, who was not educated in Hindi at all, managed to access its essence at the philosophical level.
"Mumbai jaash kaam karva to aa chaupai kaam avshe, (Since you are going to Bombay to work, this verse will be useful.)" she told me. I had that piece of paper for a couple of decades but I have lost it since.
As I have frequently pointed out, I have never been drawn to the idea of religion/god or for that matter even spirituality. However, what I have been acutely plugged into is the astounding brilliance of literature elucidating faith. The Ramayana is a great example of that.
Separately, I wonder what Shobha would have said about Ram's consecration. I would have certainly asked her, "With whose name in his heart would Ram enter the city of Ayodhya?"