Ramayana cover art

Ramayana

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Ramayana

By: William Buck
Narrated by: Ram Dass
Try Premium Plus free

$16.45 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $17.99

Buy Now for $17.99

About this listen

This story of Lord Rama — the 7th incarnation of Lord Vishnu— i s a wondrous tale of cosmic adventure that immerses the listener in a world of heroes, gods, and demons. At about 50,000 lines, the original Ramayana is one of the largest epic poems in history, as well as one of the world's most important literary and spiritual masterpieces. This translation by William Buck — read by Ram Dass, one of the most revered spiritual writers of the last 50 years — makes the ancient text accessible to the modern Western world, while preserving the richness of the original.

©2019 William Buck (P)1999 Phoenix Books, Inc. Epic Poetry Themes & Styles
All stars
Most relevant  
Ram Dass is obviously passionate about Rama and it shows in his intonations as he reads the various characters, and what his voice lacks in melody is made up for by the ring of truth.
The story of a super god that forgets his true identity by being incarnated as a human is very exciting. It seems that the son of god theme, not the tripartite godhead theme is not just in Christianity or in the Greek demigod spawn of Zeus, but Rama is almost like a cross between Christ and Hercules...he is a mixture of hero and compassionate king.
The best twist for me was (rather like Slugworth in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) Ravenna turns out to love Rama. I guess a similar character is Judas in the bible, without who’s betrayal Jesus couldn’t have fulfilled his destiny. I also enjoyed the relationship between Rama and Hanuman. There is a great scene where Hanuman actually chides Rama about despairing and saves him from quitting his path.
I’m interested to read more about the fight between Rama (as Narayana) and Garuda that cursed him to always lose Lakshmi. Does anyone know if there are other texts that expand on this??

Rama is loveable but Hanuman is reliable

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Amazing story, an easy translation and Ram Dass narration couldn't be any better! This is one book I wil probably re-read till the day I die.

The first book I didn't want to stop listening to

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.