THIS UNDYING PHOENIX RISES OUT OF THE SOUTH SEA
AND FLIES TO THE SEA OF THE NORTH,
NEVER ALIGHTING EXCEPT ON CERTAIN SACRED TREES.
HE WILL TOUCH NO FOOD
BUT THE MOST EXQUISITE RARE FRUIT,
AND HE DRINKS ONLY FROM THE CLEAREST SPRINGS.

ONCE AN OWL
CHEWING AN ALREADY HALF-DECAYED DEAD RAT
SAW THE PHOENIX FLY OVER. LOOKING UP HE SCREECHED WITH ALARM
AND CLUTCHED THE DEAD RAT TO HIMSELF
IN FEAR AND DISMAY.

Rama is not an historical person. He may or may not have been, it cannot be proved. Krishna is a myth, not an historical fact. Maybe he was, maybe he was not. But India is not bothered whether Krishna and Rama are historical. They are meaningful, they are great epic poems. And history is meaningless for India because history contains only bare facts, it never reveals the innermost core. They are concerned with the innermost core, the center of the wheel. The wheel keeps on moving, that is history, but the center of the wheel, which never moves, is the myth.

Said Chuang Tzu:

"HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT THE BIRD
THAT LIVES IN THE SOUTH --
THE PHOENIX THAT NEVER GROWS OLD?"

All that is born grows old. History cannot believe in this bird, because history means the beginning and the end, history means the span between birth and death. And the span between the birthless and the deathless is myth.
Rama is never born and never dies. Krishna is never born and never dies. They are always there. Myth is not concerned with time, it is concerned with eternity. History changes with the times, myth is always relevant. No, myth can never be out of date. Newspaper is history, and yesterday's newspaper is already out of date. Rama is not part of the newspaper, he is not news, and he will never be out of date. He is always in the present, always meaningful, relevant. History keeps changing; Rama remains in the center of the wheel, unmoving.
Says Chuang Tzu:

"...THAT LIVES IN THE SOUTH --
THE PHOENIX THAT NEVER GROWS OLD?"

Have you ever seen a picture of Rama or Krishna which belongs to their old age? They are always young, without even a beard or mustache. Have you ever seen a picture of Rama bearded? Unless he had some hormonal defect it must have grown; if he was really a man -- and he was -- then the beard must have grown. If Rama was historical, then the beard would have been there; but they have pictured him beardless, because the moment the beard grows you have started becoming old. Sooner or later it will turn white. Death is coming near and they cannot bear to think of Rama dead, so they have washed his face completely clean of any sign of death. And this is not only so with Rama; the twenty-four TIRTHANKARAS of the Jainas are all beardless, no mustaches. Buddha and all the AVATARS of the Hindus had no beards, no mustaches. It is just to indicate their eternal youth, the eternity, the timelessness, the far-awayness.

"...THE PHOENIX THAT NEVER GROWS OLD."

There is time -- in time everything changes -- and there is eternity. In eternity nothing changes. History belongs to time, myth belongs to eternity. Science belongs to time, religion belongs to the nontemporal, the eternal.
In you also, both exist -- time and eternity. On your surface the wheel, time: you were born, you will die, but this is only on the surface. You are young, you will become old. You are healthy, you will be ill. Now you are full of life, sooner or later everything will ebb, death will penetrate you. But this is only on the surface, the wheel of history. Deep down right now in you the eternity exists, the timeless exists. There nothing grows old -- the phoenix, the south, the India, the eternal. Nothing grows old, nothing changes, everything is unmoving. That south is within you.