The Ramayan centres on Ram, one of over twenty incarnations of Vishnu. As in many such mythologies, Hinduism boasts that Vishnu incarnated as Ram when wickedness in the world got out of hand.We all know how Ram, Laxman and Sita were banished into the forests. There, a woman, named Surpanaka, makes amorous advances to Laxman. However, Laxman has no heats for her, is angered by her persistence, and wrathfully chops off her nose and breasts. It so happens that Surpanaka is the sister/cousin of a mighty king, named Ravan. Ravan is forced to retaliate and to defend his honor and reputation. Ravan abducts Sita when no one is around, and carries her off to his island kingdom of Lanka in the south. Ram decides to rescue his wife and gathers an army to attack Lanka. The story of the Ramayan is this rescue mission by Ram. We see Ram as an astute tactician, taking undue advantage of a conflict between two brothers, Bali and Sugriv, of the royal family of a simian kingdom.
Ram steps in and aggravates the conflict, plots with Sugriv and draws Bali into a duel with Sugriv, and coolly shoots the unsuspecting Bali in the back. Sugriv becomes Ram's staunch ally and deputes his lieutenant, Hanuman, to help Ram. Later on, Hanuman plays a very prominent and critical role in Sita's rescue mission. Once on the island of Lanka, Ram takes advantage of another sibling rivalry between Ravan and his brother Vibheekshan, plots with Vibheekshan and destroys Ravan after a long drawn out war and rescues Sita. However, before long Ram begins harassing Sita with allegations of infidelity, though after siring twins. Sita swears by the fire that she is as chaste as the snows of the Himalayas and volunteers to walk through fire to prove her chastity. Ram gives his nod and Sita walks through ten or a hundred meters of roaring fire. She emerges unscathed from the fire. Even this trial by fire fails to allay Ram's unfounded suspicions, which amount to little more than "delusions of infidelity," as psychiatrists call it now. Ram banishes the pregnant Sita into the forest, where she gives birth to the twins, Lavan and Kushan.
Ram is said to have taken on human form to banish evil. Nevertheless, on analysis of the Ramayan, we see that all Ram does is serve his own interests. First Bali is shot in the back, then Lanka is burnt down, and in the war countless deaths occur on both sides—all these immense sacrifices for rescuing a single person, Sita. She too is then banished to the mercy of the wild animals of the forests, with her unborn sons. We have to ask a question here: if he were really Vishnu, what difference did it make to the Lord of all things whether the unborn twins were his or not? He should have protected them even if they were Ravan's.
The whole conflict of the Ramayan is sparked off by Laxman's dastardly act of cutting off Surpanaka's nose and breasts. (And Laxman is worshipped as the embodiment of chivalry, loyalty and bravery!). Ram should have chastised Laxman and made amends, if he had an iota of justice in him. The British are condemned by Indians for turning Muslims and Hindus against each other for gaining political mileage and power in India. However, the dastardly acts of the British pale before the callous opportunism of Ram in exploiting the conflict between the brothers Bali and Sugriv as well as between Ravan and Vibheekshan. In addition, the banishment of his faithful wife for alleged infidelity is a reprehensible thing to do when, if there were any infidelity at all, it was in part due to Ram's failure in guarding her. And Ram is an honorable man, considered to be the epitome of justice and virtues, as is his essence, Vishnu.
Comparing Ram and Ravan might be an excellent exercise. Ravan was a mighty king, with a mighty army. His sister's top-front assets had been chopped off, by a refugee. What would you have done in Ravan's shoes? Surely, any ruler in Ravan's place would have sent a commando force to do away with the refugee trio. Even better a thing would have been to chop off Sita's Bs & N as Laxman had done to Surpanaka. But Ravan was a king and a gentleman. Therefore, he takes his royal aircraft and flies into the forest and carries away Sita, without touching a hair of hers. If the widely respected TV serial of Ramanand Sagar can be believed, Sita is then put up comfortably under a sprawling tree, near a swimming pool, and in idyllic and trim condition. Ravan also makes sure she gets a fresh supply of chaste-white saris every day, and blouses to match the saris. Sagar also shows Ravan making advances to Sita. But every time this happens an invisible force foils his advances. But, that seems improbable. If there were such a force, it could have very well defended Sita in the forest itself at the very point of her abduction, unless that force did not have the technology to cross the seas to India. If that were so, Ravan could very well have raped Sita in the forest itself, or in the plane in which he abducted her. Instead Ravan treats Sita much or better than Ram ever did.
As described above, Sugriv had deputed his lieutenant Hanuman to help Ram and Hanuman plays the most crucial role in the Lankan war. Hanuman was the son of the sky-god. He was powerful, he could fly through the air and could take on any form big or small. It was he that burnt down Lanka almost single-handedly. In the war, Laxman was critically wounded and the doctors prescribe an herb that could be found only on a mountain in the Himalayan ranges. Hanuman is dispatched to fetch the herb and in one leap north, he reaches the Himalayas. However, not being able to identify the herb, Hanuman uproots the whole mountain and carries it over to Lanka for the doctor to identify the herb. The Ramayana depicts this very same Hanuman appearing several times to Sita in her captivity. If Hanuman would carry a mountain, what prevented him from carrying away the prison in which Sita was incarcerated? Hanuman could also have carried Ravan along with his palace and handed him over to Ram, to with as he pleased. In such a scenario the whole Lankan war was a waste of time, energy and lives. However, the holy Ram seem to have had no compunctions whatsoever in the matter and goes about massacring the innocent Lankans, caught in the crossfire. Coming to the Lankan war itself, there are too many questions left unanswered. Ravan had a state-of-the-art army with combat aircraft, possibly bombers, as attested by the Ramayan itself, whereas Ram had only a rag-tag army of monkeys and squirrels. Ravan also had Sita as a hostage for bargaining. The odds were stacked heavily in Ravan's favor and yet he was defeated. If it were a normal defeat in battle, Ravan could have very well finished off Sita. So we have to deduce that Ravan was not defeated in a normal war; it was probably treachery and an inside job that did Ravan in. After all, Ram was a past master at the game of treachery, as evidenced by his machinations in the simian kingdom. In all probability, Ram had got Vibheekshan, Ravan's brother, on his side, then took Ravan by surprise and did away with him before Ravan had time to kill Sita. If it were not for Ram's treachery Ravan could have won the war with his hands tied and we would have had a Ravayan instead of the Ramayan, and Ravan would have been worshipped as a divine incarnation in the place of Ram, because they are the winners who always make history, epics and myths. Ethics and morals have little to do with it. Hindu fundamentalists have been clamoring for Ramraj or Ram's Reign in India. The Ramayan does not describe how well Ram ruled after he became king. However, if he can be judged by his actions, we can assume that in Ramraj, you can expect brother to turn against brother with the blessings of the monarch. Women will have to walk through fire, and yet be turned out, whether they are innocent or not. Rape victims will get no justice whatsoever. If the Ramayan is to be believed Ravanraj would have been much better than Ramraj, for the Ramayan itself attests that Lanka was a prosperous and powerful
kingdom under Ravan.
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Xavier William |
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