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Tuesday, June 5, 2018

The Devil's Advocate


A few days ago I happen to have some free time on my hand and invariably I ventured into the comments of a muted whatsapp group conversation. Like the case is with so many whatsapp groups, this inconsequential debate featured comments from a lot of people discussing how Dushehara signified the triumph of absolute good over absolute evil. Although people had put some good points about the good, but there was one unequivocal thought which resounded throughout the debate. It was about how Raavana was a truly evil person. It got me thinking, was Raavana really a bad guy or just a misunderstood one.

The cynical in me wanted to look at the sequence of events that transpired. There was a king, who was enjoying hunting in a forest. That may have been his era’s equivalent of hanging out at the mall, like many youngsters do. He saw a girl, got intrigued and followed her around a bit. May be he got mixed signals from her and maybe he just misunderstood them, as many guys do. Then he saw that she was always surrounded by 2 hefty guys, who he naturally assumed to be her brothers. He created a distraction to lure the guys away from the girl, and when she was finally alone, he made his move. That move was to kidnap the girl and bring her back to his kingdom. That move could easily be construed as a little extreme form of sending a facebook friend request and poking, of that era. Mind you, he did not even touch this girl the wrong way. He brought her back to his kingdom and showered her with all the royal comforts. Most people say this action was immoral since he was already married and still wanted to be with this girl, but another way to look at it is that maybe he just fell in love and was blinded by it. We forgive so much harsher things done by the leading men in our films than this.

Then he found out that the ‘assumed’ brothers were actually this girl’s husband and brother-in-law. May be he felt an “OOPS” moment. He keeps waiting for a negotiation meeting with the guy, when suddenly he finds out that this girl’s husband is apparently a God and is assembling an army to march on to his kingdom. Next thing he knows, one of the God’s lieutenants, comes to his kingdom and satisfies his hidden arsonist tendencies by burning down Raavana’s beautifully curated garden. What’s more is that his own ‘power-hungry’ brother has joined the husband’s ranks and is adding fuel to their fire. And then lo and behold, a huge army is at his kingdom gates. Doesn’t a man have the right to defend his home against invaders? US constitution has second amendment, just for this scenario.

War ensues and Raavana loses. The husband could simply have rescued his wife and left, but no. He has to kill Raavana and establish the power-hungry kin as the ruler. Maybe Vibhishan wasn’t a great ruler, maybe he was like Joffrey from Game of Thrones. We don’t know as there are no sequel to Ramayana.

Raavana was a very learned person. He composed 'Shiva Tandava Strota' which is a prominent religious text. He was a scholar, a great strategist and an intriguing illusionistHe was a very devoted shiva-bhakt and if not for that one mistake, he could have gotten his own hero franchise. May be he was like Severus Snape from Harry potter world. The point is that we don’t know because no one really looked at him like a normal human being.

Sometimes, all it takes is one mistake to unravel everything you have worked for your entire life. Thousands of years later, everyone still thinks of Raavana as an evil person. They create giant statues of Raavana and burn them to the ground every year. All of this, just because he fell in love. I see Raamayana as a tragic love story instead of the “triumph of Good over Evil”. But don’t get me wrong. I neither sympathize nor do I absolve Raavana’s actions. The point of this blog is to hopefully open some minds and to illustrate that maybe we should look at the other side of the coin before judging someone.

2 comments:

  1. Good one.. But along with you, many people also see him as an "Akhand Gyaani" and a noble man. Well there are even temples dedicated to Ravana in India.
    Might be the case that people always want someone to be looked upon a hero and an another guy as Villain, the story is what is known to all of us. But an important point here is: Your 100 virtues are forgotten with a single wrong doing. And hence, people are advised to always think and act.

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  2. First of All your narrative looks lack of events that is mentioned in mythological epics (Ramayan etc.). Looks like one day you went to some mall, watched movie, then went back home watched GOT and read some article on Ravan thereafter you decided to give a twist about Ravana based on your understanding.

    Ravana always knew what he was doing and the consequences around it.
    -- Ravan is know as great Pandit who played lead priest role in lord Shiva house warming ceremony instead we had lord Bharma.
    -- Need to understand who actually is Ravana (Mythology of Jai and Vinay working as security guard at lord Vishnu)
    -- Ravan was misguided by her sister
    -- Sense of lust was infused in him by Supranaka
    -- Ravan already knew he cannot kidnap Sita alone, so he took help to Marichi, who too gave good advice to Ravan but he ignored
    -- Lord Ram sent many messenger (Lord Hanuman/Angad) but arrogant Ravan could not settle the dispute.
    -- Even his younger brothers (Kumbhakarn) explained him who lord Rama is and how powerful he his.
    -- Mandodary Ravan's wife also tried but everyone's effort went in vein.
    -- it's Ravanana arrogance which led whole swarn nagri to burn.
    -- Killing Ravana image on the auspicious occasion od Dushara is symbolic "Victory of good over evil", celebration of good over bad.



    You are justifying LUST over LOVE.

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