Neringa Ramayana Part 4!
[for links to previous parts, scroll down to previous post..]
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Ramayana: Chapter 4- Alliances
As always, I will begin with a quick recap...
Dasrath - king of ayodhya - has no kids - then 4 kids - eldest is Ram [the hero] - one of the queens wreaks havoc - ram, sita and laxman go in exile - are kinda happy - sita gets kidnapped - a dying vulture tells ram who took her.
So,
Grief stricken, ram and laxman are trying to re-concile themselves to the situation.
meanwhile, i will tell you a side story...
This is the story of two brothers, Vali and Sugriva. These are the vanars or monkey people [another class of people like humans and rakshas and gods etc]. attaching a photo of hanuman, a major player in this story later, who is a vanar or monkey person. this photo depicts a later scene from our story, i will come to that later.
So, vali and sugriva. Now Vali is the elder brother and the king of the vanars. these vanars are brawny creatures, known for their strength and valour. So, once, when a terrible demon [like the bigfoot or kingkong or something] comes and troubles theri kingdom, both brothers set out to kill him.
terrible fight ensues and all that... the demon flees into a cave. Vali tells sugriva that he is going in, and sugriva should put a stone at the entrance and block it so that it cant escape. once he has slayed it, he will call from inside, that would be the signal for sugriva to open up.
sugriva agrees, and stands guard. After a while, he sees blood seeping out from under the stone. Afraid that the demon has killed his brother, he flees from there, in the hope that atleast the demon would die cooped up in the cave [as he has blocked the entrance]. he is kind of an asshole of a brother.
sugriva returns to his palace, triumphant at having defeated the demon and promptly installs himself as the king. he takes over vali's possessions, wife and kids and all.
Now, it turns out, the blood was vali's but he aint dead. in fact, he had killed the demon, in a very awesome fight [which, sadly, no one could see, inside of a cave being dark and all ;) ] . so, after a few days, vali manages to dislodge the rock at the mouth of the cave and comes back to his kingdom to find his brother has usurped all. he immediately assumes his brother has plotted against him and betrayed him. he banishes sugriva from the kingdom and takes his family under his protection.
so, end of side story.
now, ram and laxman are roaming the forests to find out where ravan has taken sita, and in the same forest, they meet sugriva.
he tells them his sad story, tells them it was all a misunderstanding and being an asshole and a non-brave person is not a crime after all. But the clincher is, that he promises ram, that if ram helps him defeat vali, he would help him find sita.
so, the moral of this is, in politics, you have to make ugly allainces with ugly people to achieve good things. So ram allies with sugriva. Sugriva goes to the capital and challenges vali to a duel to death. They fight and just as sugriva is losing, ram fires an arrow from behind a tree into vali, and sugriva wins.
Vali accuses ram of breaking the rules and cheating, basically doing a thing outside of his dharma or principles. here, as a lesson to all readers, ram expounds on how this wasnt breaking his dharma but was acting exactly according to it. he had promised to help sugriva. It basically says that you cant do stuff that is good for someone, even according to dharma, isnt good for everyone. You have to make a choice and live with it, that whatever you do, everyone cant be taken into account. if you help someone, someone else is going to be affected, maybe for the worse and you cant help him too. etc etc
So, sugriva gets back his kingdom and family. in a rage, he plans to kill off vali's widow and son. ram stays his hand and reminds him that these are his family. mortified, sugriva installs Angad, vali's son, as prince in waiting and gives vali's widow an honoured place etc.
now, all done, sugriva starts enjoying his kingly lifestyle once more. In this, he forgets about his promise to ram about helping him and lending the manpower of the vanar army to look for sita [which is what ram needs, more eyes to look for his wife.]
Ram asks laxaman to go to sugriva and his wife, tara, to make them see the light and not renege on his promise. Sugriva laughs off an angry laxman [who is held back by tara]. The wise wife, tara, realises the urgency of the situation and convinces sugriva to make good his promise. he does and how that helps our heroes, we will see in the next chapter, titled "hanuman" .
"
[for links to previous parts, scroll down to previous post..]
"
Ramayana: Chapter 4- Alliances
As always, I will begin with a quick recap...
Dasrath - king of ayodhya - has no kids - then 4 kids - eldest is Ram [the hero] - one of the queens wreaks havoc - ram, sita and laxman go in exile - are kinda happy - sita gets kidnapped - a dying vulture tells ram who took her.
So,
Grief stricken, ram and laxman are trying to re-concile themselves to the situation.
meanwhile, i will tell you a side story...
 |
| Pawan Putra Hanuman ki Jay! [Hanuman, son of the wind, is Awesome!] |
So, vali and sugriva. Now Vali is the elder brother and the king of the vanars. these vanars are brawny creatures, known for their strength and valour. So, once, when a terrible demon [like the bigfoot or kingkong or something] comes and troubles theri kingdom, both brothers set out to kill him.
terrible fight ensues and all that... the demon flees into a cave. Vali tells sugriva that he is going in, and sugriva should put a stone at the entrance and block it so that it cant escape. once he has slayed it, he will call from inside, that would be the signal for sugriva to open up.
sugriva agrees, and stands guard. After a while, he sees blood seeping out from under the stone. Afraid that the demon has killed his brother, he flees from there, in the hope that atleast the demon would die cooped up in the cave [as he has blocked the entrance]. he is kind of an asshole of a brother.
sugriva returns to his palace, triumphant at having defeated the demon and promptly installs himself as the king. he takes over vali's possessions, wife and kids and all.
Now, it turns out, the blood was vali's but he aint dead. in fact, he had killed the demon, in a very awesome fight [which, sadly, no one could see, inside of a cave being dark and all ;) ] . so, after a few days, vali manages to dislodge the rock at the mouth of the cave and comes back to his kingdom to find his brother has usurped all. he immediately assumes his brother has plotted against him and betrayed him. he banishes sugriva from the kingdom and takes his family under his protection.
so, end of side story.
now, ram and laxman are roaming the forests to find out where ravan has taken sita, and in the same forest, they meet sugriva.
he tells them his sad story, tells them it was all a misunderstanding and being an asshole and a non-brave person is not a crime after all. But the clincher is, that he promises ram, that if ram helps him defeat vali, he would help him find sita.
so, the moral of this is, in politics, you have to make ugly allainces with ugly people to achieve good things. So ram allies with sugriva. Sugriva goes to the capital and challenges vali to a duel to death. They fight and just as sugriva is losing, ram fires an arrow from behind a tree into vali, and sugriva wins.
Vali accuses ram of breaking the rules and cheating, basically doing a thing outside of his dharma or principles. here, as a lesson to all readers, ram expounds on how this wasnt breaking his dharma but was acting exactly according to it. he had promised to help sugriva. It basically says that you cant do stuff that is good for someone, even according to dharma, isnt good for everyone. You have to make a choice and live with it, that whatever you do, everyone cant be taken into account. if you help someone, someone else is going to be affected, maybe for the worse and you cant help him too. etc etc
So, sugriva gets back his kingdom and family. in a rage, he plans to kill off vali's widow and son. ram stays his hand and reminds him that these are his family. mortified, sugriva installs Angad, vali's son, as prince in waiting and gives vali's widow an honoured place etc.
now, all done, sugriva starts enjoying his kingly lifestyle once more. In this, he forgets about his promise to ram about helping him and lending the manpower of the vanar army to look for sita [which is what ram needs, more eyes to look for his wife.]
Ram asks laxaman to go to sugriva and his wife, tara, to make them see the light and not renege on his promise. Sugriva laughs off an angry laxman [who is held back by tara]. The wise wife, tara, realises the urgency of the situation and convinces sugriva to make good his promise. he does and how that helps our heroes, we will see in the next chapter, titled "hanuman" .
"
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