Need to finish this ramayana story once and for all. Have dragged it along for far too long. No more chapters after this, this is the last installment.
Before that, here is something I stupidly neglected to do for previous chapters, a link to all the previous posts:
Analysts in the audience feel free to dissect my writing style as it has changed over the course of these 7 posts...
So, as usual, lets start with a recap:
We had Ram, dutiful son of Dasharath. Banished with wife Sita and brother Lakshman. lives happily in the forest. Wife kidnapped by wily intelligent villain. Much gnashing of teeth. Alliance made with the monkey kingdom under dubious circumstances. The story is coming to fruition as Hanuman locates Sita, burns half the city down.
Last time we left Sugrive and his army ready to march down to Lanka, to confront Ravana and return Sita to her lawfully wedded husband. This bit is basically the climax fight sequence.
So Ram and his posse reaches the shores of the sea. Not everyone was Hanuman and could jump the sea to reach the island kingdom on the other side. A seemingly irrational Ram gets angry with the sea for obstructing his path and nocks and arrow and threatens to shoot the sea. Somebody call the psychoanalyst, this guy is losing his marbles... Wait, he is god though. So yes, indeed the sea god is afraid and begs his forgiveness. He says to Ram, in your army there are two twins, who have impeccable architectural pedigree. They know the solution to your problem. [He did something to this drawn arrow which was cool. he had to shoot it somewhere. I forget the details. If anyone remembers, please comment]
Ram seeks these youths out, and they do indeed know a solution to the issue. They ask the other soldiers to brings big rocks to them and write "Sri Ram" on the rocks. That was simple! These inscribed rocks, very conveniently are exempt from physical laws of the sea and they float on the ocean. Read what you will on this episode. To me, making a bridge out of floating rocks seems to be a larger problem than to build an actual one, but as I said, the architectural provenance of these youngsters is undeniable. Sons of the greatest architect of all time or something like that. So you have the bridge, troops can now move in.
Sidenote: When I was a kid, we lived near the beachfront studios where the smash hit TV rendition of Ramayana was shot. There were two shows, Ramayana and Mahabharat, chronicling the two epics, that were so epic hits that the guy who played Krishna [The god incarnate hero in Mahabharat] later ran in parliamentary elections and won comfortably! Anyway, Si we visited these studios, and I remember picking up some rocks from the beach, scribbling Sri Ram on them in Roman and Devnagari scripts and hurling them into the sea. Didn't work. Obviously I do not have the right pedigree. If only my dad had decided to become an architect... If only.
During this time, there was another incident of note. Ravana was himself prepping for battle. Battle Royale. So he tried to enlist the support of his mighty brothers and skillful sons.
Brother #1 was Vibhishana. He told it to Ravana straight. Dude on the other side is too strong. You are in the wrong. Give up. He went so far to defect to the Ram camp and offer his services to Ram, to be on the side of the Moral Right.
Brother #2 was Kumbhakaran. If you remember how Ravana got his 10 heads, he basically prayed to the gods, proved his devotion and got a boon. So his brothers had also done that. Kumbhakaran's superpower was the ability to sleep for long periods. My kinda guy. A huge army of servants armed with trumpeting elephants, huge drums, pungent foods was deployed to attempt to wake the sleeping giant. he didn't wake up right away, rather during the middle of the battle. i will fast forward there for a bit to highlight the point I am trying to make here in the midst of all these tangential observations. When he woke up, he immediately assessed the situation and came to the same conclusion as Vibhishana. His stance however was to follow his brother and do his duty.
Since the whole point of Ramayana is to teach us Dharma and Duty and Morality etc etc, please note a couple of points here. First, only the people who were almost equals of Ravana in his stature were able to tell him that a spade was not a club. Also, both guys did what seems to be right thing, but in diametrically opposite ways. Who was right-er? You decide.
Back to the war!
This part is mostly the fighting.
One skilled warrior from one side meets a similar guy from the other side and each fight has its moments.
Ravana's son uses the power of goddess Maya [Illusion] to create magics and trickery, but is eventually defeated by common sense. Another son preforms special rites before battle that renders him invincible. He is defeated when our heroes manage to disrupt his rites one day. Our heroes once get bitten by poisonous snakes, for which the remedy is one tree in the north of the country. Hanuman immediately flies across the length of the sub-continent and locates the hill. Presumably he didn't pay attention to botany in school, and cannot find the right tree. So he uproots the hill [yes, the whole hill; did I mention he was strong?], brings it to the battlefield and poison can be treated yay. etc etc etc and many fights and blood and carnage.
Skipping the action movie stuff, When our heroes win finally [no suspense about who won, right?] and Ram and Sita are united. Happy ending? no sir!
He has to ask her to prove her purity in front of his army. She has been in another man's house after all. The pathos of this scene is striking. My favorite part.
Sita wants to just go home and end this harrowing episode, but here is her loving husband asking her to prove she didn't cheat on him. Here is an excellent movie told by a westerner for Sita's point of view culminating on this issue.
Ram presumably has multiple emotions in his mind too. He did his duty, his Dharma, wife is rescued. However, Dharma dictates [since he is a public figure] that his and his family's image be squeaky clean [never mind the 14 year exile, his dad having 3 wives etc etc... sign of the times]
Her test is administered by the fire god and as she steps into a pyre, she is unscathed. Purity is proven, happiness and joy all around
Incidentally, 14 years have ended. Ayodhya welcomes their beloved son with open arms and lots of celebrations. The festival of Dusshera in October celebrates the killing of Ravan [symbolic of evil] by burning huge effigies of Ravana and his brothers with firecrackers and stuff. Jolly good show. Also, in many villages, theater troupes perform Ramayan on this evening. Exactly 20 days later, is the grand festival of Diwali. This is when Ram returned to Ayodhya, and all the citizens celebrated by decorating the city with lamps and lights and ornaments and what not. Generally a time to rejoice. So this is what we do even today. Biggest festival of the year. Woohoo.
The story has one little twist at the end though.
Married life and life as a king suits Ram well. Technically he was still king for these 14 years. If you remember, the son of the lady who exiled Ram was supposed to be king. Bharat his name was. however, Bharat is such a dutiful brother, he runs after Ram, begs him to not go. Ram cannot disobey his father. So Bharat borrows Ram's sandals, installs the footwear on the throne, and rules as a steward in his stead. Again, lessons learnt on how to follow Dharma etc etc. So when Ram came back, he was delighted to get his old sandals back, and he was able to sit comfortably in his throne, without any other person smushing the cushions, making it the most comfy chair around.
One evening Ram and Sita are canoodling in the royal palace, when they overhear a washer-man beat his [unproven] adulterous wife. She asks for mercy, he says I am not Ram, to forgive my wife when she consorts with other men.
Dharma kicks in again! how can a king rule if his subjects have lost respect for him?? Banishing Sita is the only solution. According to Ram. You may think otherwise. Write a 1000 page essay debating the morality of Ram's actions in this situation. Do not show it to me. It is for you. Treasure it. You are welcome.
Twist is that Sita is preggers! Totally! and twins too! whoa! bet you didn't see that coming! She is still completely in love with Ram. She doesn't understand his actions, causing some anger, but the underlying love isnt lost. She raises her sons with the help of a learned sage who has given her refuge and they teach the twins Luv and Kush the glories of Ram, the original UberMensch.
Story has come full circle, because as Valmiki [the author of the epic. You didnt it was me, did you? I didnt make all of this up. Valmiki did] writes the whole story as sung by Luv and Kush in the court of Ram. Thats right. Sita sends her sons armed with tales of Ram to sing his glory throughout the kingdom, and they end up doing that in Ram's court, in front of Ram himself. He is a shrewd fella, and he asks the right questions and deduces that these are his sons. Tears in the eyes of everyone in court, I swear.
Struggling with his extant love of wife versus love of Dharma, Ram rushes with his kids to find Sita. He finds her. She refuses to go with him, and for all that she has suffered, she asks mother earth to accept her as sacrifice. Mother comes along, gobbles up the saintly wife of Ram, and says thank you very much!
Many points to ponder here. What are the motivations of Ram, Sita and the kids and indeed, all the other people in the story. Is Dharma really so important? Can you live a happy life if you follow your principles strictly? Is there a duality involved somewhere? Does this apply only to public figures? Who was right, who was wrong? What angle were Luv/Kush playing at? Did I tell you the story has ended, finally?
