As shared in the introduction of this series of blogs on The ‘Epic’ Learning, I will be taking sections from the book ‘Valmiki Ramayana’ by Cho Ramaswamy and will add my perspective from day to day living. While the sections from the book will be in this font, the perspective that I share will be in bold. There is no particular order or connect between each of these sections. Each one of them have been taken as they appear in the book, and independent of one another.

Cho while basing his book on the Ramayana written by Valmiki, also draws references to Ramayana written by Kamban and Tulsidas, all thru this book. I have heard of these three versions and have wondered why so many versions have been written; and of course have been curious to know the differences also. Strangely though I have never read any one of them till date, and what I know of Ramayana is what I have heard from people and perhaps from the different stories of Ramayana that I have read.

While explaining about the kingdom of Dasaratha, Valmiki gives a detailed account of the way people in the kingdom lived; and the rule of Dasaratha in terms of their characteristics and their attitude. Kamban details the infrastructure of the kingdom and does not talk either about the king or the people of that kingdom. Tulasidas details neither the people or the king nor does he detail the infrastructure. It was interesting to read the perspectives of these three authors – Isn’t this the way we are also as people? Imagine there are three of us and we see a situation unfolding in front of of eyes. What we focus on depends on what is of interest to us.. or what catches our eye.. or perhaps what has the biggest impact on us.. When we share about the situation to others, we will share it from the perspective that we saw. We will also detail that perspective that we saw.. The person who hears all the three perspectives, gets to see it from different angles. What a window to perspectives and people, all from one situation!!

In both the Ramayana and Mahabharata, the same situation could be referred across different chapters. One needs to look at all the references to understand the situation better and correctly, and not come to a conclusion based on what is said in one chapter. In life, it is a possibility that we get to hear different perspectives from different people and across different times. It is critical NOT to come to a conclusion, based on what we see and hear of a situation happening just once. This is a little tricky and could be a heavy price to pay though, because I wonder if we will be blessed with getting different references from different people and across different times, for every situation. Does it then become preferable to accept a situation as it happens, and reserve all judgment till we see a pattern? 

It was interesting to read about how Kamban goes about his writing of the Ramayana. Kamban has written the Ramayana in a poetry format. He has followed a different convention apparently, that of explaining the meaning of the verse first and then giving the verse. This helps the reader to read the verse keeping the meaning in mind, which then helps in appreciation of both the poetry and the meaning.  Would it help to apply this in our life too? How will it work when we give the reasons for why an action should be done, and then state the action? For e.g. how impactful will it be if we tell someone who is learning to drive, on why it is important to to follow and adhere to traffic rules; and then state the rules? Will this be possible all the time? Sometimes we may have to JUST TELL someone to do something, as they may not be ready for a detailed explanation on why it needs to be done. Seems like a fine balance on when to tell the reason!!!

The Epic  begins with a flashback. One of the situations is when Rama has to get Sita to go to a forest and stay there, as the people in the kingdom felt that Sita who was abducted by Ravana, the king of Lanka and kept in his kingdom by him for a long period, was not chaste enough; and that she cannot be accepted as the queen. Rama tells his brother Lakshmana to drop off Sita in the forest in the abode of Rishi Valmiki and return back. Lakshmana heavy heartedly drops her off and only as he departs from there, he tells her why he is dropping her off in Rishi Valmiki’s abode. As I read this many questions arose in me. Why did Rama tell Lakshmana to drop her off? Why could Rama NOT tell Sita directly as to what happened and what he planned to do? Why did Lakshmana agree to convey a bad news, that should have been conveyed by Rama? There are times when we find it difficult to communicate a bad news to a friend / relative / employee, and hence get someone else to convey it. Is it because we don’t know how to convey it? Is it because we don’t have the courage to convey it? Is it because we don’t know how they will take it and how they will react to it? What makes another person to accept to convey the bad news, knowing fully well that it is NOT their role to convey?

All our mythological stories (and the epics included) are laden with examples of how some people did intense prayers and got what they wanted. What they wanted could be used later in a positive or not so positive way. For e.g. it could be someone praying to defeat a person who has destroyed places and people or it could be someone who wants to destroy places and people. Those who are prayed to grant boons. When people who destroy places and people are granted boons, it then becomes difficult to control them and the situation;  and the effort taken thereon, to bring in control is far more intense – There are people who are influencers in our life. They way they talk and the way they act, could influence us to also give into them. Quite unfortunately when we are vulnerable, we give into these influencers and we also become a party to the destruction of the mental state of others. We have given our control to the destructive elements and to bring in control to ourselves requires immense and intense time, effort and energy.

Kaikeyi’s brother had gone to Ayodhya to take Bharatha with him for a few days, to his kingdom. When he reaches Ayodhya, he comes to know that Dasaratha has gone to Mithila to perform the wedding of his son Rama. This wedding was arranged in a hurry and there was no time to invite anyone. Kaikeyi’s brother understood the situation, and went to Mithila to both attend the wedding and also to take his nephew back with him, for a few days. It is so beautiful to read about the understanding shown by Kaikeyi’s brother, towards the hurry in which the wedding was performed and also of not being invited. No questions asked, no words exchanged but just making one’s presence felt. I wonder if some of us have reached a stage where if we are not invited, we will not attend a function; or even if we are invited we will not attend the function, because there is a lot of water under the bridge. It takes a lot to put all emotions aside to go uninvited  to any function, be it a near one or a far one, especially when we know that we have not been invited due to an oversight!!

As chapter 1 comes to an end, I seem to have turned many a page of reading this book but at the same time feel as though I have barely started. As I read and drew parallels to day to day living, it seemed as though it will be easy to blog as well. Once again, I was rudely alerted to the fact that reading and thinking is different from writing. It also is a challenge and a trifle exhausting on the mind, to pull out experiences and incidents, relevant to the sections that I had a real life perspective to.

What will chapter 2 reveal? I am as much waiting for it, as you perhaps are.. Let’s together wait and watch!!