NOTE: The situations are given in the normal font and my perspectives and learning from the situations read in this epic, appears in bold.  

This epic as written by Cho continues even after Ravana’s demise on the battlefield, and into the birth of Lava and Kusa, (the sons of Rama while Sita is in the forest). However I choose to end these blogs on this ‘Epic’ Learning with the events in the battlefield that led to the demise of Ravana.

Rama is tired, fighting Ravana in the battlefield. He is wondering how to win over Ravana. It is at this time that Saint Agasthya speaks to Rama and tells him to pray to Surya, the sun god. He tells Rama of the power possessed by the sun god to remove confusion, fear and conflict in the minds of people who pray on him. This prayer he says is called, Aditya Hridayam. Saint Agasthya advices Rama to pray to Surya and win over Ravana.

In life many times, when we are mentally tired and confused on the next few steps, we find that there are some people who come our way and offer their suggestions. We would not have expected to come across these people. Unexpected but much needed and timely suggestions :-). To be able to spot this timely help and utilize it, is the crux.

Rama is on the battlefield to fight Ravana. MAthali, Lord Indra’s charioteer is now Rama’s charioteer too, at that point of the battle. Seeing Ravana coming towards him in his chariot, Rama tells MAthali that  Ravana is approaching him in this manner makes it clear that he is focused on killing him (Rama). Rama also tells MAthali to hence move on without an iota of confusion. He also mentions that MAthali does not need this advice from Rama. However, given the criticality of the moment, he had to tell him to move on with no confusion in the mind.

It takes a lot for someone who is in a position of authority to acknowledge the power of another person, with a lesser authority; though the person with the lesser authority maybe handling a task that is of paramount importance. All the more reason to respect the task that they are doing, isn’t it? Well, I guess this respect shown is called humility!! When we see a display of this humility, we cannot but be inspired.

As Rama and Ravana fought their battle there were ominous signs looming over the battle field, that signalled a loss for Ravana. Their respective armies looked at both of them in awe and admiration, for the way their leader was fighting the battle. When Rama slayed one of Ravana’s heads, another one appeared. When he slayed another head, another head appeared and this went on. Rama was helpless and was wondering why his earlier strategies of killing the other warriors in Ravana’s army, was not working with Ravana. MAthali, Rama’s charioteer on seeing that Rama was not attaining victory suggested that Rama use the weapon that was given to him by Lord Brahma. This weapon had the power to destroy armies, people and kingdoms. Rama shot this weapon which killed Ravana.

If I were to relate the ominous signals in the battle field to the signs we ‘see’ (or rather feel) in our own lives at different points in time, there seems to be a similarity. Often people say, that there were different signals that they ‘saw’ when they were facing a situation. Signals that they thought they read well and helped them; or signals that they did not read in the way they ‘saw’ which did not bode well. Do we see signals or do we feel them? Some call it intuition and some call it hallucination. Well, when things go well we call it intuition and when things don’t go the way we say that it was a hallucination.. and then comes the statement, “Don’t rely on your instincts alone” 🙂

If there was one aspect that I have always been curious enough about, it was Ravana’s ten heads. I have heard people saying that his ten heads are to be compared to ten ‘not so positive’ traits that we human beings possess. I don’t know what these traits are though I would love to know of them. As Ravana’s slayed heads grew back immediately, do these ‘not so positive’ traits also grow back in us? To make them NOT to grow again, what do we need to do? How do we go about it? I don’t have any answers now. Oh and just struck me, will the ten heads be different for each of us? I mean, the ‘not so positive traits’ for each of us can be different isn’t it, as each of us are different in our mind sets too?

The strategy that worked for Rama in killing the other warriors in Ravana’s army, did not work when he fought with Ravana. True enough, a strategy that works with one person may not work with another. A strategy that works with one person at one time, may not work with the same person another time. Different strokes for different folks and different strokes for the same folk 🙂

MAthali’s suggestion once again to Rama, and this time a different suggestion –  to use the powerful weapon that Lord Brahma had given to Rama. We many times come across situations in our life where others give us valuable suggestions, as they see things from a different, 30,000 feet view. When these suggestions come to us at the right time, then it does have a significant and positive impact, on the decisions that we make.  Valuable and timely – a powerful combination indeed!!!

With this, this series of chapters on The ‘Epic’ Learning concludes. It has indeed been a journey of learning for me to read this epic Ramayana, and draw parallels of situations in the epic, to that in our lives. I hope the readers of these chapters found it contributory too, as much as it has to my own growth.