Ramayana vignettes: An epic that holds deep insights of life

 It might have been written ages ago but even the most minor incident in the Ramayana is a kind of sacred hieroglyph that holds deep insights for the modern man. What’s more, the life of the man who wrote the epic contains perhaps the biggest lesson for mankind.

Before he became the great Valmiki, he was a ruthless robber called Ratnakaran. He waylaid innocent men passing through forests or deserted mud paths and forcibly took their money and belongings. One day, an old man he intercepts tells him that even his wife and children who enjoy the fruits of his crimes will pay for his sins. When Ratnakaran tells this to his wife, she snaps at him.

“You commit all the sins, not us. It is your fate to suffer for your sins, not ours” A profound realisation dawns on the wounded Ratnakaran. An illiterate robber who has never heard of Rama soon transforms into the sage Valmiki and pens one of the greatest epics ever written.

King Dasaratha’s tragic life is a multi-layered tale of crime and punishment. While hunting, Dasaratha unwittingly kills the son of a blind couple. In spite of all attempts to seek forgiveness, the couple curses the king to suffer the same fate. His loving young wife Kaikeyi, animated by the sudden greed to see her son Bharata crowned as king, forces the king to impose ‘vanvas’ on Rama. But greed unravels her. Not only did her son refuse to be king, her husband, King Dasaratha, dies a heartbroken man.

Bharathan’s self-assuming behaviour should be the beacon of our times when pursuit of power seems to be the only driving force. Sita’s fascination for a doe during the ‘vanvas’ is nothing but an aesthetic representation of ‘maya’. It is this unbridled yearning that sends her to doom, into the arms of Ravana. The mighty Bali’s fall is a testament to the danger of towering arrogance.

The epic, in the most colourful and dramatic manner, tells us to respect the ecology. When Lakhmanan is almost killed by Ravan’s son Meghnad’s arrow, Hanuman goes to find mritasanjeevani, from the Dronagiri hills. Medicines to cure diseases from fever to cancer can be found in nature. We go on decimating our ecology even though we have not even identified the medicinal properties of herbs found in our hills and forests. By destroying nature, we are depriving us of our chance to live.

(Dr Sivaraman is a radiotherapist at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College)