Ramayana REVISITED; The Adult Version

The Hindu epic Ramayana was one of my favorites growing up. In a home full of Krishna, I still remember my introduction to Rama. I believe it be around 1st grade, I was sitting on my cousin's shoulders on the second story of the Malibu Iskcon Temple, and devotees constructed a theatrical play. I remember being very uncomfortable with female characters being played by males. Nonetheless, I managed to not only thoroughly enjoy the show, but still remember that feeling today. 

In contrast, the Ramayana carries elements that have stuck in the back of my head. Like a gut sensation that something doesn't seem to fit.  The epic essentially entails a battle between the "realized" Rama (incarnation of Visnu) and the "ego" demonic Ravaana. However, before we even get to the battle, Rama was in exile with his wife Sita (often symbolized as the perfect wife due to her loyalty to Rama; incarnation of Lakshmi) as well as his brother. During exile, Ravaana had kidnapped Sita, which ultimately led to the epic battle between Rama and Ravaana.

As with many Indian mythologies, there is a an "ego" who does incredible spiritual penance, invokes a deity, and then is granted a boon. However, that boon then proceeds to elevate the "ego" to the point where the individual becomes demonic and causes chaos. These boons can be seen as some form of invincible weaponry that the ego/demon then uses to rule over and manipulate kingdoms. In the Ramayana, the ego Ravaana did penance to Shiva. From my own meditation practices including the use of mantras, when you verbiage certain terms associated with an entity, you send those vibrations throughout your being. That would typically entail a purification process as well as conscious elevation, I would deem. Ravaana's own penance to Shiva was so strong that Ravaana is often considered to be Shiva's highest devotee. Well, if Ravaana is Shiva's highest devotee, then would not his penance make himself more "realized", and, well, not a demon? Provided that Shiva is associated with the Goddess of Ego Transition (Kali), what would make Ravaana act mainly through ego to give him the definition of demon? ​

Although falling under the banner of Hinduism, there are philosophical competitions between the Saivite and Vaisnava sects on who is "higher", Shiva or Vishnu. More so, there is an aspect of the story that I've always remembered that packs a punch in the whole "good vs. evil" scenario. Upon Ravaana's death bed on the battlefield, Rama had his brother go learn from Ravaana all he could since Ravaana was still an elevated being. Although that sentiment expresses that we have much to learn from those we consider opposite from us, no matter how evil we make them out to be, I still would like to know what Ravaana actually taught Rama's brother. More so, was Ravaana really evil and was there an ulterior motive for the battle? In Indian lore, including the Tamil and Jain traditions/legends, Ravaana is an enlightened being and there are even temples built in his honor.

Another aspect of the Ramayana is Sita, the perfect wife as depicted under patriarchal standards (think housewife). While under kidnap, Rama was traversing the jungles and the bridge between India and Sri Lanka (Ravaana is associated with Sri Lanka maybe Kumari Kandam) to get to Sita. However, Rama's friend/devotee, known as the supernaturally gifted Hanuman (incarnation of Shiva), had the opportunity to easily rescue Sita from Ravaana. Nonetheless, understanding the importance of Rama's honor, Sita proceeds to deny Hanuman so that Rama can be the hero. That sounds a bit extreme, I would think a husband would care more for his wife's safety than for his honor. But it gets worse for Sita. 

As she was kidnapped, she was forced to go through trials of purification and through constant tests to prove her purity. Finally fed up with the tests, she states that if she is finally proven pure, she's leaving the surface world and returning back inside the Earth. That would conclude her aspect of the epic, where the hero's journey is focused on Rama's journey. However, given that Sita is the embodiment of Lakshmi, and Lakshmi is symbolic of the Venus energy of love, abundance, prosperity, one has to ask himself what happened to Rama's kingdom when Sita (Lakshmi) left. 

So, to stay in love with the story and the characters, I had to adopt a new interpretation of Rama's journey. This interpretation would be along the lines of learning from Rama's mistake in his assessment of Sita. The consistent testing of Sita led her back into the Earth, taking with her the energies of Venus. A punishment for Rama as one may perceive. However, it's still difficult to see our deities as fallible, including the honorable Rama who holds highly benevolent characteristics. Even going into greek mythology, the same types of characters make up the pantheon with deities having good or harsh characteristics. That seems to be the case with all of our ancient deities. But what triggered Rama to not believe Sita, for would not being kidnapped be frightening enough? The incessant tests show that Rama may have had an inclination that Sita would hide something.

Even our more modern mythologies tend to have characters with supernatural Kingship honorable qualities, but still fall prey to certain circumstances. As an example, I had a mental comparison between Rama and King Arthur, where although not a deity, King Arthur is said to exude honorable king like qualities for others to emulate. Then I remembered that Lady Guinevere was romantically torn between King Arthur and Sir Lancelot (side note: I think she ends up with Merlin). So what if in the Ramayana, Sita was really just torn between Rama and Ravaana? I mean, she did feel safe enough under Ravaana's roof, safe enough to ignore Hanuman's attempts to save her. Rama had her go through these tests as if he didn't trust her. Plus, both Hanuman and Ravaana are associated with Shiva, whereas Rama is Vishnu. Could the rivalry between the sects be deeper than we have considered? Sita is an aspect of Shakti, who has counter-parts in both Visnu and Shiva. Moreover, Sita sounds a lot like Sati, Shakti's original manifestation as consort to Shiva. With these in mind, the Helen of Troy theory of the Ramayana sounds perfectly plausible. 

I understand there are many versions to this story, including one where Ravaana is the father of Sita. But, I write this post to simply show that there are discrepancies and information that doesn't seem to add up, and I'm finding this to be true with much of our ancient stories. Unlike the Jesus story of a sinless Son of God, the ancient mythologies show deities with fallible characteristics. To be fair, much of the Jesus life story is not officially known and is brought forth mainly under the spectrum of the Nicene-creed. But, as history has shown, those who win the battles write the history books/legends. Here, Rama won the battle. 

"Phu Yak" by derivative work: V85 (talk)Bangkok-SA2.jpg: FlickrLickr - Bangkok-SA2.jpg. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Phu_Yak.jpg#/media/File:Phu_Yak.jpg