"My Rama (god Rama) is not the Rama of Ramayana".- Mahatma Gandhi- Rama was not perfection personified. "He killed Tataka in his teenage without any fault of hers;He killed Vali for no fault;He defaced surpanakha for no clear fault of hers, wishing for marrying someone is never wrong. If not willing to accept her proposal, Rama could have handled her gracefully but he made fun of her. He used her as a shuttlecock between himself and Laxmana. And ultimately defaced her by cutting off her nose and ears, showing extreme atrocity;This extremity of the act upon his unarmed sister enraged Ravana and he abducted Sita to avenge the insult.Hence,It can be argued, that Ravana’s abduction of Sita was not driven by lust for her, but instead it was done to punish Rama for attacking his sister
surpanakha.The Valmiki Ramayana does not say so much that Ravana was enraged as that he was provoked by his sister.His winning argument for abducting Sita is this - if Ravana would not avenge his own sister - then no one would look up to him as a protector and King of Lanka.Even Ravana never touched Sita while she was being held as his hostage,But,Rama & his troops killed civilians of Lanka, women, kids all burnt alive[Valmiki Ramayana/ Yudhkand];He midst of Vanrars and others insulted his wife,sita,and asked her,after killing Ravana, to go with Laxmana,Sugriva, Bharata,Shatrughan or anyone,anywhere?;He killed shambuka,an innocent shudra, only because he was shudra doing penance;Not only that,the way in which he subjected Sita to 'agnipariksha' and even after fire test,sent her off to the forest when she was pregnant were cruel acts;In our society today, increasingly we see separation, divorce and single parenthood. Ramayan dealt with those issues. Sita
was a single mother, unofficially divorced.In the hermitage, Sita raised her sons alone, as a single mother?His wife,sita,finally committed suicide instead of undergoing a second public insult or fire test to unite with Rama;If we apply the Indian Penal Code then Rama would be guilty on many counts."An interesting point to note: Rama freed Ahalya from her curse for adultery, yet he was so harsh with his wife. Ravana's abduction of Sita as an act that many kings were familiar with in the past. "It was a practice to kidnap the wife of a rival. Many kings have committed such acts. But remember, Ravana never molested or even touched Sita.Faith, beliefs, and right to participate in cultural or religious festivities is a matter of personal choice; and, in a state of democracy, right to choose must be respected -provided it does not impede, impact, or interfere with others’ beliefs, values, or sentiments .Why demonise Ravana alone?What about Rama??
Ravana and his brothers were Dravidians, and when their effigies are burnt it is
insensitive towards the Dravidian people.Ramayana happened only because this one guy abduct someone’s wife. But then, don’t the epics always show us just one side? History has always been narrated from the winner’s point of view and loser is always, unfortunately, painted as the villain. However, despite what the filtered versions of our true epics passed down from generation to generation prove, it is not all black and white as we are led to believe. Every character is a shade of grey and even those painted the darkest have some beauty to them.There’s a lot about Ravana that most of us are not aware of. The only things we know of is he had 10 heads, he ruled Lanka, he could fly an aeroplane-like contraption, he abducted Sita and that Ram defeated him in battle. But there’s a lot more to the personality than we are aware of. He was extremely well read and very well educated. Ravana knew of all the shastras, the vedas and had amazing knowledge of physics and mathematics. His pushpak vimana is believed to be the earliest flying machine.Ravana was not just an extremely learned man but he was also a brilliant ruler.Yes, he was extremely loved by the people of Lanka. As a ruler, he was benevolent and cared for his subjects. Lanka prospered under him. It is believed that under Ravana’s reign, there was no poverty. Lanka was made of gold. Even the poorest of the people ate in plates of gold. Ravana was also a maestro of the Veena and loved to play music. He was also extremely learned in astrology and could understand the planetary positions and their effects.Apart from his desire for
Sita, he was a devoted husband and loving father. Also, Ravana did not lay a finger on Sita. He also did not make any attempts to abduct her or reach out to her while she was married to Rama. It was only after surpanakha was insulted by Rama and Lakshamana that he abducted Sita to exact revenge. But even in Ashokavana where Sita was kept, there was not a moment when he tried to force her or use his strength on her. Ravana was not the perfect man but he wasn’t pure evil either. Similarly,Rama was not as pure as white either.he proved be the most influential Sri Lankan king ever. His reign over Sri Lanka is recorded as the most prosperous era of Lanka.
There are temples dedicated to Ravana in many parts of India and in the world.In Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh there is a huge Shivalinga supposedly installed by Ravana himself. Both Shivalinga and Ravana are worshiped by the fishermen community there. There are ravana temples at Bisrakh, Uttar Pradesh ,Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh ,Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh ,Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh ,Murudeshwara Temple, Karnataka,and Mandor, Rajasthan etc.Since Ravana was one of the most learned scholars to have ever lived, Rama himself asked his brother Lakshmana to sit beside the dying Ravana and learn from him important lessons in statecraft and diplomacy.On his deathbed Ravana taught Politics lessons to Laxamana and shared experiences from his own life.He guided him to have always good relations with charioteer[What happend to Karuna in Mahabharadha], cook, gatekeeper and his brothers[What happened to himself,by his own younger brother Vibhishana] , because those are the persons who can harm you most.
[By Kandiah Thillaivinayagalingam]It's an old Tamil ethnic cleansing Mullaivaikal
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