Good and the Bad

We are always quick to jump to conclusions. As a child we ask thousands of questions. We refuse to accept even the obvious things. For example, I have seen children ask, "Why do you say earth is round when it is flat to my eyes?", " Moon looks bright and lovely and you tell me it is full of potholes, silly?","Why should I not wear a black dress to a wedding?", "Is there a god? But then where is he?"

As we grow older, we lose our ability to analyse and question the conventional wisdom. It is as if we are taking the easier way out by agreeing with the norm and are afraid to question the majority. This leads to us not developing reasoning and critical analysis skills that is so essential to succeed professionally.

I shall give an example. Let me start with a rider that I am not one of those atheist guys but quite religious and follow the sanatana dharma. Still, that has not prevented me from looking at some of the quirks in my religion.

We all accept Srirama as the 'Uttama Purusha' or the 'Ideal Man'. But I do have serious questions on this.

Was Rama right in honouring his fathers old pledge redeemed unfairly by his step mother and agreeing to forgo his right to be crowned prince when the whole country was demanding it. What about his duty to the people of his kingdom? He was by and far the most suitable to be crowned the prince of the four brothers. Was he not abdicating his duty to his people which should have come ahead of his duty to his father?

Rama's killing of Bali while he was fighting with Sugreeva (Rama was hidden behind a tree and used bow and arrow surreptitiously while Bali and Sugreeva were locked in a hand to hand combat) was totally reprehensible. Bali was in fact a wise king and highly respected. He was by no means a threat to anyone other than his brother. An eternal black mark in Rama's character.

Rama's treatment of Sita after his return to Ayodhya (based on a silly rumour by one of his people) also does not put him in proper light. To ask Lakshman to take Sita and excommunicate her while she was pregnant reeks of insensitivity.

Now, Now don't jump at me giving weird divine explanations for all these. All I am saying is that there are serious glitches in his life for us to say he is an uttama purusha. It is quite possible that the story has been changed over a period of time and these could be additions. It is known to have happened in almost all the mythologies. They have been mutilated as generations passed by when the stories are passed down orally and every orator using his imagination to embellish (or distort) the story as he deemed fit.

Now to continue my argument that we jump into conclusions quickly, let us take a look at the much hated Ravana. If Rama is considered to be the epitome of goodness, Ravana is the evil incarnate.

Ravana is reviled because he kidnapped Sita. He made a mistake there that has to be condemned outright. But then what about his behaviour after he took her to Lanka. He treated her with respect, never even touched her and wanted her consent before doing so. Evil? I don't think so.

Not many know that Ravana was a great Shiva devotee and he was also quick to learn from his mistakes. He once thought he was extremely strong, went to mount kailasa and lifted it. When Lord Shiva became aware of it, he gently pressed his leg from atop the mountain which ensured that Ravana's hands were crushed under the mountain. Ravana learned his lesson and was humility personified.

Similarly, when he heard about the immense strength of Bali, he went to take him head on, only to be beaten hollow by Bali who casually bound him using his tail and went about his business of praying. A humbled Ravana acknowledged Bali's prowess and made peace with him immediately.

When his brother Vibhishana disagreed with him on the war with Rama, Ravana instead of imprisoning his or punishing him, allowed him to cross over to the other side. That Rama accepted Vibhishana (who could be jailed for treason for siding with the enemy during a war) and used his knowledge of Lanka and its warriors to win the war is another instance that shows the uttama purusha in poor light.

I have utmost respect for the fine qualities of Rama. He was THE ideal man in all aspects barring a few. But spare a thought for Ravana. He is not as bad as he is made out to be. We need to take all the good qualities of Ravana and avoid the flaws in Rama's character.

It is the same in ones work place.We tend to demonise certain people not bothering to understand the good qualities in them while we tend to overlook the negative qualities in some who are acceptable to us because they are nice.