Pattanaik, Devdutt;
The Book of Ram
Penguin Group, 2009, 215 page
ISBN 0143065289, 9780143065289
topics: | myth | hindu | ramayana
Ramayana: Bharat is to become king - but why does Rama need to go to the forest? In the Mahabharata, the rAmopakhyan by rishi markandeya tells how Brahma directed a Gandharvi to descend to earth as Manthara to ensure that Rama is forced to go to the forest and rid the world of Ravana. 27 Thus it was all destiny. Destiny and desire, karma and kama, are the two forces that propel the world. Destiny is a reaction, an obligation that follows an action. Desire is an aspiration that forces the world to transform in a particular way. We have the freedom to accept life as it is or to make it the way we want it to be. That is what makes us Manavas or humans. 31 [Elsewhere, Devdutt points to the power of desire - as in the tale of Savitri: Typically, Indians are considered a fatalistic people. We believe in karma, that life is pre-determined. And yet, we find the following story in the vana parva of the Mahabharata, narrated by the sage Markandeya to the Pandavas. Once upon a time, there was a princess called Savitri, who was the only child of her father. She fell in love with Satyavan, a prince whose father had been driven out of his kingdom by his enemies, and so lived in abject poverty in the forest. Her father opposed this marriage not only because Satyavan was poor but also because he was destined to die within a year of marriage. Savitri followed her heart nevertheless. A year of happy married life followed. A year later, at the appointed hour, Yama, the god of death, hurled his noose and took Satyavan's life out of his body. Savitri followed him. "Go back and cremate his body," he advised her. She refused to do so and kept following Yama into the land of the dead. Exasperated, he offered her three boons so that she would go away, "Anything except the life of your husband." Savitri first asked that her father-in-law regain his kingship. Then she asked her father get a son and heir. And finally she asked that she be the mother of Satyavan's sons. "So be it," said Yama and continued on his journey to the land of the dead. After some time he noticed that Savitri was still following him. "You gave me your word that you would return to the land of the living," he said. "You give me no choice. You said I would be the mother of Satyavan's children. How can a dead body make me a mother? I must therefore follow Satyavan's soul into the land of the dead." Yama realized he had been outwitted. As custodian of the laws of karma, his boons had to be realized. The only way for Savitri to bear Satyavan's children was to make Satyavan's alive again. And so it happened. in a fatalistic society, such stories [and the rituals, e.g. of karva chauth] should not exist. Whatever will happen will happen so why pray and perform rituals. Clearly, it means people believe it is possible to change fate by intense will and by the grace of God. Long ago, Yagnavalkya, the greatest sage of the Upanishadic era, was asked, "Is the world governed by fate or free will?" He replied, "Both. They are like the two wheels on either side of the chariot. If you depend on one too much you go around in circles." [Yama is the god of fate.] Before Yama, one is helpless. With Kama, one is hopeful. ancient indian board games: Snakes and ladders: destiny Pachisi : mixture of luck and skill. Another variant of this game was Ganjifa which evolved into the modern game of Playing Cards. The first throw of the cards depended on fate/luck while the way the cards were used in the course of the game depended on skill/free will. Pachisi evolved into Chaturanga (which had four different types of coins, namely the horse, the chariot, the elephant, the foot soldier) which then traveled to Arabia and then Europe and became known as Chess. During this evolution and migration, the dice was abandoned. Now, chess is purely a game of skill. Of mathematics. Of free will. ] Destiny: long ago, Dasarath on a hunt shot off an arrow hearing a sound, and killed Shravan Kumar, only son of blind parents. They cursed him that he would die of grief for his son. Later, he accepts his fate as Rama leaves. Desire: when Dasarath does not accept his childlessness and marries three wives and also performs the yajna to have children When Dasharatha is helping the gods in a battle with the asuras, his axle suddenly breaks. At that point, Kaikeyi was accompanying him - and she puts her hand into the axle so the chariot can be driven away. This is why he offers her two boons. Dasarath's first child, from Kaushalya, is Shanta, daughter, not Rama. She is married to ekashringa. tapa: heat generated through celibacy and other forms of sensory withdrawal. tapasya: