Serial on Ravana

Few days ago I saw on episode on a new serial on Ravana.

First time perhaps it showed the “other side of the story” we have always been looking at the character as the epitome of the badness. No doubt he serves as a fine example of greatly personality spoiled by ego.

But this serial makes you think.
In fact all many of the bad boys in the history if we take a relook at, we generally find positives a lot. It is generally one or two bad acts or characteristics that end up in putting them up in the bad rankings.

I had same feelings when I read the Mein Kampf.
Take example of Karna also. An otherwise perfect personality was portrayed badly just because he did not betray his friend. If he had done then he would also have been portrayed as a good boy.

And the basic fact that history is always written by the victors who would obviously try
to glorify themselves. This is not to glorify Ravana, but is it not wrong to ignore completely the good traits of Ravana as well as mistakes of Ram?

What if Ravana had won in the war? One more thing is that all the right wrong opinions are relative.

Ravana was a great devotee of lord Shiva. Ravana is known to be a great Brahmin and composer of Shiva Tandava Stotra. He was also a master of Veda’s.
Even though he won Lanka from Kubera, he was a just king and as the name “Golden” implies Lanka flourished under his rule.

If we look at some basic facts from Ramayana, Ravana did not abduct Seeta out of lust or something. He did so as a revenge for the treatment Lakshmana gave to his sister shurpanakha. Certainly, cutting someone’s nose and ears just because she expressed her love was not a just act.

Moreover he kept Seeta perfectly safe in his Ashokvan. If we wanted he could have done whatever he wanted with Seeta, what if he had cut nose of seta and sent her back? But he did not do so.

On the other hand, Rama did kill Vaali hiding behind a rock. No rules applied to Ram and he could justify it because he was victor.

I always like to compare the behaviors of Vibhishana on one hand and Karma, Bhishama and Dronnacharya. They stuck to their duties and loyalties in the face of adversity. On the other hand Vibhishana left Ravana and joined Rama.

Karna was perfect in this regard. He fought against his own brothers but did not betray his friend.