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 The role of fate-16
Men heap together the mistakes of their lives and create a monster they call destiny. -John Oliver Hobbes (1867-1906), Journalist, playwright
XVII. Linked fates & redemption - Ravana & Sita
In the Hindu religious beliefs, besides gods and human beings, there are also other beings belonging to the yaksha, gandharva, and asura classes. Other than the gods, everybody else commit mistakes and crimes of various grades and accordingly they get punished for such misdeeds. The yakshas get cursed to be born as demons to be redeemed later through divine miracles. Some of the asuras, on the other hand, do penance of the highest rigor and attain boons from the gods that make them invincible. They use this new power to taunt and torture even the celestials. Ultimately, it is always Vishnu who takes incarnations to rid the world of these evil creatures. But before they are annihilated such demons are allowed to amass their bad karma. The incarnations of Vishnu bear testimony to such episodes.
 In Ramayanam we see one such demon, Ravana. He prayed to Lord Shiva and accumulated enormous powers which he used to terrorise everybody including the celestials. He even secured boons designed to protect him against defeat or death by celestials, gods or other demons. Vishnu incarnated as Rama, a human being, to annihilate him. It was Ravana’s fate that he did not seek protection against a human being. He was also given a chance to flout all norms of morality before he was killed. Let us look at the events that led to Ravana’s end.
At the same time when Dasharatha was performing his yagna seeking a male offspring, the celestials who were to receive their share of the offerings approached Brahma and sought his help to escape from the oppression by Ravana. Brahma, recognising that Ravana did not seek immunity from human enemies, offered a solution that he could be slain by a man. Vishnu volunteered to take birth as Rama with his other identities as the other three sons of king Dasharatha. The celestials also created a monkey brigade (to inhabit Kishkindha) to be the helpers of Rama in the eventual war against Lanka and Ravana. The “intelligent design” divine plan was hatched and Ravana’s fate got sealed.
 To carry out the dictates of Kaikeyi and Dasharatha Rama proceeded to the Dandaka forest and in due course arrived at Panchavati. Ravana’s sister Surpanaka fell in love with Rama and when her advances were repulsed, while suffering physical wounding by Lakshmana, she decided to take revenge and went to Ravana and told him about the beauty of Sita and that he should take her by force and keep her in his palace. Despite knowing the power of Rama who killed his brother Karan and the incompatibility of his status achieved through penance with the base act of desiring another person’s wife, Ravana’s lust for Sita forced him to seek devious means to abduct Sita. He sought the help of his uncle Mareecha. Mareecha was cognizant of the eventual destruction of Lanka and Ravana by Rama and that Sita was just the medium by which it would take place. However, due to persistent request from Ravana he agreed to help him. He was one more pawn in the game. He took the form of a golden deer and enticed Sita. Sita, as fate dictated, was attracted by the beauty of the deer and asked Rama to get it for her. Against Lakshmana’s advice that it is a trap, Rama went after the deer. After he killed the deer, Mareecha made the fatal cry in the voice of Rama. Fate was tightening the noose. Sita forced Lakshmana to go and help Rama despite Lakshmana’s warning that it was a ruse of the demons. So Lakshmana went to find Rama leaving Sita alone unable to stand Sita’s upbraiding with bitter words. We do see the sequential steps in fate’s journey.
 Ravana was waiting in the wings. He assumed the form of a sage and approached the hut where Sita was housed, seeking alms. His attempts to win over Sita using his wealth and fame failed miserably at which time he took his real demonic shape and carried her away in his aerial car. Sita’s fate got locked into Ravana’s fate and the inevitable happened. Even the mighty Jatayu could not prevent the abduction. Ravana carried Sita to Lanka and deposited her in the Asoka forest with the conviction that he could have her through coercive means in due course. If Sita had not insisted that Rama go after the golden deer and forced Lakshmana to go after Rama when she wrongly sensed danger to his life, the abduction would not have happened. But such a scenario was in the divine plan and hence the inevitable occurred.
 Rama was distraught at the loss of Sita. He and Lakshmana wandered through the forests and finally sought the help of Sugriva and his monkey brigade (doesn’t this sound familiar to us from the “intelligent design” plan?) to find Sita in exchange for killing Sugriva’s older brother Vali. While Rama was not aware of how the search will end, we know the plan was getting executed in all its details and in accordance with Ravana’s fate. Ravana kept Sita incarcerated and was using all the power at his disposal to convert Sita mentally to accept him. While he brought Sita to Lanka by force, he could not take her against her will as a result of a curse issued by a celestial dame.
The celestial dame, Vedavati, once inflicted a curse on him that if he were to force another woman against her will his head should break into a hundred pieces. Ravana’s strategy lay in defeating and killing Rama which, he thought, would pave the way to attain Sita. He was also confidant of his own power and that of his brother Kumbakarna, sons and generals to ensure his victory.
When Rama and his monkey brigade amassed on the shores of Lanka ready to attack the fort, he wanted to give one last chance for Ravana to surrender and seek peace with him. He sent Angadha to Ravana’s court on a peace mission. If that effort succeeded, then the incarnation would have been in vain. Fate made sure that Ravana declined the peace overture. We see a parallel here to Mahabharatham when Krishna was sent as an emissary to seek peace with Duryodhana. That mission also ended in failure, in accordance with fate. After withstanding the various setbacks in the war, Rama finally killed Ravana with help from various quarters, including that from divine sources.
As stated at the beginning, in the Hindu mythology divine providence plays a mediating role in ascribing the effects of karma to the appropriate individuals and making sure the effects of karma are realised. In the case of Ravana, his karma continued to accumulate the burden on him leading to his abduction of Sita. That abduction was the culminating event in the divine plan to target his annihilation. One could call it divine contrivance or the work of fate. As you like it!
Sethuraman Subramanian
(Concluded)
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