SEVEN SINS REFERRED TO IN THE RAMAYANA The author of this series of posts Jairam Mohan has a day job where he pores over Excel spreadsheets and Powerpoint presentations. He however believes that his true calling is in writing and as a result his blog http://mahabore.wordpress.com gets regularly updated. Between him and his wife they manage the blog and a naughty two year old daughter. All images used in this document are the courtesy of Google Images search using relevant keywords. No copyrights are owned by the author for these images. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright : Jairam Mohan (http://mahabore.wordpress.com) Kumbhakarna’s sloth Please note that there are various versions of this great epic and therefore my post might contradict with what you have heard or read of this particular incident in the Ramayana. This is only an attempt to map the seven deadly sins to incidents or behavior of particular characters in the Ramayana in a given situation and I have taken liberties with my own interpretations of the same. No offense is meant to any version of this wonderful epic. ============= One version of the story has it that when Ravana, Vibhishana and Kumbhakarna were youngsters, they once prayed to Lord Brahma for his blessings. They were so sure that the Lord would be pleased with their penance and devotion that they had already decided what boon they were going to ask from him. Kumbhakarna was going to ask Lord Brahma for complete dominion over the heavens. Indra, the King of the heavens knew about this wish and he therefore decided to intervene. He approached Saraswati, the Goddess of Learning, and requested her – “You have to help me, please make him make a mistake when he asks for his wish” to which Saraswati agreed. Pleased by their penance, when the Lord appeared before them and granted them a wish each, Indra was aware that Kumbhakarna was going to wish for complete dominion over heaven. And due to Saraswati’s intervention instead of asking for “Indra asana” (Indra’s throne) he asked the Lord for “Nidra asana” (sleeping posture) which was immediately granted to him. But Ravana immediately realized his brother’s mistake and requested the Lord to undo this boon as in reality it was a curse. Lord Brahma relented to Ravana’s entreaties and therefore modified the boon’s condition so that Kumbhakarna would sleep for six months at a time, be awake for one day and then go back to sleep for six months. This boon by itself was not such a bad thing for Kumbhakarna, but its effects were felt by his brother Ravana during the pivotal war with Rama. Kumbhakarna was a rakshasa who was --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright : Jairam Mohan (http://mahabore.wordpress.com) well renowned for his prowess in warfare as well as for his intelligence, bravery and complete loyalty to Ravana. During the war with Rama, when Ravana and his army were routed and humiliated by Rama and his armies, it was at this time that Kumbhakarna was sorely missed by Ravana and his armies. In fact, the effect of the humiliation was so demoralizing that Ravana had no other choice but to try and wake Kumbhakarna up before his six month sleep term was over. Given that this was Lord Brahma’s wish that they were undoing, the consequences of the same were never bound to be anything good, but Ravana had no choice. If he did not bring his best warrior on to the battlefield fighting by his armies’ side, Rama’s rag tag army of monkeys and bears would soon overcome his mighty forces. Simply the presence of Kumbhakarna would enthuse his armies so that they would get a second wind and fight Rama’s armies with more vigor. Thus, the one sin of sloth ended up in Ravana having to go against the wishes of Lord Brahma, the consequences of which shall be discussed in another post detailing Kumbhakarna’s gluttony. ============= --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright : Jairam Mohan (http://mahabore.wordpress.com) Surpanakha’s lust for Rama One version of the story has it that Surpanakha was married to an asura called Dusthabuddhi who enjoyed great favor with Ravana. However, when he started scheming for more power than he presently had, he was executed at the behest of Ravana which led to Surpanakha being extremely displeased with her brother. The widowed Surpanakha spent most of her time between southern India and Lanka visiting her other asura relatives. During one such visit, she happened to come across Rama and was immediately smitten by his looks. After all, Rama was the embodiment of manly virtues such as broad shoulders, a lean frame, a dusky complexion and also displayed all the requisite traits that any devoted husband should, which Surpanakha observed by spying on Rama, Sita and Lakshmana when they were in exile in the forest. As the days went by Surpanakha’s obsession with Rama turned into an uncontrollable lust for him and this manifested itself in the form of her approaching Rama and proposing marriage to him despite knowing the fact that he was already happily married. When Rama spurned her advances, she approached Lakshmana with the same offer. Given the fact that she had observed Lakshmana along with Rama all these days, her reasoning was that he was second best only to Rama and that if Rama did not agree to be her husband, then Lakshmana would have to do. This was a grotesque and unnatural --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright : Jairam Mohan (http://mahabore.wordpress.com) manifestation of her lust for a human husband with all the good virtues that a husband should have. Lakshmana however, was not as kind as Rama in rejecting Surpanakha. While rejecting her, he even went ahead and told her that she did not have any of the qualities that he desired for in a wife, and even went so far to say that no sane man would want a wife such as her. This enraged Surpanakha who came to the conclusion that both the brothers were making fun of her. Provoked by this, she tried to attack Sita which enraged Lakshmana who cut off her nose and sent her running away. Her first reaction was to approach her brother Khara and request him to extract revenge from Rama and Lakshmana for the insults they meted out to her by rejecting her and disfiguring her. When Khara and his 14,000 strong Asura army were decimated by the brothers, she then went to Ravana and extolled about the beauty and virtues of Sita and how she would make an ideal wife for Ravana. Ravana succumbed to Surpanakha’s description of Sita and put into motion a chain of events which finally culminated with his death at the hands of Rama. Thus, the one sin of lust committed by Surpanakha ended up with the mighty Ravana setting off on the path of sure destruction. ========= --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright : Jairam Mohan (http://mahabore.wordpress.com) Vali’s greed Vali, the vanara was a good and pious king to all his subjects in Kishkinta. Right from a very young age, he had proven himself through his various valorous exploits. On one occasion a demon called Mayavi had attacked Kishkinta and Vali was engaged in a bloody combat with him. The fight took them inside a cave at the entrance of which his younger brother Sugriva was asked to wait. When Vali killed Mayavi, the asura’s blood came flowing out of the cave. Sugriva mistaking the same to be his brother, Vali’s blood blocked the entrance of the cave with a huge boulder to trap the asura inside. By the time Vali found an alternate route out of the cave and returned to Kishkinta, he saw that Sugriva had crowned himself king and was ruling the Vanaras. An enraged Vali then confronted Sugriva, who tried to explain the situation to him. However, Vali would not listen to him and banished him from the kingdom and as to add further insult to Sugriva, he also claimed Sugriva’s wife Ruma as his own, which resulted in the brothers becoming bitter enemies. Sugriva then went to Rishyamukha, the only place where Vali would be unable to attack him and cause him any harm, as Vali could not lay foot in this place due to an earlier transgression with a holy man. Sugriva however nursed extremely vengeful feelings against his older brother for having claimed his wife and was waiting for the opportune moment to extract revenge. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright : Jairam Mohan (http://mahabore.wordpress.com) Fate presented itself in the form of Rama who was searching for Sita and was on the lookout for allies to form an army against the mighty Asuran army of Ravana. On narrating his story to Rama and the injustice meted out by Vali, Rama agrees to side with Sugriva and fight with Vali to kill him as a retribution for usurping Ruma. In the battle that ensued between Sugriva and Vali, Rama slayed Vali by deceit and fulfilled his promise to Sugriva. The justification that Rama gave for his act was that Vali had wronged by claiming Sugriva’s wife Ruma as his own and death was the most appropriate punishment for this greedy act of his. =========== Kumbhakarna’s gluttony Read my earlier post about Kumbhakarna’s sloth to get a background of why Kumbhakarna had to continuously sleep for a six month period. As per the modified terms of the boon, Kumbhakarna was supposed to sleep for six months and then wake up for one day to satiate his hunger. So far the day the he woke up was the day all the servants and cooks in his palace dreaded as this was the day that he would eat almost anything and everything that was prepared in the palace.