“No one is good or bad, everyone has both sides in them… it depends on which side we choose to see…”
~ T. S. Guru
With the buzz of Ramayan still around, a question came up in my mind. Was Ravana really a bad guy? I mean, we have always heard bad things about the king of Lanka, but was he really the bad guy we think him to be? I don’t think so.
Son of the great sage Vishrava and the grandson of sage Pulatsya (one of the 10 prajapatis and one of the saptarishis) was Ravana, the king of Lanka. But unlike, Ananya Panday, jhanvi Kapoor, Varun Dhawan or Rahul Gandhi, Ravana was a real deal. He was a great scholar of the Vedas. He had learnt the Science of Politics from Shukracharya. Even, Rama himself called him a “Maha Brahman”. He even wrote books, the Ravana Samhita (on astrology) and Arka Praksham (on Siddha medicine) which were really helpful for the astrologers and the doctors. Apart from this he was a maestro of the Veena. Even today, there is a variant known as Ravanhatha.
Talking of music, the Shiv Tandav Strota, the most used Sanskrit composition in Bollywood, was written, composed and sung originally by Ravana himself. That too, it wasn’t created in some air conditioned studio of Dharma Productions. Legend says that when Lord shiva crushed Ravana's hands under Mt. Kailash, then in order to praise him, he composed it on the spot. Well, he obviously should be praised for this.
Apart from his knowledge, he was a great ruler too. I mean, Lanka was the city of gold, its GDP would be way higher than any other kingdom on the map. The residents too were quite happy, except when Hanuman ended up burning the whole city. I personally don’t understand the point, if the ruler insults you why do you need to blaze the whole city, those innocents have not done any harm to you. Never mind, Lanka was technologically way ahead of its contemporaries.
Ravana was The Family Man. He won’t banish his wife to live in the jungle ever. He would in turn behead the guy who questioned her character. And in a way that’s good, because people will raise questions forever. You can’t make everyone happy, so why not just ensure that the ones you love the most stay happy and ignore the others.
Maybe Rama has a character that everyone desires for, but its a pretty Utopian thing. In the contemporary world if you really wish to find peace and happiness then you need to have a character like Ravana (just a bit less egoistic). This is just a point of view, you can choose to agree or differ.
P.S. - Bhaavuk na hon ise padh ke…. Lol