| Values for Life: The lesson we learn from Vibhishan and Trijada is that good people can be traced even among the worst tribes. |
In The Tempest, the great dramatist William Shakespeare declares through Miranda, one of his characters: “Good wombs may deliver bad sons also” . However, the opposite of this statement can also apply. Kaikasy was a lady of over lust and hence she delivered three cruel characters: Ravan, Kumbhakarn and Surpanakh. But she also delivered Vibhishan, a noble son. Trijada, being Vibhishan’s daughter, inherited certain good qualities from him. Despite of being the servant of Ravan and belonging to his notorious clan, she stood for justice and Dharma . Even when she was deployed as a guard by Ravan, to watch Sita , she understood dharma well and stood behind Sita. While all other Rakshasis tried to hurt, humiliate and torture Sita ,Trijada always gave her courage and with soothing words of hope tried to console her.
When the monkeys came in search of the yajna site, just before Ravan’s final war with Sri Ram, it was Trijada who directed the monkeys to the exact spot. Had she diverted them to a different or opposite direction, the monkeys would have got delayed and Ravan’s yajna would have got completed. Her empathy and compassion helped Sita a lot in her courage to survive.
Vibhishan’s Coronation
“Lakshman,” said Sri Ram, “Coronate Vibhishan as the king of Lanka that we have conquered in a befitting manner.”Taking the orders from Sri Ram, all the vanars and the remaining rakshasas reached Lanka’s capital. They repaired the buildings and bungalows, painted them, and decorated the streets in no time. Then they invited Pundits under whose instructions the coronation ceremony was done according to shastras. Sri Ram saw Sugreev standing in front of him with folded hands. He told the Vanar king: “We got back whatever we wished. I could exterminate Ravan and his group just because of your help. Now coronation of Vibhishan as king of Lanka is over.” Look at the contrast in character, behaviour and attitude of two brothers—Ravan and Vibhishan. The former wanted to be immortal, conquer every thing, and bring everybody under his command. He was selfish to the extreme. He wanted to grab anything, whatsoever that attract him. Vibhishan was just the opposite of him in thoughts, psyche, words and actions.
After successful completion of his Tapa, penance, when Lord Brahma appeared before him and asked him to ask for any boon, his demand was: “Lord, my mind should not deter from Dharma. I should always be an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu. Nothing else.” There has been a controversy against his decision to join Sri Ram. Scholars ask why he selected such a time to join Sri Ram. The answer is that he had been opposing his brother Ravan in stealing Sita away and had been arguing with him to return her to Ram. Ravan unfortunately did not gave heed. When Ram and the vanar army reached Trikoota Hills any one could guess that Ravan’s end had come. When Maruti visited Lanka and did all kinds of havoc, Vibhishan counseled Ravan about the inevitability and the sealed fate of Ravan. However Ravan did not gave heed to his advice. Finally when Ravan ventured to cut Vibhishan off, he ran away seeking shelter under Sri Ram, who, he believed is the incarnation of his God. It was Vibhishan only who argued against killing of the messenger, Hanuman. Vibhishan’s help to Ram was immense. He introduced the Rakshas heroes to him. He explained about their might and clouts individually. He also advised Sri Ram of their weaknesses.
When Meghanada produced the artificial Sita and cut her head off, he made the Vanars ranks alert and told them that it was his black magic to gain time. On another occasion when Ravan went for yajna to please all the gods and to emerge irresistible, it was again Vibhishan who gave them all the information about Ravan and his Raksha heroes. With his virtue and devotion to God, he became a Chiranjivi, an immortal soul.
–KK Shanmukhan ( To be concluded )
(August 9, 2015, Page 48)
