Week 4 Storytelling: Brahma gives Ravana his boon

One day Ravana, Kumbhakarna, and Vibhishana are hanging out with their parents, Vishrava and Kaikesi. Kaikesi asks Vishrava, “ Should I tell them the great news or do you want to?” 

Vishrava replies, “ Maybe I should. So, kids, your stepbrother, Vaishravana, the treasure lord, is going to be visiting us and he should be here pretty soon. So be nice and try to learn things from him. He is really successful and has always been a great son. You kids should probably follow in his footsteps and use him as a mentor. He would be really happy to help you guys if you guys ask him for his help.”

Their brother, Vaishravana, finally arrives and introduces himself to the rest of the family, since it is his first time meeting Kaikesi and his three brothers. Ravana is speechless at the first impression of his older stepbrother. He thought that his dad was just more proud of his older stepbrother, but he actually is impressive. Their stepbrother had managed to achieve the treasures of the gods. Ravana and his brothers all are jealous of all the treasure and Ravana tries to figure out a possible way of becoming like him. Vibhishana recommends, “ How about we pray to Brahma? I have heard he always grants his devotees' wishes. It never hurts to try. What is the worst that could possibly happen? Brahma won’t come down and help us achieve what we are after.”

So the next day, they go to the forest and sit down to pray. They start their prayer and won’t stop for anything because they are all determined to achieve their goals. Ravana is just looking for protection; Vibhishana never wants to be able to forget Dharma; Kumbkarana thinks it is useless to be awake so he wants to sleep for six months for every day he is awake. After about a thousand years, Ravana gets impatient and breaks his prayer and asks his brothers, “What are we doing? This is useless. We are never going to achieve our goal this way.”

 Vibhishana replies, “ Don’t be immature and question the power of prayers. You are just being impatient and we should just continue.” 

Ravana, angrily, replies, “Okay, only because you say so, but I will give Brahma ten chances, just like he gave me ten heads, and every thousand years I will cut off one head.”

So they continue and like Ravana had said they take a break every thousand years and Ravana cuts off one of his heads. When he is only left with one head, he turns to his brother, Vibhishana, and says, “See, I told you. Brahma wouldn’t come to save me, even if we spent all this time praying.” As he finishes the statement, Brahma arrives.

Ravana said, “ What are you here for?” 

Brahma replies, “ Well, you guys do deserve some gift from me. Tell me what can I give you.” 

Ravana asks, “ First, tell me why it took so long?” 

Brahma replies, “ Well, I wanted to see how devoted you were to me and getting your goals fulfilled. So, what would you like?” 

Ravana asks for protection from the gods and the underworld demons. Vibhishana asks to always remember Dharma. Kumbhakarna asks to sleep for six months for every day he is awake.

  

Brahma, the god of creation. Source: Wikimedia commons.

Bibliography

Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way.

Author’s Note

In this story, I chose to increase the amount of dialogue and detail because the amount of dialogue and detail was briefly in the original story and I feel like there is more involved in the story than actually mentioned in the Ramayana by Buck. I didn’t change much from the original story. I just made some inferences about what was going on in their heads at the time. I also included some characteristics about the brothers as I thought Buck would think of Ravana's ego, Vibhishana's innocence, and Kumbkarana's laziness. In my story, I chose the brothers to be more understanding about the power of prayers and how to achieve their goals by manipulation. I picked this story because I wanted to show that Ravana had to work really hard for his boon, and this same boon was the his doom. This would be a great children’s story because children tend to be impressionable and tend to judge people based on where they come from, their skin color, etc.; Vibhishana even though he was Ravana's brother still is a great role-model for children, asking to always remember Dharma. Even though Ravana got greedy and power-hungry, Ravana deserved the boon he received from Brahma because he worked hard for it (also a great message for children 'they can achieve whatever they want if they work hard for it'). Even though he is a bit greedy for his wish, he might not have been seen as such an evil person throughout this book if he managed to work with the gods and treat them with respect. A perfect example of the exact opposite of Ravana is Vishvaravana. He obtained a boon and didn't get greedy and lived happily with the god's treasure.