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.

Week 4: Reading Diary B

One day when Bharatha is at his grandfather's Dashratha decides that it is time for his successor to takeover, in this case Rama. He starts by setting up the crowning ceremony and telling everyone. When Kaikeyi hears this, she is really happy, but then gets convinced that this is the worst decision for her by Manthara. She reminds Kaikeyi about the two pending gifts that Dashratha owes her. She tells her that Kaikeyi should ask Dashratha to crown Bharatha as king and ask Rama to go on an exile for 14 years.

Rama, without questioning his father, started to get ready to leave for the forest. Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita set off to leave for the forest without their possessions, but had to stop because the elders of the village had caused the river to rise up and block their roads. The next day as they set out for the forest, they were greeted by Gahu, who tells them his story.

Gahu had been upset with Lord Shiva and got angry with his priest as well. He got up everyday and kicked Shiva's statue in anger. When he died, Shiva himself came to get him before Yama got to him. Shiva said that Gahu had been his biggest devotee, getting up everyday and remembering Shiva. Once they hear Gahu's stories, they end up heading south and send Sumantra back to Ayodhya. As he gets beck to Ayodhya, he reports to King Dashratha in his death bed. At this time, King Dashratha remembers the time about the Kid he killed and his blind parents and understands the true meaning behind this incident. The next day the people of Ayodhya wake up to see that their king had passed away.

Week 4: Reading Diary A

The story starts off with Narada asking Valmiki to get up and help him Sita needs help. She is about to drown herself, since Rama exiled her due to what people were saying about her. Narada tells him to rescue her and teach the Ramayana to Rama's two unborn sons, who are still in Sita's womb. Valmiki following Narada's instruction teaches the original Ramayana in the poem form to Kusha and Lava, Rama's two sons. Rama organizes a festival in the forest and Kusha and Lava happen to here about it. So, they decide to perform the poem they have learned from Valmiki there.

King Dashratha asks the priest, Vasishtha, what he can do about not being blessed with children. He advises the king to have a religious sacrifice. At this same time, Indra mad because of his defeat to Ravana goes and complains to Brahma, who granted Ravana's boon of protection from gods and underworld demons. Brahma says he has no answers and Indra should go to talk to Narayana or Vishnu. Vishnu tells Indra not to worry and that he will answer Dashratha's sacrifice and also help Indra by incarnating as Dashratha's sons and defeating Ravana. With the sacrifice being completed, Dashratha becomes the proud father of Rama, Bharatha, Lakshmana, and Shataruga.

One day Vishwamitra comes by and asks Dashratha for a favor. He tells him that he is going to be needing assistance because some demons and rakshasas had been disrupting his prayers in the forest. One question that immediately came to King Dasharatha's mind is how did these Rakshasas come about? So Vishwamitra tells Dashratha the story of how Brahma created the Rakshasas and Yakshasas to guard the water. Eventually there becomes too many rakshasas, and they start to get themselves in trouble and flee underground due to Narayana's attack on them.

A sage named Pulastya impregnated the daughter of hermit Trinavindu due to a curse he had placed. Their son is named Vishvarava, who then has a son named Vishvaravana, who becomes the carrier of treasure through great meditation and praying to the lords. Sumali sees this as Vishvaravana is going to Lanka and becomes jealous and tells his daughter to go to Vishvaravas and create kids like these. She follows her father's order and creates Ravana, Kumbhakarna, Vibhishana, and Surpanakha. Ravana sees Vishvaravana and becomes jealous and prays in hope to become like him. Every thousand years, he would cut off one of his heads and sacrifice it to the gods. When he was down to the last head, Brahma came down and asked each of them what they wanted. Ravana wanted protection from the gods and demons, Vibhishana wanted to always remember Dharma, and Kumbkhakarna asked to sleep 6 months for every day awake.

Ravana knowing he couldn't be hurt starts creating problems. He angers Indra, Nandi, Shiva's bull, and one day even shakes the mountain where Shiva is residing. Shiva infuriated imprisons Ravana but later forgives him for his beautiful singing. Once released Ravana creates problems amongst the humans. He challenges all the human kingdom. Out of fear, all of them surrender except King Arjuna's kingdom. When trying to fight King Arjuna, King Arjuna defeats Ravana and is only released due to the pleas of Ravana's grandfather Pulastya. Thinking about the defeat, Ravana wonders what he could do and Narada recommends he defeats the Kind of death. Ravana being powerful achieves that along with a whole bunch of other gods. During this time, Rama is born to King Dashratha and that is why Vishwamithra is there.

He asks the King to allow Vishwamithra to mentor Rama and Lashmana. The king accepts and allows them to go along with Vishwamithra. On their journey, they come across Maricha and Subahu. They defeat Subahu, but allow Maricha to escape. Continuing on their journey, Rama frees Ahalya of her curse that turned her into stone for being unfaithful to her husband with Indra. When reaching Mithila, Rama completes King Janaka's challenge of breaking Shiva bow and gets married to Sita.