राम राम रामेति रमे रामे मनोरमे
सहस्त्रनाम ततुलं राम नाम वरानने।
सहस्त्रनाम ततुलं राम नाम वरानने।
It's Dusshera time again, again it's time to rejoice victory of Good or Evil. It's time to burn effigies again. And for me it's time to have a relook at the whole scene.
Let's burn Ravan he deserved it, he was the evil personified. Let's burn Kumbhkaran also he was a glutton and did no good to his existence and deserved this fate. Buy why Meghnad?
Meghnad (मेघनाद), the name means 'The Lord of Skies'. He was one character from the epic who came close to that of Purushottam Lord Ram in every sense.
In the age when polygamy was a normal practice he had only one wife much more before Rama took the oath of monogamy and made it famous. For his father's wish to see him as an invincible warrior, just after his marriage he left his wife and went for penance and that too for twelve years isn't it similar to what Rama went on to do.
He was warrior without match, in his one to one battle with Ram and Lakshman he came out victorious twice and has conqured the mighty Hanuman also. Not only this he single handedly finished half of Sugriv's vanarsena in a single day of battle.
Another name for Meghnad was Indrajeet which literally means conquerer of Indira the king of devalok. But if you ponder over the word from view of Shrimadbhagavat Geeta it also means conquerer of senses. After all he didn't slept of 12 years and continued his tapasya.
Even after all these qualities we choose to vilify this character who was better then most. And I wouldn't have any problem with that also except for our double standards in creating heros.
There is one more mythological character from a different epic and a different era and we all love him despite the fact that he sided with adharm. I am referring to Karna. His character was so glorified in Mahabharata that if you will search present day literature after Krishna, Karna is the hero of most books even surpassing the original hero Arjun.
Further if you compare qualities of Meghnad and Karna they are same so much same as 'cut copy edit and paste'. Both of them can't be conquered if they had weapons in hand. Both of them were of very high pride and dignity. Both of them choose to fight till death despite knowing they can't win. But still kept on fighting because they knew in ideal battle conditions they can't be defeated either. And we all know how both met there end simple cold blooded (or as we say prabhu ki leela).
Now here comes our double standards to fore. The only reason Karn is glorified is because he was elder brother of Conquerers. As Meghnad has no blood relation with Ram so no matter how close there characters and personalities are we will keep on vilify Meghnad. And we talk about removing nepotism.
Ram came to vanvas because his father said so, He obeyed his father despite knowing King Dasrath was not doing the right thing. Meghnad fought the war for his father, knowing his father was wrong still he stood by his command.
Meghnad is the one who comes closest to following Rama in Ramayana. So by burning his efigy we are sending a signal O Lord Rama we will prostrate in front of you, we will shout Jai Shri Ram, but we don't have time to sit and think what Ram was all about and what was Ram's vision we don't want to know.
