Vipul Agarwal, Delhi, 19 February 2025
There is a very famous proverb in Hindi “घर का भेदी लंका ढाए”. This proverb has its genesis in Ramayana. When Rama attacked Lanka, Vibhishana tried to convince Ravana that he should return Sita to Rama. But Ravana was very arrogant and did not listen to Vibhishana. Ravana’s level of awareness was quite low. His “ego” made him very limited.
Vibhishana had a far wider awareness and knew that Rama was the incarnation of Lord Vishnu and when he realised that Ravana had closed his ears to the truth, he decided to leave him. He revealed the secret of the manner in which Ravana could be made to face death to Rama. Thereafter, Rama killed Ravana and made Vibhishana the king of Lanka.
Thus, it was not that Lanka was destroyed by Vibhishana. The reality was that the people of Lanka also shared Ravana’s ignorance. Had most people objected to what Ravana was doing, Ravana probably would not have become so arrogant. Each and every person living in Lanka was responsible for the deterioration of Lanka. Vibhishana was aware and an aware soul, when caught among ignorant people, would naturally try to make the ignorant aware. But if the frog inside the well refuses to come out of the well, the frog from the ocean has no responsibility to remain inside the well. He will just move away from the well. Rama did not destroy Lanka but merely opened the windows that were keeping light away from Lanka.
The people who blame Vibhishana for destroying Lanka are fixated on Lanka. Till the time we remain fixated on Lanka, we can’t understand and appreciate the “Leela of the Divine”. In the “field”, millions of stars are getting destroyed and millions of new stars are getting formed every moment. Also, at the quantum level, trillions of sub-atomic particles are getting formed and destroyed every moment. Do we blame nature for such destruction? How can new creation take place without the destruction of the existing? How can birth take place without death?
As Buddha said, “the root cause of all sorrows lies in our fixation on a particular possibility of creation.” People get fixated on their wealth and suffer when they face loss of wealth. We get fixated on people and suffer when people leave us. We get fixated on positions and suffer when there is a threat to those positions. We get fixated on food and suffer when we are not able to get the food of our choice. This cycle keeps going on. We get fixated on one thing, leave that, and get fixated on another.
Kids can also get fixated on 2nd standard and refuse to grow. They grow because the entire society makes them believe that they need to study hard and move to the next standard.
Unfortunately, society has no plans for growth beyond family and marriage and that is the reason why the journey after marriage and kids is so lonely. The entire society discourages that. The ones who work hard in the organizations are considered donkeys and the ones who steal away the entire credit without work are considered to be smart. All “smart” people put together make this entire Earth a very dumb place to live. Some societies have evolved to appreciate growth beyond marriage and kids. But they too have chosen a different possibility and got fixated on that. Earth will be the most beautiful place for exploration when all human beings are allowed to explore infinite possibilities without any judgment. No possibility is “good” or “bad”, “better” or “worse”. That can not happen till the time we are slaves of darkness and resist the light and consider the “torch bearers” to be our enemies and do not treat them well. We choose our miseries by choosing the “dark temptations” over “divine inspirations”.
