Friday, October 15, 2021

The ten heads of Ravana… a retelling… of a retelling…

Today is Dassera. The day Rama destroyed Ravana in an epic battle involving monkey armies, monkey Gods, intriguing and powerful demons, and much valor and bravery. I have always loved the allegorical telling of this mythology… the victory of good over evil. Of Rama, the conqueror of all evil, the restorer of all good.

This morning, I peek into my yard and am delighted to see bountiful marigolds, yellow and orange. Nostalgic reminders of Dassera spent decades ago in India. Of my tiny fingers enthusiastically stringing marigolds garlands interspersed with mango leaves, of the bright orange and strings dotted with green, everywhere. Of books, vehicles, all “instruments” honored with marigold offerings. A bright auspicious day of new beginnings, fresh starts, of good overcoming the bad, the old, the unworthy.

Over the past years, I have seen images of Dassera wishes that depict the victory of good over evil within us. Ram is within us, as is Ravana. More allegorical mythology. I have paused, I have appreciated the thought and the retelling.

Images show a brave Rama destroying Ravana and his ten heads, often depicted as a shadow, emerging from the same place as does Rama. Rama and Ravana are intertwined, and Rama destroys Ravana and his ten heads, each of which depicts a vice within us – victory of good over evil, within ourselves.

In the past, these images have given me pause. I have appreciated them. I have aspired to awaken the Rama within, to destroy the demonic Ravana with the ten heads – each symbolizing vices that don’t I don’t need … fear, anger, insecurity, jealousy, worry… you get the drift.

Today, I see one such image. It gives me pause, again. But something feels different, and I poke and prod that uncomfortable feeling. And it gives me pause, again.

The ugly ten heads of Ravana do exist in most of us – like from an ice-cream parlor, each of us has our own ten flavors and ten heads. And while it would be wonderful to be a brave and valiant Rama, destroying, crushing to the ground, turning to ash, those ugly heads that we no longer wish to have inside us, I suspect it may be more complicated – for they are far too interwoven in our being. Whether or not we may be proud of them, whether or not we may be aware of their existence, whether or not we may be in denial of their being, truth remains that they are still a part of us, and a part of who we are

This realization and my analysis or retelling even, of the symbolic heads of Ravana seems doomed. It has neither the valor, nor the grandiosity of the mythological narration, nor the romanticized allegorical beauty or happy ending. The inspiring story I have grown up with, is far more satisfying and one I want to believe in for it tells me that the brave will win, and the menacing will be vanquished.

But again, can we simply tear down the ugly ten heads inside us – entwined in us, forming a part of who we are? There may be a reason why each of those heads came to be in the first place. And where I stand today, it feels impossible to simply destroy those ugly heads without understanding how and why they came to be and why they exert a force, desirable or not it may be.

From where I stand today, something tells me that rather than make them our enemies, and destroy them with bows and brave arrows, we must somehow inch closer to them, to see them, understand them. Maybe even find the courage to befriend them a little.

And while it seems far less heroic or romantic than pelting them with brave arrows and blows, it may take far more courage than that involving those brave arrows and blows. And it may need compassion, big, brave compassion, which may seem incongruous in their face; it may need maturity and understanding and self-love, to get closer to them, to not hate them, to not see them as their enemy.

And maybe that will cause them to soften and lose their grip over us. And that may still be victory of good over evil. Even if it looks different from the mythological tales.

They may not be reduced to dust to simply vanish from our being, but they will lose their grip over us and allow us to be free. They may always continue to exist and may always have the potential to rear their ugly heads, for they are a part of us… and yet, we may have won… without going to battle…


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