Recently, I read a brief article comparing Karna and Vibhishana. How Karna remained faithful to his friend despite knowing that Duryodhan was in the wrong, while Vibhishan betrayed his brother because he understood that Ravana was in the wrong. It was quite an interesting comparison and it raised several questions in my mind.
It made me think… The concept of right and wrong is so subjective and dynamic. For example, Balram was Duryodhan’s guru and was quite angry when he was defeated by breaking the rules of a duel. Balram didn’t agree with Krishna even though he himself was Sheshnaag and Krishna’s brother.
Another thing… for Vibhishan, the right thing to do was betraying his brother, but Ravana’s wife remained by his side and she is still considered one of the most dharma-abiding women of our mythology, one of the Panchkanyas right alongside Sita Mata. So, for Vibhishan, his dharma was to betray his brother when he was wrong, but for Mandodari, her dharma was to remain by the side of her husband even when he had done something so wrong. How does that make sense?
Also, there are several different versions of the motivation behind why Ravana committed the kidnapping. Which one is to be believed?
The actual story is very simple. As Sri Krishna explains in the Gita, one has to be faithful to the Truth or to the Guru or Master or to the Avatar who comes to lead humanity.
Obedience never means obeying the elders, even if they are foolish and arrogant at Ravana as well as Duryodhana. Or to take a more recent example, the Nazis, who were faithful to Hitler and did what he asked them to do. Or, to come to our own times, the Jihadis who blow up innocent children and helpless persons because their religious leaders or some holy book says so! All these are distortions and deviations of the core truth that one should listen either to the soul if one has found it, or the Guru if one is fortunate to have one. If one has access to neither, then one should use one’s discriminating intellect, buddhi, and try to discern between the true and false, which one can, to an extent, succeed in doing if one is sincere. Or at least one should do what is likely to bring the maximum good for all.
Vibhisana’s taking side with Rama was because he was literally pushed out of Lanka by Ravana, who refused to listen to his wise counsel to return Sita, the simplest of all solutions. Karna, on the other hand, was being offered the kingdom of the Pandavas by Sri Krishna. This would have again stalled the war once the Pandavas came to know that he was the eldest. But he chose Duryodhana because of his ambition to defeat or kill Arjuna. As to Mandodari, she did spoil Ravana’s yagya, which was supposed to grant him conquest over Rama. She, too, like Vibhishan stood by Dharma, spoke the truth and yet remained steadfast in her marriage to Ravana, a rare feat even today.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
