Navigating Brahma's Paradox - Tales From the Ramayana

W
hat is a paradox? According to Wikipedia, a paradox is "is a statement that, despite apparently sound reasoning from true premises, leads to an apparently-self-contradictory or logically unacceptable conclusion."

Navigating Brahma's Paradox

As an example, consider the Liar paradox where a liar makes a statement, "This statement is false." If the liar is lying, as is his nature, then the statement is true, in which case the liar is lying, and the statement is true, which it is not, and so on… Or take its related version - "You must reject this statement I am now making to you, because all the statements I make are incorrect. It's a favourite of mine (it appeared in a short story, "The Monkey Wrench", by Gordon R Dickson, in the August 1951 issue of 'Astounding Science Fiction'). What is the consequence of a paradox? In the case of the "Monkey Wrench", not very good, at all.

The Ramayana contains at least one instance where we witness a paradox in the making. An impossible situation arises that is averted, and which leaves one wondering, "what if".

The story is described in Sarga 20-22 of Uttara Kanda, the last kanda in the Ramayana. Interspersed in this story are several other fascinating nuggets that are worth sharing.

The Fourteen Faults of a Leader

The 14 Faults of a Leader - Do They Still Hold in the 21st Century?

I
 will confess straight off the bat - this post is from the Ramayana, but its learnings apply uncannily enough to modern day leadership too.

With that minor matter of a confession out, let's get started. While one may not associate the Ramayana with expositions on statecraft, the fact is that the Ayodhya kanda itself has one such example. In sarga 94 (of the Critical Edition, sarga 100 in other versions) of the Ayodhya Kanda, when Bharata comes to meet Rama and to persuade him to return to Ayodhya as the rightful king, Rama, of course, refuses, but first asks Bharata about the state of the kingdom and whether Bharata, as the presumed king of Ayodhya, is following the duties of a king. This is one of the longest sargas in Ayodhya kanda, and is worth reading repeatedly. More pertinently, Rama exhorts Bharata to abandon the sins associated with kings. How many? Fourteen. Let's look at them all:

Valmiki Ramayana - 1, translated by Bibek Debroy

The Valmiki Ramayana, Vol. 1, translated by Bibek Debroy

Flipkart, Amazon IN, Amazon, Kindle

H
aving gone through the marathon of translating the unabridged Mahabharata, the Ramayana would have seemed like a sprint to Bibek Debroy. In any case, this is another stellar effort that succeeds in bringing out the beauty and emotions of the epic, as much as the limitations of a faithful translation permit.

Unlike the Mahabharata translation, that spanned five years, and with one volume coming out every six months or so, the Ramayana translation was released as a single three-volume set in 2017. The first volume covers the first two kandas - Baal and Ayodhya, and ends with Sita accepting the gift of ornaments from Anasuya and the three - Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana entering Dandakaranya.

I doubt much value would be added were I to attempt a summarization of the Ramayana itself, so I will use this review to point out some interesting things about the translation itself.

First, the style of the translation is very similar to the one followed in the Mahabharata. There is a sense of familiarity in that sense. The copious footnotes follow you throughout, like a faithful companion. More on that later.

Rama and Ayodhya and The Battle for Rama - Review

 

"Rama and Ayodhya" and "The Battle for Rama", by Meenakshi Jain

Circumstantial Evidence Preceded Archaeological Evidence

(see my earlier review of Rama and Ayodhya and a part-review of The Battle for Rama
This review incorporates material from both reviews as well)

The diffusion of propaganda requires repetition. In the words of someone many leftists have secretly admired for long, repetition is what makes propaganda successful (the full quote is (bold-emphasis mine), "The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over".

This was a strategy used to brilliant success by militant Islamists, communist historians, and Indologists of dubious integrity in the west during the Ayodhya movement in the 1980s and 90s.

Rama and Ayodhya, by Meenakshi Jain

Rama and Ayodhya, by Meenakshi Jain
Aryan Books International; 2013 edition
(ISBN: 8173054517, 978-8173054518)

Rama and Ayodhya, by Meenakshi Jain

An indispensable, though brief, compendium to understand the past and present of Ayodhya.

The diffusion of propaganda requires repetition. In the words of someone many leftists have secretly admired for long, repetition is what makes propaganda successful (the full quote is (bold-emphasis mine), "The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over".

This was a strategy used to brilliant success by militant Islamists, communist historians, and Indologists of dubious integrity in the west during the Ayodhya movement in the 1980s and 90s.

Diana Eck is a faculty member of The Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program at Harvard University (which was established as a result of a $20 million grant by the Saudi prince, Alwaleed Bin Talal). In her 2012 book, "India: A Sacred Geography" (my review), she had very bluntly and pointedly argued against the evidence of a temple at the disputed site, citing "Indian historians and archaeologists, both Hindu and Muslim." The sole archaeologist she cited in her section on Ayodhya had this to say in her book - "There is not a single piece of evidence for the existence of a temple of brick, stone, or both." For reasons that should become clear very soon, Diana Eck chose to bury the archaeologist's name in the references section of her book. That archaeologist's name is D. Mandal, from the University of Allahabad.

Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana, by Devdutt Pattanaik

Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana, by Devdutt Pattanaik

Note: since I first wrote this and other reviews of Devdutt Pattanaik's books, I have gained a better understanding of Hindu texts and scriptures. I believe Devdutt Pattanaik's writings are influenced heavily by western frameworks and agendas on the one hand, and introduce subtle and sometimes outright distortions in the interpretation of these texts. A small sample of the kinds of outright errors and distortions that would shame any scholar of Hinduism can be found in this blog post.
I therefore do not recommend any of Devdutt Pattanaik's books that I have reviewed on my blog. - Abhinav, Nov 3, 2017.

One-line review: Enrichening, but not as spectacularly successful as 'Jaya'.

Review:
In recent times, Devdutt Pattanaik has been the most prolific and successful mythologist-author in India. For almost a decade now, he has explored almost every facet of Hindu mythology, from a rapid-fire look at the spectrum of Hindu mythology in "Myth=Mithya" - that became his most successful book, to gods and goddesses in books like "7 Secrets of Siva", "7 Secrets of Vishnu", "7 Secrets From Hindu Calendar Art", to even dabbling in fiction in "The Pregnant King", and more recently to books targeted specifically at children - "An Identity Card for Krishna", "Shiva Plays Dumb Charades", etc... In 2010, he plunged into a very imaginative and well-researched retelling of the Mahabharata - "Jaya - An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata". 

The Missing Queen, by Samhita Arni

The Missing Queen, by Samhita Arni
"A king's flaw and a society's decay. Engrossing book though marred by an excessive in-your-face liberal ideology."

(Amazon-US, Kindle-US, Flipkart)
Rama (राम) is considered an ideal - ideal son, ideal pupil, ideal king, and ideal husband. There are two blemishes however on Rama's character, described by adi-kavi Valmiki, in his Sanskrit epic, Ramayana, that almost every child who has heard the Ramayana's epic from his parents or grandparents knows fully well. Rama killed Bali by trickery, and he abandoned Sita for no fault of hers. Bali's killing is often seen as the lesser of the two blemishes, one that can be explained by an exiled prince's resort to realpolitik, and which would not have been out of place in a later age. However, Rama's suspicions about Sita's chastity after the war in Lanka and then his decision to abandon her after they had returned to Ayodhya - they so jar the reader, they so much conflict with our image of Rama. Questions abound, that have been asked and attempted to be answered for thousands of years. Answers sought in religious ruminations, literary liturgies, ideological idioms, philosophical ponderings, and more.

The Prince of Ayodhya - Ashok Banker

Prince of Ayodhya (Ramayana series) (Kindle, Flipkart, my review on Amazon)

Fantastical and Highly Dramatized Retelling of the Ramayana
What if you took the basic plot of the Ramayana, and then injected it with a strong dose of fantasy? Making it read and feel like a Lord of the Rings on steroids perhaps? Ashok Banker's six-part Ramayana series attempted to do just that. For the most part it succeeds, and kept me turning pages well into the night. It is a little formulaic at times, especially in its predictable use of drama, intrigue, suspense, and heroic deeds, but some of the inventive turns are to be admired, and are mostly carried off with admirable aplomb. The sheer length of the series - at over 3000 pages - is daunting, but then, you don't have to read all of it in one go.

This is the first book in the series, and is aptly titled, "Prince of Ayodha", and it starts out with a fifteen-year old Rama, in Ayodhya, who faces off a bunch of thugs about to slaughter a young deer. The deer is actualy Shurpnakha in disguise! While the entry of Viswamitra into Ayodhya to ask King Dashratha to render the services of Rama to the sage is known, this book provides a twist to the tale. Viswamitra enters Ayodhya, almost unrecognized, but so does Maricha, the rakshas, disguised as Viswamitra. Clever, I thought. Or the use of Manthara as the secret handmaiden of Ravana, even as she serves Queen Kaikeyi. So, as you can see, well-known events in the epic get a makeover, and come out dressed up in fantasy, adventure, and hyperbolic personae. So, Vashishtha, the royal sage, is almost seven feet tall, and can use yogic powers that boggle the mind.

People looking to read a faithful adaptation of Valmiki's Ramayana should stay away from this book. However, people looking to read a page-turner of a yarn, adapted and inspired from the Ramayana, will be well-rewarded by this book, and perhaps the entire series.

I have read two books in this series. I read Siege of Mithila (Flipkart) first, for reasons that I cannot quite comprehend or explain, in 2005, I think. I read The Prince of Ayodha in 2012. That is certainly not a pace that will keep one engaged with the epic, but for what it's worth, the entire series is now available as a Kindle e-book, at the very, very appealing price of US $9.99. I.e. for less than six hundred rupees you are getting all six volumes, 3000 pages. Think of the trees you are saving!

Kindle Excerpt:

© 2012, Abhinav Agarwal (अभिनव अग्रवाल). All rights reserved.

Ramayana, Arshia Sattar

Ramayana, by Valmiki. Translated by Arshia Sattar

"Met and Exceeded Expectations. An Epic, Renewed."



(Amazon, Flipkart, my review on Amazon)
This abridged translation of Valmiki's Ramayana, by Arshia Sattar, based on the Baroda Critical Edition, is a beautiful effort and should be on the reading list of anyone interested in reading, or re-reading the Ramayana. The Ramayana, also known as "adikavya" - the first poem, and its putative author, Valmiki, as "adikavi" - the first poet, is also an epic, one of two in Hindu literature, the other being the massive Mahabharata.

The basic story of the Ramayana is more or less known by most Indians - the prince of Ayodhya - Rama, son of King Dashratha and Queen Kaushalya, and husband of Sita, on the eve of his coronation as crown-prince - is banished to live for fourteen years in the forest as a result of a boon Dashratha had granted to his wife Kaikeyi, step-mother to Rama. While in the forest, in the thirteenth year of exile, Sita is kidnapped by the Lord of Lanka, Ravana. Rama and Lakshmana take the help of the monkey king Sugriva, his faithful follower, Hanuman, and the monkey army, to cross the ocean, invade Lanka, and kill Ravana and free Sita.

What this book seeks to do is to follow the "Baroda Critical Edition of Valmiki's poem" ("prepared by the Oriental Institute at M.S. University, Baroda"), "constructed by the meticulous and painstaking comparison of manuscripts and manuscript traditions." The "primary" motivation in such an exercise as the critical edition is the "scholarly desire to reconstruct the original text." While critics of the "critical method" have been accused of "romanticizing the oral tradition", "the idea that the critical edition defines the boundaries of the 'text' itself persists, despite the fact that all those familiar with Indian texts agree that a unique notion of tradition ("परंपरा " - parampara) informs and circumscribes these texts." The question whether there should even be a "critical edition" of epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata, that owe their widespread popularity as much to their stories as to the tradition of oral recitation of the epics by bards, poets, and itinerants who took the epic to all corners of the country, and beyond, employing classical tools like "iteration, formulaic composition" to aid memorability, is not one that I seek to ask, nor is it one that I, at this stage at least, am particularly interested in finding an answer to.

The challenge in this abridged translation is two-fold: one is to excise without altering the story, while also preserving the lyrical nature and the underlying tragic arc of the epic. It is in these that the translation succeeds excellently. The other challenge, easier in some ways, is to not add anything to the tale that is not there in the Critical Edition.

Perhaps the two biggest differences between Valmiki's Ramayana and versions that have followed are in the treatment of Rama's divinity, and attempts to reconcile Rama's character with his two flawed acts.

"two unresolved issues that linger and haunt the reader/listener long after Valmiki's story is over: Rama's unlawful acts and his ignorance of his divine status. The killing of Vali and his rejection of Sita are so outrageously out of character that there is almost nothing within the premises and assumptions of Valmiki's tale that can justify them." [page liii]

So much is the dissonance that these acts evoke in the reader that thousands of years have passed by in trying to address and reconcile these acts.

We can suggest that all the Rama stories that follow Valmiki's are attempts to resolve this issue narratively as well as structurally. [page liii]

While later works based on the Ramayana - derivative works, regional translations, retellings, dramatizations  - have attempted to address the "two unresolved issues" in their own way, it is illuminating to read what the Critical Edition has to say on the topic. Rama is not left unscathed - whether in his imperious rejection of a dying Vali's accusations, his rationalizing his rejection of Sita, or his lack of any discernible remorse at his treatment of Sita - Valmiki leaves us with a character who is human, and flawed. This dissonance - between the divinity of Rama as an incarnation of Vishnun on the one hand, and his human failings and moral frailty on the other hand - was sought to be addressed, even suppressed perhaps by later retellings. The original tale leaves it to the reader to grasp and grapple with this unresolved issue.

A simplified and consistent  portrait of a divine god who could do no wrong made Rama worthy of worship and as an ideal people and society could aspire to, but it also deprived us of the opportunity to study and learn from the life of a human. Whereas Rama's devotion to his father, and even to his step-mother, has defined the ideal of a dutiful son in the Indian psyche, and whereas Sita's following her husband in exile, and then her faith in the face of Ravana and his rakshasis in Lanka have defined our expectations of an ideal wife, Rama's failings are equally instructional. They made him human. Humans can learn from humans, gods humans can only worship.

At some point the reader, such as myself, may ask how the accuracy or the faithfulness of this book should be evaluated. Against the Critical Edition? Few have read the Critical Edition. Even the editors of the Critical Edition exercised discretion, subjective at times one can be sure, in deciding what to include and what to exclude. The Critical Edition also has its critics - some of the most popular episodes that in some ways define the epic for the common man are sometimes not to be found in the Critical Edition. An epic owes its status as much to popular perceptions as to the story itself. Or do you evaluate it against the original Sanskrit text? It does not exist. The earliest extant manuscript of the Ramayana is less than a thousand years old, while the epic itself dates back at least a thousand years before that. Against Tulsidas' Ramcharitmanas? No - that is not the Ramayana, it is Saint Tulsidas' retelling, not a translation, and that too set in a particular moral and societal context. Against modern versions like those by RK Narayan (which is actually a retelling of Kamban's version), Kamala Subramaniam, or C Rajagopalachari?

In the end, this becomes a subjective and personal decision. As a subjective and personal decision, it is open to debate, and it is open to change, as should be expected. Therein lies an escape hatch for the reviewer too!

A note about the edition. This is a "Penguin Black Classics" edition. More than anything else, there are two points I want to point out. The first is that the paper is thin. While the print from one side does not bleed to the other, the paper does feel cheap. The second, and more redeeming point, is that this is cloth bound and basically a lay-flat binding. This is important. You open the book to any page and lay it flat without having the pages close up on each other. It means that the book is going to last a while without running the risk of the pages coming apart. There is a cheaper edition also available, at less than half the price of this edition, but I fear that the pages are likely to start coming apart fairly soon.

Economy edition of the Ramayana

Penguin's Children's Edition of the Ramayana

RK Narayan's version of the Ramayana

Penguin "Classics" Edition of the Ramayana

Penguin "Black Classics" Edition of the Ramayana

Ramayana
The Ramayana
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www.PenguinClassics.com

© 2012, Abhinav Agarwal (अभिनव अग्रवाल). All rights reserved.

7 Secrets Of Vishnu, By Devdutt Pattanaik-review

7 Secrets of Vishnu, By Devdutt Pattanaik - Abhinav's review

Note: 

Since I first wrote this and other reviews of Devdutt Pattanaik's books, I have gained a better understanding of Hindu texts and scriptures. I believe Devdutt Pattanaik's writings are influenced heavily by western frameworks and agendas on the one hand, and introduce subtle and sometimes outright distortions in the interpretation of these texts. A small sample of the kinds of outright errors and distortions that would shame any scholar of Hinduism can be found in this blog post.

I therefore do not recommend any of Devdutt Pattanaik's books that I have reviewed on my blog. - Abhinav, Nov 3, 2017.

This one has a somewhat hurried feel to it.

The author covers briefly the trinity in Hinduism, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. After that the book dwells on Vishnu, looked at primarily from the prism of the avatars of the lord - all ten of them, the Dashavatar.
The most fascinating chapter is the first one, "Mohini's Secret, which describes how Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva are connected to each other.

Each avatar is unique, each the result of the needs of the time, and each with its learnings. The avatar of Narasimha avatar is a powerful reminder of the limitations of the human imagination, as Hiranyakashyap learns.

(the Hiranyakashyipu) "episode in Vishnu lore is a reminder that divinity cannot be limited by human imagination or human memory. There is always something in the universe that surprises us." [page 105]

The Vamana avatar and the Bali episode teaches us about the human ego. We are so consumed with a sense of our own importance, so much so that we are deluded into thinking we are omnipotent. Three paces of land is what Vamana asked for, and three paces of land is what Bali, the all-powerful king and grandson of Prahalad, could not provide.

"In Vishnu lore, there is a general discomfort with the idea of offering people whatever they desire. A man who offers another whatever he or she desires is in effect being arrogant and over-estimating his capability and capacity." [page 113]

"The idea of bad gods and good demons is confounding. But it emerges from the presumption that the division of gods and demons is made on ethical and moral terms. This is, more often than not, the result of poor English translations of Hindu mythology in the 18th century, which declared Devas as "good" and Asuras as "bad"." [page 117]

"The word evil is often used to describe Asuras. But this word 'evil' makes no sense in Hinduism. Evil means the 'absence of God'. This idea does not exist in Hinduism because, for Hindus, the whole world is a manifestation of the divine. So, nothing can be evil." [page 119]

© 2012, Abhinav Agarwal. All rights reserved.

Agni Teertham, Rameswaram

Rameswaram is one of the holiest cities in India. It is considered by Hindus as one of the four dhams, with Dwarka in the west, Puri in the east, and Badrinath in the north being the other three. According to folklore and Hindu mythology, Rameswaram is the place from where Lord Rama constructed a bridge (Ram Setu, sometimes also referred to, incorrectly, as Adam's Bridge) over the ocean to cross over to Lanka (Sri Lanka) to fight Ravana, who had abducted Lord Rama's wife, Sita.

The Rameswar temple at Rameswaram is where Lord Rama propitiated Lord Siva to atone for the sin of killing Ravana, a brahman. Though Ravana is considered a villain for having abducted Sita, he is also worshipped by many because he was a devotee of Lord Siva and also an accomplished scholar in his own right. The Shiva Tandav Stotra, in praise of Lord Siva's power and beauty, is said to have been composed by Ravana. Like so many other characters in Hindu mythology, good or bad, Ravana is also a character with shades of gray. There are no clear-cut good or outright evil people. Good or evil is defined by our actions. Ravana, an otherwise devoted husband, loving brother, accomplished scholar, and an ardent Shiva devotee, also was power-hungry, delusional with power, and coveted another man's wife. Lord Rama's slaying of Ravana, while justified by dharma, was still a sin, in that Rama had killed a brahman, and a devotee of Lord Siva. For this 'brahma-hatya', Rama had to atone. It was suggested by Sage Agastya that Lord Rama propitiate Lord Siva. It is at this place that Lord Rama performed the puja of Lord Siva after bathing in the waters of the 22 Agni Teerthams. There is also a longer story that describes how Hanuman was sent to fetch a Sivalinga from the Kailash mountain in the Himalayas, but that is for another post.

Pilgrims congregate here, at the Agni Teerthan, to take a dip in the holy waters of the Bay of Bengal, before heading out to the Rameswar Temple to be bathed in the holy waters from the 22 wells of fresh water in the temple, and then finally perform puja in front of Lord Siva.

Yes - even though the temple town is referred to as Rameswaram, it is actually Lord Siva that is worshipped at the "Rameswar" temple. Lord Rama had worshipped Lord Siva (Rama's eeshwar - lord). This place is thus considered holy by both Vaishnavites and Saivites, the Hindu sects that worship Lord Vishnu and Lord Siva, respectively.

Some excerpts from the Outlook Traveller pages on Rameswaram:

In keeping with the dimensions of this grand temple, the Nandi (approx 16 ft in height and 10 ft wide) here is magnificently huge, marred somewhat by the grilled enclo¬sure within which it now appears trapped. The sanctum is embel¬lished by beautifully carved granite pillars and guarded by handsome dwarapalakas. The lingam that Sita made is worshipped in the main altar. To the right is the Viswa-lingam brought by Hanuman, which is worshipped first every day. Goddess Parvatavardhini is the consort to Ramanathaswamy and her shrine is to the left. One of the most important ancil¬lary shrines is dedicated to Lord Vishnu as Sethu Madhava. The sannidhi to Nataraja is surrounded by offerings of Naga images and is splendidly decorated entirely with rudraksha seeds. This most sacred pilgrimage is considered complete if Ganga jal from Kashi is brought to Rameswaram for an abhishekam of the lingam.

A bath in the 22 holy tirthams at the Ramanathaswamy Temple is an enjoyable ritual. Guide-helpers will lead you in chrono¬logical order to waters that are variable — small and large, warm and cool, sweet and salty. Soon enough, you lose track of the details and surrender to the undiluted joy of having buckets of water splashed down in a manner that has kids and adults squealing alike. Bliss.
Only Hindus are allowed beyond the third prakaram. Coloured lungis are not allowed but trousers are. Carry dry clothes to change into; entry to the main sanctum in wet clothes is denied. Changing rooms (not very clean) are available near the last tirtham

From this place to the temple is a two-minute walk, the temple some 200m or so away.

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© 2011, Abhinav Agarwal. All rights reserved.