Week Three Reading Diary A: Rama's Humanity

This week I was so fascinated with the way Rama was presented at the end of the book. He was so human. He made mistakes. I feel like through the first half of the book he was presented as this perfect god who could never make a wrong move. He stepped down from his throne and let his brother be crowned while he was exiled to the forest for fourteen years. That takes someone who is morally and intellectually pure. Rama is met and loved by anyone he encounters, and creates quite a following of extremely loyal followers. However, he has some human limitations. The first one is when he kills Vali, Sugreeva's brother. He did not know Vali, and the quarrel between the two brothers was not his to fight. Yet he killed someone in hiding who had done nothing personal to him, and this is considered one of Rama's greatest mistakes. However, he was right in doing it, and Vali gains enlightenment and salvation on his deathbed, and thanks Rama for what he has done as well as forgives his brother and asks for forgiveness back. Secondly, when Rama receives Sita back from her capture, he is resentful towards her and cannot accept her. This is heartbreaking to Sita, who has remained completely pure for her husband. I found it interesting and possibly a characteristic of Hindu gods that in his human reincarnation Rama had these human limitations, and was not perfect.

Bharata and Rama; note also the sandals on the throne; by Raja Ravi Varma
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