Asura: Tale Of The Vanquished

by Anand Neelakantan

The great King Mahabali, advises Ravana to shun the other nine base emotions of anger; pride; jealousy; happiness; sadness; fear; selfishness; passion and ambition. Intellect alone is to be revered.

But, in his response to Mahabali, Ravana justifies and exults in the possession of all these ten facets, as they make him a complete man.

He is as good or as bad as any human being, and as nature intended man to be.

Society is unable to curb his other nine faces, as it does in the figure of Rama. So Rama may be seen as God, but Ravana is the more complete man.

The monsoon wind swirled around the small hut hanging precariously on a mountain cliff. Another push by the roaring wind and the hut would plunge into the black torrents waiting hungrily below. Then we would be just specks of death washed ashore. It would have been better had it ended like that. But this was just the beginning of the end. Could I be obliterated from the leaves of history – just like that? Hadn’t I a mission to fail? I didn’t know it then, but I had been born to fulfil someone else’s destiny. To allow someone else to become God.

We were poor, dirt poor. The only thing we had in abundance was poverty. And hunger. Also shame.

My brothers and I never had an education to speak of. No Brahmin was ready to take us for free even if we worked for them. We were wild, black and naughty. We had learned that we were half-castes.

Our father was a famous Maharishi, but had little use for us.

He was a B...

My mother was of an unknown A...

One should not cheat even if one was sure to fail. One should honour women and not insult anyone. If there was injustice, we had to fight it at all costs.

I would rule the world; with justice, peace and prosperity for all.

Many worldly-wise people have said so, to get along in the world you had to be practical and satisfied with what your measly life offers. But I was a dreamer. And I did not want to just get along in this world. I wanted to own it.

Why were only a few able to control the power and wealth while the rest obliged them, and even laid down their lives to help this small selfish gang oppress them and their children? Was it fear? I don’t know. But wherever I looked, I only saw oppression.

Money, caste, rituals, traditions, beliefs and superstitions all conspired together to crush the humble majority. Why couldn’t...

The moment I started asking why, I was bra...

I thought the Vedas were a load of humbug and it didn’t matter which way you recited them. Some jobless Brahmin like my father, created them thousands of years ago. Instead of making themselves useful, the Brahmins prayed to the Gods they themselves invented for the rain, the sun, horses, cows and money and many other things.

shouldn’t think that the work they were doing, as Yajnas, was useless. In fact, it served as a perfect tool to mint money and gain material favours. They were no fools-these Brahmins. They knew how to project even the mundane tasks of burning twigs as earth-shaking, scientific discoveries and claimed to tame the forces that controlled the world. And it was funny that the majority of people like the carpenters, masons and farmers who were doing something meaningful, had become supplicant to these jokers croaking under the warm sun, sweat pouring from their faces in front of a raging fire and chanting God knows what.

You curried favour with the Brahmins and your son would become the biggest pundit in the world by the age of sixteen. If not, he would perhaps become rowdy like me, who did not respect Brahmins or rituals. He would become a Rakshasa. I think there are many more Rakshasas among us now. Perhaps, it was because the ‘why?’ virus spread. Couldn’t the Brahmins conduct a puja so that our heads were cleared of sinful thoughts? This is something I have to ponder over when I have time.

Wherever I travel I find imposters claiming to have direct access to god and fleecing people. It is strange how kings of antiquity suddenly became Gods. How they metamorphosed into specialty Gods is even more amusing.

I am no atheist. I strongly believe in God and am always willing to pray for my material and spiritual progress. But for me, God is a very personal thing and pra...

The Asuras were a casteless society and had a highly democratic set up where an elected council, instead of a king, held actual power.

Death was following me and I was chasing my life which was running away swiftly.

It took seven months for the great empire to crumble, an empire which had taken a thousand years to reach maturity.

When an empire crumbles and many small states spring up, we know the time has come to build a new empire.

I was disappointed that no one had contradicted me or raised any questions during my long address.

I think it was the size of the dream and the willingness to act on it.