Asura: Tale Of The Vanquished

by Anand Neelakantan

We learned that the truth could be bent to suit one’s needs. Our dharma was based on simple things: a man should be true to his word; he should speak from his heart and shouldn’t do anything he considered wrong. 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.

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.

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 there be a more just way of living?

The moment I started asking why, I was branded a hothead.

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?

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 prayer needs to be spoken silently in my heart.

A defeated race often uses its cultural supremacy to cover the shame of defeat. The victorious party was always portrayed as barbarians who defeated and destroyed a highly-cultured and well-developed civilization through deceit and sorcery.

If I owe anything to anyone in my life, it is to my Guru. He gave shape to my ambition, wings to my dreams, clarity to my vision, and power to my arms.

It was a far cry from the trivia that people like my father were propagating in the name of Vedas. The rituals, the animal sacrifices, the curse of caste - none of these had the sanction of the Vedas nor were they divine proclamations or edicts. By the time Brahma and Mahabali had reached the commentary on the Atharva Veda, I was confident that I could challenge any pseudo scholars on the Vedas. The real meaning of the sacred texts gave me greater determination to attack evils like caste, animal sacrifices and other rituals being propagated by the priestly class. I was determined to curb meaningless rituals and sacrifices and put an end to the curse of caste.

“Anger is the lowest emotion. It clouds the intellect and can make you do foolish things. You become blind to reason and react only with your body, without thinking. This leads to failure in every sphere. Uproot this evil from your system.

The next base emotion is Pride. Arrogance stems from pride and kills clear thinking and vision. Pride makes you underestimate your foes and overestimate yourself. Jealousy is a vile emotion, and mastering it is one of the most challenging tasks a human being has. Jealousy makes you pine for other man’s kingdom, wealth, wife and fame. This emotion has lead to many wars, bloodshed and tears since time immemorial. Happiness and sadness are just two eternal truths like day and night. A man of superior intellect is never affected by these emotions. They are not base emotions at all but a reflection of our thoughts, a reaction to our perspective on things we see, hear and do. Equanimity is not only desirable in a warrior, but a must. Without it, you are as good as dead in the battlefield. Fear is not an emotion, it is a disease. It spreads from the leader to his followers and vice–versa. Nothing has killed more men in war than fear. What should a warrior fear? Death? But death is what everyone achieves ultimately. Is it wounds that you fear? What is more important? A pint of your blood or the nectar of victory? Think. Thinking will clear such doubts. Nothing is more condemnable than selfishness. A man who thinks of himself alone is the most unlucky person of all. Why is one born? Is it to get fed and grow fat? Is to procreate and multiply like pigs? Is to defile this good earth with bodily wastes and then die without

creating any ripples in the world? What is his life worth if it does not light at least a small light in the darkness that is crushing our people. Ravana, abhor this vile emotion of selfishness. Love is a chain that ties you to the millstone of make-belief. A warrior should focus on victory and victory alone. That should be your only Dharma. Do your duty to your people, parents, wives, sisters, brothers and Gods, but never ever love them. Love makes you weak. Love has unseen bondages that take you into the abyss of failure at that crucial moment when victory and failure get balanced. Beware of love. Finally, control your ambition. Ravana, I can see the fiery ambition burning in your eyes. But do not be reckless. Take only what life offers you as your own. Let your life follow its own tide. Aim for things and strive to achieve them, but always keep your feet solidly on the ground. Think, think and think, before you act. The only thing worth preserving is your mind. Your mind absorbs the knowledge you gain from your Gurus, your books and your life, and refines i...

I am willing to risk being known as the most selfish man in the world, rather than dying unknown as a selfless non-entity.”

“It’s pity that you and Brahma look down on love as a base emotion. Without love, without the king of emotions, nothing exists. There’s nothing more pure than the love of a mother for her baby. If one has not felt the painful need to be with one’s lover, if you do not feel the love for your own brothers,

sisters, your father who made you, your mother who carried you in her womb and raised you with her blood and milk, for friends and those little cherished moments of togetherness, your wife for sharing your life with you and for your children for carrying your life forward, then is this life worth living?

I shall love myself above them all. Without me, nothing which is lovable has any meaning to me. I love because I exist and I exist because I love – I love myself.

Ambition is the horse that pulls our lives forward.

Pride in one’s capability gave men the confidence and ambition to grow; jealousy that someone else would achieve more prodded him to work hard and more efficiently; the quest for happiness resulted in ever-expanding ambition; the fear of sadness kept him awake at night and pushed him further; the fear of failure made him more careful and God-fearing; selfishness glued his family, city, clan, tribe and country together and made him strive even harder. Love for life and the things which made life precious, made him protect his achievements. and I am sure an undying ambition for more will lead mankind to progress. Progress, which we cannot even imagine, can never understand in our short lifetime.

You were talking about intelligence being the only head worth having. I agree it is important. But history teaches us that without any of the other emotions, it is just an empty skeleton.

I am sad to disappoint you, but I shall live like a man and die as one. I will never try to be a God. I will live exactly as my emotions tell me to. I do not want to be a model man for future generations to follow. My life begins with me and ends with me. But I will live my life to its full and die as a man should. So borrowing from your words, I shall be a man with ten faces – I am Dasamukha.”

The biggest tragedy of life was that we grow up and achieve our boyhood dreams.

This hit so hard. We dream of so many things when we are young without understanding what consequences our dreams might generate. Its just scary how certain dreams come true but with consequences that we never ever dreamed about.

We wanted to punish them for their arrogance, pride, the insults they heaped on us, for treating us as untouchables and destroying the little dignity we possessed. The mob swelled to thousands and we destroyed indiscriminately, torching six Vishnu temples, the public bathing Ghat, shops belonging to both Asuras and Brahmins, and kept marching to the palace.

How is this justified?

It took will power to suppress one’s screaming ego and grovel before another man. It took determination to keep one’s head down and act humble, when you were seething inside. Ultimately, the victories do not matter, nor pride or glory, only survival matters – one’s life and successors, the clan, race and language. Other things were useless.

Values, truth, morals and right conduct, were eternal and no progress made by mankind could change them. I was proud and worried at the same time.

Kindness, courage, morals, principles, sympathy, these were dangerous values to have for someone who belonged to our social position. It was unsafe to have a golden heart under a dark skin. Those were the luxuries of the rich, the noble, the high-caste, the fair-skinned, which they used when it benefitted them.

I think it was the size of the dream and the willingness to act on it. Ravana dreamt big and strove ruthlessly to achieve it. And he got all sorts of people working for him to achieve his ambition.

Ravana could beat my son to a pulp; treat me like a cur; refrain from touching our ugly black, soiled, sweaty, stinking skin, and at the same time talk loudly about the equality of men; and pose as the saviour of the Asuras from Deva torments, but mark my words, we the meek would survive when the kings of all colours, had gone.

But I had always believed a society could be called civilized only when it treated its woman and downtrodden people, well. Caste was rigid. The condition of people belonging to the lower rungs was beyond imagination. By such standards, the people of the dusty, northern plains, were almost sub-human. Of course, the Asuras had problems of their own. The Asura men loved material things. Asura woman were aggressive and almost amoral, but then, our girls were brought up almost exactly like our boys. There were social differences like the caste system among the Asuras too, but it was not based on birth or skin colour. Anyone could reach a position of power through hard work and luck. I was the best example of that.

it was said that under Ravana’s reign, the Asura kingdom prospered at a great rate. It was true. The elite prospered, so the country prospered. Did it really matter if the majority struggled or farmers committed suicide to escape the usurers? We were the invisible people and did not count. I took solace in the fact that my country was one of the fastest growing countries in the world. Not that it filled my stomach, but it helped me to brag and it tickled my ego. I had many friends like myself.