I hope that you are eagerly waiting for the second part. If you are a new reader, it is suggested you read the first part and then come to this article. The next life story is about Ravana and Mandodari.

While Lord Hanuma was in search of Sita Devi, he expected her to be amidst ladies and entered Ravana’s palace in Lanka. He saw a great personality with the whole body glowing with eternal light, charming like many suns put together and was in deep sleep. Hanuma understood that he was the great Ravana. Hanuma was awestruck to see Ravana like that; he was imagining that if Ravana is all glowing and appealing even in deep sleep then how he would look like when he is awake and is on his throne! Hanuma saw thousands of women around him all deep asleep and understood that Ravana was in intercourse with all these women before going into sleep. Valmiki says it was difficult for Hanuma to find out whose limbs are on whom and whose clothes are on whom. So it was evident that women lying over there were not at all conscious about their body or clothes. But Hanuma who was in search of Sita was so pious that he just saw the ladies and when he understood it was not Sita, moved on to see other ladies. The duty of the eye is to see but it is the mind that shouldn’t get affected by the sight. One who achieves that is a real sage. Thus Hanuma was a real sage doing just his duty and not being carried away by the sight. It is said that all the women who were lying there were not forcibly brought by Ravana but came themselves getting attracted by Ravana and desiring intercourse with him. They are from high classes of the society, rich, young, unmarried and extremely beautiful. Hanuma saw another room adjacent to Ravana’s room and found a lady on the bed taking rest. She was very charming and the divine light coming out of her was filling the whole room. Even the intellectual Hanuma mistook that lady for Sita but she was actually Mandodari who is considered to be a very pious pathivratha (fidelity to husband). It is left for us to imagine what must be her mental state when she knows that her husband is in sexual relationship with thousands of ladies and most importantly has brought the wife of Lord Rama forcibly. The irony is both Mandodari and Sita are very pious towards their husbands but we never find a temple for Mandodari devi; the only reason she being the wife of Ravana which is not her mistake.

They had a son named Indrajith. Agasthya maharshi mentions to Rama about the greatness of Indrajith – once Ravana was fighting with Indra and after a long fight gets tired and rests. His son goes and defeats Indra in just an hour and brings him to the jail in Lanka. Such is the power and valour of Indrajith thus the name (jith-won; one who won with Indra). At last, when Ravana fell down on the battlefield with all his ten heads cut and all the devas waiting for this moment from the sky, Mandodari was brought to the battlefield in a palanquin. She boards down the palanquin and walks towards the body of Ravana. Everybody expects that she would curse Rama for doing that to her husband but she breaks out into tears telling it is not Rama who killed but his own deeds and wrongful desires. She scolded him for taking her son along with him. This was the moment she spoke out few lines which would tell us the kind of relationship they had. She says, “I have always warned you about your deeds and actions, warned to specifically about abducting Sita devi but YOU HAVE NEVER LISTENED TO ME!” And to make this point strong, Valmiki maharshi has never mentioned a scene when Ravana and Madodari talked which means Ravana never bothered to consult his wife before taking a decision. He never treated his wife as a human being with feelings and was involved with many other women. This kind of behaviour of husbands with ego and pride, neglecting the opinion of his wife would take him nowhere is the lesson that their relationship teaches us.

It is up to the reader to realize the greatness of your soulmate. All this which Ravana did in Treta yuga is still continued in Kali yuga (present day) across the length and breadth of the world. There are a lot of Ravanas now in the society. It would all seem fine to the husband to a point where he can no more do his own chores on his own and explicitly needs someone to help him in his old age. Nobody other than the wife would be ready to do the service and imagine she cursing the husband at that time, that he used to be all egoistic and now he wants me to help him with his chores. Do you think the husband is really alive if wife starts hating him?

I feel blessed to be writing this post which is just an attempt to translate the speech of Brahmasri Chaganti Koteswara Rao for the benefit of the society. The third part would be out soon.

Image courtesy : Pintrest