The Ramayana

I am one of the many people that get Dharma and Karma confused and tend to think that they are indistinguishable from each other. Dharma is the compass that guides us to do good for others and Karma are those individual actions. I see this as the same as Christianity; you should do good for the sake of good, not because “the boss” is watching.

When Rama was faced with killing a demigod, yaksha he did not want to complete this task knowing that she is a woman. “Rama hesitated; for all her evil, she is still a woman. How could I kill her?” (pg.12) This shows Rama’s good side where he does not kill for the glory but, when it is necessary. He has a code of honor that he lives by.

Manthara and Queen Kaikeyi are equally not great people. Manthara told the Queen that Rama should not be the king, but her own son should. To top this off the Queen is told that in order to accomplish this Rama should be exiled for 14 years and Bharata should be on the throne. (pg.38) I don’t see either of these women moving up in their Dharma journey.

I found Devdutt Pattanaik to be fascinating when he talked about the differences between how cultures can think (my world vs. your world). You can see how many disagreements can occur with western and eastern religions. Rama is definitely not infallible as Jesus is widely perceived to be. You can see how due to Rama’s mistakes he can still be a hero and looked up to for we can see ourselves in Rama because the Dharma train keeps rolling. For most western religions it’s a one and done mentality. Mr. Pattanaik explained this is where we get our different priorities in cultures, the “straight answer” west verses the “maybe” east.