As we continue our series to dig for the best advice from the worst, we had an insight into some wonderful wisdom from Hiranyakasipu and Kumbhakarna. Now it is time to dive deeper into Mareecha’s words. We already had a glimpse of his mindset in How the opponents saw Rama – Part 1, that started sprouting Sattva despite the deep tamas, due to his contact with Rama, even though he was as an opponent.
Storytime:
Mareecha was the son born of Yaksha Sunda and Yakshini Tataka. We get introduced to these characters in Bala Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana. Mareecha and Tataka attack Agastya Maharishi to avenge Sunda’s death, owing to his arrogant attack of the Rishi. Agastya cursed them to a rakshasa state, which they used to terrorize the innocent and harass the rishis doing yagas and yajnas. (Read more about the different states of mind in The shifting line of Dharma perception). We learnt about the hidden angles of Tatakavada in Why Rama and Krishna’s first kill was a woman? Mareecha made the mistake of attacking Rama, who hurled him a hundred yojanas away using Maanavastra.
Shoorpanaka tried to attack Sita thinking her as the obstacle that is preventing Rama to accept her. Lakshmana intervened by chopping off her nose and ears. An enraged Shoorpanaka brought her step brothers, Khara and Dhushana supported by an army of 14000 strong rakshasas, who were all wiped up by Rama in one and a half Muhurtas (roughly 72 minutes), fighting on foot.
Ravana was already aware of the consequences of assaulting Rama frontally. It was not even the revenge that burnt him from within, but the picture Shoorpanaka painted about Sita. Without even seeing her, he develops an extreme and intense passion coupled with a morbid desire to possess her at all costs. The first level of such a mental orientation is called desire (kama). In case of Ravana it crosses all limits and the raging desire coupled with intense attachment is referred as अभिष्वङ्ग (abhisvanga). A person in such a state is totally under the control of those desires and no logic ever reaches it. When Ravanva’s primary queen, Mandodari laments after his death, she hints at this great fall of Ravana was due to his becoming a prey to the senses and desires.
Ravana assumes he can take advantage of Mareecha’s possible ignorance of Rama by painting him as brutal, selfish, unrighteous and sensory slave. It is important to realize the picture Ravana tries to peddle a lie to Mareecha by showcasing Rama as – Driven away by the angry father (पित्रा निरस्तः क्रुद्धेन pitrā nirastaḥ kruddhena), one with limited life (क्षीण जीवितः kṣīṇajīvitaḥ), ignoble kshatriya (क्षत्रिय पांसनः kṣatriyapāṃsanaḥ). Ravana expands his adjective choice to darker shades by calling him characterless, firestorm (violent in outburst), senseless, selfish, slave to senses, one who has discarded dharma, unrighteous to the core, one who is bad to all the beings. (अशीलः कर्कशः तीक्ष्णो मूर्खो लुब्धो अजित इन्द्रियः || त्यक्त धर्मः तु अधर्म आत्मा भूतानाम् अहिते रतः | aśīlaḥ karkaśastīkṣṇo mūrkho lubdho.ajitendriyaḥ tyaktadharmastvadharmātmā bhūtānāmahite rataḥ VR 3-36-11,12)
Ravana portrays Rama in such a bad light that even his real character may pale before this colorful description. He uses classic lies and deception to misdirect Mareecha to do his bidding. He lays out his scheme to trick Sita by having Mareecha become a golden deer and lure away Rama and Lakshmana. He argues that this trickery was the best response to avoid direct confrontation, yet get justice.
Merely listening to this ghastly plan dried up Mareecha’s mouth who started shuddering in fear. Ravana’s attempt to trick Mareecha using his ignorance backfired as the latter revealed his long history. Mareecha faulted the ministers and counsel of Ravana as they seemed to be very ignorant. Mareecha counters every adjective of Ravana’s decription of Rama. (न च पित्रा परित्यक्तो न अमर्यादः कथंचन | न लुब्धो न च दुःशीलो न च क्षत्रिय पांसनः || न च धर्म गुणैर् हीनैः कौसल्या आनंद वर्धनः | न च तीक्ष्णो हि भूतानाम् सर्व भूत हिते रतः || na ca pitrā parityakto nāmaryādaḥ kathaṃcana | na lubdho na ca duḥśīlo na ca kṣatriyapāṃsanaḥ || na ca dharmaguṇairhīnaiḥ kausalyānandavardhanaḥ | na ca tīkṣṇo hi bhūtānāṃ sarveṣāṃ ca hite rataḥ VR 3-37-8,9)
He explained how Rama to protect his father’s virtues came on his own, despite seeing through Kaikeyi’s deception. Mareecha rebuked Ravana not to speak of topics where he had no idea, as if he were an expert. He rejected all of Ravana’s slanderous lies strongly. Then he gives the best insight of Rama, which not even Kausalya or Dasaratha nor Lakshmana or Sita give about Rama’s true nature.
Rama is the embodiment of all dharma, he is a person of excellent character (sadhu), filled with truthfulness and great valor, the King of the entire world, just like Indra is the undisputed King of Devas. (रामो विग्रहवान् धर्मः साधुः सत्य पराक्रमः | राजा सर्वस्य लोकस्य देवानाम् इव वासवः || rāmo vigrahavāndharmaḥ sādhuḥ satyaparākramaḥ rājā sarvasya lokasya devānāmiva vāsavaḥ VR 3-37-13) Mareecha repeated the dire consequences of this myopic desire to abduct Sita, which will destroy not only Ravana but the entire rakshasa clan.
Mareecha narrated his first encounter, misjudging Rama as a young lad during Viswamitra’s yajna. On seeing the easy decimation of Subahu and his other cohorts Mareecha felt lucky that Rama did not direct his ire upon him. Mareecha reiterated the horrible consequences of not merely crossing paths with Rama but also irking his anger.
Not satisfied Mareecha narrated another experience with Rama. He resorted to disguising himself as a terrible animal to torture the rishis of dandakavana. He thrived on killing them, drinking their blood and feasting on their flesh. Upon seeing Rama with Lakshmana and Vaidehi, who seemed to live a life of the rishis, Mareecha attacked him with his two other rakshasas. Rama released some deadly arrows. Unable to fathom the magnitude of Rama’s arrows, the two challenging rakshasas perished. Since Mareecha chose to run away, Rama’s arrows graciously let him escape.
The two encounters with Rama sparked a saatvic fire in Mareecha. Despite having dreadful dark vasanas and fear, he retired as an ascetic, trying to lead a yogic life. We saw in Choose Krishna, even if for wrong reasons, how Kamsa spent all his time in fear of Krishna yet attained Moksha. Similarly Mareecha is absorbed in thoughts of Rama, but in fear. He saw Rama in the every single tree, clad in his jute and black deerskin, armed with his bow. He envisioned thousands of Rama and out of fear; he saw the entire forest as Rama. (अपि राम सहस्राणि भीतः पश्यामि रावण | राम भूतम् इदम् सर्वम् अरण्यम् प्रतिभाति मे || api rāmasahasrāṇi bhītaḥ paśyāmi rāvaṇa rāmabhūtamidaṃ sarvamaraṇyaṃ pratibhāti me VR 3-39-16) He saw Rama in the void and even in his dreams. Every word that starts begain with the syllable ‘Ra’ like ratha, ratna gave him the chills. (र कार अदीनि नामानि राम त्रस्तस्य रवण | रत्नानि च रथाः च एव वित्रासम् जनयन्ति मे || rakārādīni nāmāni rāmatrastasya rāvaṇa ratnāni ca rathāścaiva trāsaṃ sañjanayanti me VR 3-39-18)
Mareecha informed Ravana that Rama’s warfare would be sufficient to wipe out Bali or Namuchi, great asuras who were defeated by Vishnu. Mareecha declared that Shoorpanaka must have been the instigator of this entire episode and Rama who is bound to Dharma would have never attacked her without her provocation and definitely her claims are a bundle of lies. He warned Ravana repeatedly that Rama was to be left alone if he desired his life and that of his kinsmen.
Mareecha wrongly assumed that Ravana will let go of the idea for his sake. Ravana remained obstinate and declared that he would not change his plans as his mind was set on obtaining Sita. He gave a choice to Mareecha to either die at his hands or in Rama’s. The wiser Mareecha chose Rama.
Practical applications: This itihasa will not have its civilizational impact, unless we translate it into our daily lives.
- In HIS design, everything happens for a reason: Mareecha was disposed off with a very simple non fatal astra, when the rest of his associates were firmly dealt. The second time Mareecha had a narrow escape. Yet he came back to play a vital part in Ramayana. Sometimes due to our past Karmas, our karmaphalas put us in some unique and odd situations – good or bad. But years later in hindsight, we realize that there seems to be a subtler pattern which we had missed when we are amidst the heat of the situation. If we retain this message in our hearts, it becomes easy for us to tide over the rough conditions of life.
- Karma: In the world, many good people (sadhus) who practice dharma get destroyed with their kith and kin, due to the wrong deeds of others. (बहवः साधवो लोके युक्ता धर्मम् अनुष्टिताः | परेषाम् अपराधेन विनष्टाः स परिच्छदाः || bahavaH saadhavaH loke yuktaaH dharmam anuSTitaaH | pareSaam aparaadhena vi naSTaaH sa paricChadaaH || VR 3-39-21) We can see Mareecha’s lamentation about his potential future is ignoring his past bad karmas. Usually we all tend to forget our own bad karmas when we plead ignorance of the karmaphala. If due to our past, we land up in a place filled with the ones oriented to papa, then the best thing one must do is to leave their association. The papas of others will get punished in due course of time, but one is certain to feel the heat due to not cleaving that association.
- Who do you listen to: Ravana never listened to the host of his advisors, be it from his side like Vibhishana, Malyavan, Mareecha or his opposite camp like Hanuman or Sita. Mareecha accused Ravana of surrounding and listening to adharmic ministers. In our case, we too mirror this pattern closely, but it is largely due to the fact we cannot discern who is a good or bad advisor. Worse yet, we dull the buddhi and push it to the rear, rendering it ineffective. We are now left with only manas which is not capable of such discernment and the senses. The senses constantly feed us attractive inputs or our vasanas keep pushing us to such an environment and the manas thinks it creates an atmosphere of short lived happiness without realizing the long term implications. Are we listening to the manas and senses OR are we listening to the buddhi that is aligned with dharma? Are we listening to people who are rooted in dharma or associates who want to share in our fleeting happiness?
- Bad association: Even if one has done no papa, due to the interdependence with other papatmas, the sinless get destroyed just like a fish in a lake of snakes. (अकुर्वन्तो अपि पापानि शुचयः पाप संश्रयात् | पर पापैः विनश्यन्ति मत्स्या नाग ह्रदे यथा || akurvanto.api pāpāni śucayaḥ pāpasaṃśrayāt parapāpairvinaśyanti matsyā nāgahrade yathā VR 3-37-26). Mareecha never overcame all his past bad karmas, so his understanding was clouded, but he was able to see that association with Ravana was certain death. One may not have the capacity to reform the bad actors we get placed with due to our Karmas, like Mareecha unable to knock some sense into Ravana. Association with the bad comes with a heavy price of sharing their karmaphalas. On the contrary, association of even adversarial Rama brought saatvic thoughts in Mareecha.
- Desires worst form: Desires unbridled tend to invoke the worst. We already know it can push us towards asatya, untruth. It also gets expressed as anger due to the morphing desire. Equally bad is it expressing as an adharmic desire for another’s spouse. Getting involved with another person’s wife (spouse in today’s world) is the highest papa one can commit. Sita already gave a deeper insight in Sita Rama Samvada – an insight into the nature of violence. (पर दार अभिमर्षात् तु न अनयत् पाप तरम् महत् | para daara abhimarShaa tu na aanayat paapa taram mahat VR 3-37-30) It is interesting to note that Ravana commits all the three worst expressions of untamed desires. Though he was angry without a cause and wedded to untruth, he crossed all the limits of morality and ethics by abducting Sita.
What is best thing we can learn from Mareecha’s discussion with Ravana? Mareecha was dreading and living his life in constant thoughts of Rama. Though it was fear, the two interactions with Rama was enough to arouse little Satva. Despite his deep Tamas, he was able to see Rama’s true nature, beyond his human mask. This must give us hope. If Mareecha can evolve, so can we. Given enough time, Mareecha also would have scrubbed his fear and also bad vasanas. Whether we follow bhakti / jnana / dhyana marga our thoughts must be dominated by Rama (Brahman). As we envision it in every mundane action and thought, we include HIM in every aspect of our life, which leads to increasing satva. We can let bhakti take root in us if we choose to scrub our tamas. Listening and learning more about the daivi gunas of bhagawan cleanses the darker additions to our personality. Since most of our current behavior mirrors Mareecha, there is still hope. Mareecha was trying to trick Sita, but the Mareecha in us is our own manas which is deceiving itself by making us chase the temporary asatya of Jagat. Consciously invoking Rama’s name or elevating our thoughts about Atman will put us on a fast track towards HIS lotus feet.
ॐ तत् सत
