Meghnad was better than us

 As a twelve year old kid, I had won two gold medals for able to collect a certain amount of funds for the welfare of the elderly. I love doing such work even now. I do not get any more ‘Gold’ medals and I do not need one but the thought that whatever I am able to collect or donate will help support the lives of those deserted by their children, gives me a strange mental satisfaction.
In India, it is believed that Lord Rama is the ideal amongst sons. His popularity is due to the fact that he obeyed his father Dasharatha’s order and went into exile without protest. An obedient son is compared to Rama and it is expected that every son shall behave in a manner close to his ‘idealistic’ way.

We call our civilization as the oldest and we claim, as Indians, we are an example of a culturally progressive society where young ‘respect’ the elders and children ‘sincerely obey’ their parents. If this be true then there has to be a very strong reason for the existence of around 1000 old age homes (including non-registered ones) in this “culturally progressive society”.

There are countless big and small NGOs working for the betterment of the large no of aged persons who have been abandoned or, to simply put, thrown out of their homes by their own children. The statistics of sons doing this inhuman act is high but daughters too are not far behind.

Major states of India have their own share of old age homes. A literate state like Kerala has a very high number of homes for the elderly. West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, etc. show how big sinners we are.

Let us admit, we can never think of coming close to the ‘ideal’ characteristic of Lord Rama. The Ramayana calls him the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the preserver of earth. We mortals have no right to compare ourselves to God or any of his incarnations. Thus Rama stands above any example. He is simply above all comparisons. The question thus remains as to who can be rightfully called the ‘ideal’ son whose example, we as mortals can think of emulating in our own characters.

The Ramayana itself gives us two such characters. Shravan Kumar and, in an especially different manner, Meghnad. Shravan Kumar is a character best known for his devotion to his blind parents. How he carried them in a basket and walked miles visiting places of worship as per their wishes is again a great display of idealism. We, as a society can follow his example because he is a human but then we do not deserve it. This brings us to the third and the last of the ideal sons.

Born as the second son of Ravana, Meghnad was so named for his birth cry sounded like that of thunder. He entered the battle only after his uncle Kumbhakarna and all his brothers had died. The Shri Ramcharitamanas hails him as a great warrior.

The Ramayana tells us an incident in which Ravana scolds Meghnad for his ‘act of cowardice’. It so happened that during the third and the final battle with Lakshmana, Indrajit (another name of Meghnad given to him by Lord Brahma) having witnessed how the deadliest of weapons failed to work against his adversary disappeared from the battlefield for a brief period. He went straight to Ravana, his father, with an appeal to make peace with Rama and end the war to save the demon race from further destruction. Ravana, blinded with pride, scolds Indrajit. This angered Meghnad and he clarified that his objective to fight the battle was to perform his primary duty of a son and secondary duty of a prince. He said that his primary duty was to serve his father’s best interest and as a prince he was trying to protect his motherland.

He stayed by his father’s side at a time when he needed it the most. It was only after his death that Ravana entered the battle. With the open show of disrespect to the elders of our society we are far below the status and the personality of Meghnad.

Each year we burn his effigy hailing it as the victory of righteousness. It was a victory indeed but there were qualities in the demon prince which makes him far better than us.

I reiterate that Meghnad was indeed an ideal son. Yes, he is considered a villain by all of us. Yes, he was on the wrong side but the question is, was he wrong? Take the example of Karna in Mahabharata. We do not consider him to be a villain but an estranged son who only performed his duty as a true friend of Duryodhana (the leader of the Kauravas who were the antagonist in the Mahabharata). Then why do we brand Meghnad as the personification of evil?

Our society is growing fast and we are taking giant steps to the future but in doing so we forget that the people who made us what we are today are growing weaker by the day and our “great Indian culture” tells us not to leave them behind.

Yesterday my boss was telling me about what should be the conduct of an ideal son. I asked him who according to him can be taken as an epitome of ‘ideal son’. He replied, “Rama”. He asked me my choice. I smiled while saying, “Meghnad” and quietly went back to my work.