The Hand of Destiny

I was reading the Valmiki Ramayana. It has long been a devout practice with me to read daily in the morning one or two Sargas of the Ramayana. I came to the passage in the Ayodhya Kanda where King Dasaratha decides with the hearty consent of the whole Country to instal Sri Rama as the Yuvaraja the following morning. But, true to the saying “Man proposes but God disposes”, it was not destined to take place.

The news makes a great stir in the city. It is all joy at the prospect of its long-cherished dream being realised. In the midst of the overwhelming rejoicings of the people, there is however one single individual on whom it has a totally contrary effect. She is far from being happy about it and is actually resolved to do everything in her power to prevent it. Indeed, had there been no Manthara with her evil intentions everything would have gone off even as had been planned. Instead of the great chaos it would have been all joy and peace. But it was not to be, fate had willed otherwise.

I was amusing with mingled emotions over the sudden change of event which plunges the whole city in a terrible confusion and grief; a letter came to me from the post. The Editor of Triveni had Written asking me to contribute an article to the special number which he was bringing out on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of the journal. It threw me into some flutter of anxiety as to what to write which would be suitable to Triveni, a journal wholly devoted to Art, History and Literature. As I sat thinking about the choice of a suitable subject, the thought occurred to me from what I had been reading–how Destiny stood in the way of the ceremony fixed to take place the next day; that fate has a hand in directing the course of human as in the case of Sri Rama is a truth found in all the great literatures of the World. Manthara is described as a hunchof unknown parentage– is the word which is used with the careless indifference in the text–and brought up with Kaikeyi as her companion. Evidently she is portrayed so by Valmiki with a purpose. We may well assume that owing to her physical deformity, she seldom went up the palace; for we are told that she ascended the stairs by accident. –that is the word used significantly by Valmiki–on that fateful eve and getting there she beholds for the first time the whole city in great jubilation as on a grand festive occasion. Astounded and curious to know the cause of all those joyful preparations she enquires those near her and when informed of the happy news she hastens, beside herself with anger, to Kaikeyi’s apartments, where she finds the indolent Kaikeyi reclining among her silken cushions blissfully ignorant of all that is taking place. She is lying supremely happy in the knowledge of her beauty and her absolute power over the king. Nothing seems to disturb her quiet complacency. Upon this serene atmosphere, Manthara bursts like a thundering cloud that threatens to cover the whole sunny sky in an instant with a frightful gloom. We know how she contrives by her artful and ingenious words to transform the sweet, placid Kaikeyi into the most heartless and obstinate woman. Had Manthara never ascended the stairs of the palace and been informed of the ceremony on the morrow, there would have been no occasion for her to incite Kaikeyi against Sri Rama, and all would have been well. So it is not wrong to suppose that it was fate which made matters so complicated as to send Sri Rama as an exile to the forest for fourteen long years. Sri Rama himself tells Lakshmana, “It is all fate Lakshmana! Nobody is to be blamed.” What else indeed, but fate can turn so loving and gentle a being into one so selfish and heartless all at once!