Final Journal

Journal: What evidence is there that the final battle is a spiritual or psychological one, rather than a literal one.  Think about what clues are given, and how they connect with Hinduism




Some evidence supporting a spiritual battle over a literal one is in the "weapons" they use. Some of the weapons aren't really weapons at all, just concepts. The "Gnana" is one such example. "Gnana" is literally wisdom. Rama sends forth wisdom to combat the illusions or "Maya" Ravanna has sent forth. It reminds me of Pokemon cards; you throw down a card that has a special power that defeats your enemies, but no actual fighting takes place. They also use pray a whole heck of a lot before doing anything, making sure the god's give their blessings on their attacks. That's a definite connection to Hinduism as they make sure everything will appease the gods before doing it so as not to wreck their kharma. Rama's final blow to Ravanna shows more evidence to a spiritual war as it attacked his heart, his being, rather than his physical self. Ravanna had taken care to protect his physical being, but didn't protect his heart, the thing that matters most to Hindus.

Where do you see evidence that Ravanna is too powerful, that the dharmic order of the cosmos is being upset? 


Ravanna is able to change the seasons. He gets too hot after hearing about Sita and plunges the world into nighttime, then into winter, then back to the sun, then into total darkness all in the same day. It confused the crap out of the worlds inhabitants and completely messed up the order of the cosmos. Ravanna also has kings in his court who will not put their hands down for fear they will be killed for not bing able to bow properly when the time comes. He too has gods under his control. It's too much power for one being to have and so Vishnu has come to restore order.

Ramayana Journal 1

Initially, I noticed that the wording seemed really stunted. it was so formal and it read like a robot was speaking it was also very wordy as we discussed prior to reading it.
I struggled so much with the names but i found if i read it aloud it was much better, probably because this was originally an oral story.