Sunday 9 December 2012

God and the Flying King


Vishnu was born as Rama in the city of Ayodhya where he sat an example as the perfect son, perfect husband, and perfect king. All the while not realizing that he was God incarnate! And not realizing he was getting into, Ravana kidnapped Rama's wife, Sita (who was the goddess Lakshmi incarnate, though she didn't realize it either), hoping to force her to marry him.

Rama came after Ravana and eventually destroyed both the demon and his capital city. Ravana had a huge, highly trained army at his disposal as well as every technological advantage. He even had a flying machine called a vimana, the Vedic equivalent of a helicopter, with which he could drop in unexpectedly on his victims.

Rama had only a motley army of monkeys and bears (perhaps this was a colorful way of describing some simple tribal people of southern India), and bows and arrows. Yet his love for Sita was so strong he managed to defeat Ravana's vastly superior forces. The story is told in loving detail in the Hindu epic Ramayana. 

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