66697602-The-Ramayana-R-K-Narayan

The perfect man takes a false step, apparently commits a
moral slip, and we ordinary mortals stand puzzled before the
incident. It may be less an actual error of commission on his
part than a lack of understanding on ours; measured in
Eternity, such an event might stand out differently. But until
we attain that breadth of view, we are likely to feel disturbed
and question the action. Rama was an ideal man, all his
faculties in control in any circumstances, one possessed of
an unwavering sense of justice and fair play. Yet he once
acted, as it seemed, out of partiality, half-knowledge, and
haste, and shot and destroyed, from hiding, a creature who
had done him no harm, not even seen him. This is one of the
most controversial chapters in the Ramayana.
The characters in the drama that follows are Vali,
Sugreeva, Hanuman, and Rama. The action takes place in
the mountainous forest regions of Kiskinda, a kingdom ruled
and inhabited by monkeys. In the Ramayana, the
participants are not only human beings but many others from
God’s creation, intelligent, cultured, and with their own
achievements of spirit as well as physique: Jambavan was a
bear, Jatayu was an eagle, Lakshmana—Rama’s brother—
was himself a human incarnation of the Great Serpent
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VALI