The Creative Process: The Arts of War (Spring 2017)

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Spring 2017 The Arts of War shaped by circumstances and ‘moralistic’ principles. There are far too many retellings of the Rāmāyana; here we focus mostly on the Vālmīki Rāmāyana for the narratives and plot structures. It would be helpful to first present the circumstances that caused the war. When Rāma and Lakshmana leave Sitā in their hut in pursuit of the golden deer that Sitā desired, Ravana kidnaps Sitā. Vowing revenge, Rāma, aided by the Vānara, wages war on Rāvana, and defeats him. However, why precisely did Rāma wage war on Rāvana? Were there other reasons besides bringing his wife back, and did these reasons rationalise the use of violence? RIGHT CAUSE Is there an appropriate cause to justify violence? In the Vālmīki Rāmāyana, the sanctity of the world is endangered by demons who terrorise Brahmin sages and defile their rituals, so the gods call upon Vishnu to restore its purity. Vishnu takes the form of Rāma, whose sole mission in life is to end the demons’ menace for which he must face Rāvana (who is the leader of the demons) in battle. This predecided calling to restore cosmic balance seems to justify the bloodshed in the Rāmāyana. It is said that in waging offensive war against Rāvana, Rāma is not only condemning the violence and evil that Ravana is committing, but also the targeting of said violence towards ascetics of the religious principle of Hinduism as well. Moreover, Rāma is further authorized to kill violent forces and therefore protect the world by virtue of being born as a Kshatriyā, one of the warrior caste. By a slightly twisted logic, this principle does not seem to have been violated. RIGHT INTENTION Right intention is a subset of right cause. We may define this as whether the motivation behind upholding righteousness is pure and 12
The Creative Process independent of selfish desires. For Rāvana, the intent seems to be to promote conflict—it is thus self-serving and hence condemned. However, Rāmā falters here as well. The desire to get his wife back (which is what the intention seems to be at first glance) is selfserving, for all intents and purposes. However, in many places in the Rāmāyana, Rāmā mentions that he is not retrieving his wife out of affection for her; rather, it is to redeem his lost honor. He carelessly mentions this in the Yuddha Kāṇḍa, when Sitā is brought out to him, all decked up. He tells her that she is free to go, now that the prestige of his clan has been restored. He further goes on to say that she could now choose to be with Sugrīva, Vibhīshana, or even his brothers –clearly all lesser beings (pardon my usage of the term) than him. Rāmā thus redeems himself by waging war, and then seeks to absolve himself of any blame in Sitā’s misfortunes by disassociating himself from her. Further, the suggestion that she should now associate herself with less-godly men is something that I see as a mark of arrogance and an indication of the fact that Sitā was merely a tool for self-preservation; now that the job is done Rāmā has no use for her anymore, and in fact would leave her to beings less accomplished than him. I feel that leaving her to lesser-beings also indicates that he cares only about himself, it does not matter if others have to face the consequence of having an unchaste (since that is what Rāmā presumes about Sitā) wife. Many would justify this by saying that as long as the cosmic balance of the universe was restored, such individual actions need not matter. I would, however, prefer to discard this utilitarian notion with respect to this point. I feel that both Rāmā and Rāvana waged war with the wrong intention. This criterion of the just war theory has been violated. LAST RESORT More important than that, however, is whether war was absolutely the last resort. Were all prior attempts at peace exhausted before the parties turned to war? It is interesting to note that when Rāmā is exiled by Dasharatha, he calmly accepts his fate, while Lakshmana 13
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