Child
of mine, I begin. I am Vishnu the great. These other gods came to me to ask me to do
them a favor. They asked me to take care of the problem they had
created. I think how I should explain the
reason I
want to do a favor for these other gods.
I am one of the most powerful, influential, and the most
respected of
all. I have always been loyal to those who are loyal to me. I am one the most revered gods.
There are more who to me more than any other
because of my loyalty and kindness. It’s
because of this that the other gods asked me to rid the world of
Ravana, the ten-headed
demon king. All of the gods and mortals know my character and
that is why
they know that I would not turn them down and it is because of this
they came
to me.
Ravana’s
hatred, greed, and anger will be his
downfall. Ravana will never know why or what hit him until it is
too
late. Ravana has been such an angry king.
He has also been a very smart and manipulative king.
Ravana the
great demon king tricked the gods into a deal where no god was able to
kill
Ravana. Ravana was only able to be killed by a man.
I
am proud to be revered by so many as such an
honored god. I am proud to be the
preserver of the world. My entire purpose
has been to keep the world free from the harm of demons.
I will gladly honor the request that has been
asked of me. That demon king, who does
he think he is to treat the people and the gods the way he does?
I will honor
the respect of the other gods and I will seal Ravana’s fate.
I
am the child of the great King Dasaratha. I took
the form of a mortal, a human, a man. I
became Rama. I will not tell you of my entire life as Rama. We do not have time for my entire tale.
I will tell you of the important events in my life as Rama.
Child
of mine, Ravana decided that he wanted Sita as
his wife. While Ravana thought that Sita would easily be
attracted to him
and leave me as Rama, Ravana was sadly mistaken. I
tell you that Ravana’s revenge and hatred
runs deep. Ravana sought revenge on me
because Sita rejected him.
Ravana
tried to kill me so that he could take Sita. While
he was wrong to think this would work,
what he did not understand was that I had been asked to kill him.
I
tracked Ravana and I vowed to take him to his death. I decided
that I
must teach Ravana a lesson since he was unable to learn from his own
mistakes. It was with this that my quest continued to a deeper
more
personal level than before.
Ravana
had several commanders who tried to fight and
kill me. They were coming from every direction, from the left,
right, in
front of me, behind me, hiding around every corner. It was
crazy.
There were so many of them with what seemed like a million
weapons. I
ducked, I turned, I jumped, I ran, I hid, I fell to the ground, but
nothing
worked. I could not hide from the commanders.
I did not want to hurt the commanders; I
simply wanted to kill Ravana. I decided
that if this was the way Ravana was going to battle then it was to be. I must fight all who were in the way.
So, fight is what I did. I took my energy, I took your mother’s
revenge
and I fought. Before I knew it, I had killed thousands of
Ravana’s
soldiers.
I
then started in on Ravana. I began by taking
his weapons and destroying his chariot. I finally was able to get
Ravana
into a battle for the ages. I was injured and he was injured. Both of our injuries were bad, but I did not
know if I was going to make it. It was then that the realization
hit me
that I would kill Ravana. My decision
became
how important it was for me to live or die.
I decided I would live. I
turned. I saw Ravana.
I was more determined and unwavering in my quest
to conquer him. At that moment, Ravana ran toward me. I was able to turn and at that very moment it
seemed as everything slowed down just for a second. I then swung
and
decapitated Ravana. It was not just one of the ten heads that I
struck. I had cut off the most vital
head of the demon king. Ravana’s central
head was gone and with that I knew Ravana was dead.
I was wrong, Ravana was not dead. He
grew another head. I cut off another. Ravana grew another head. Nothing made
sense. I pulled out another arrow from my satchel.
I pulled the one weapon I had been saving for
a special purpose. This was greater than
any arrow in the world. This arrow is one of the most powerful in
existence. This arrow was made by the
great Brahma. I pulled back on my
bow. I told myself to concentrate,
focus, and aim. So, I checked my aim, closed my eyes, prayed and
shot. I opened my eyes slowly; I looked up and saw Ravana.
I saw
Ravana lying on the ground, the dust still falling to the earth to
rest.
I was not sure what had happened. Ravana
still had all ten heads, yet Ravana was not moving. I checked
again. The arrow was in Ravana’s stomach
area. The demon king, Ravana, was
dead. Never
to be heard from again.
Rama conquering Ravana
Source: The Perfection of Rama by Joshua Harlan
Author’s
Note:
I
chose to write the story of Rama defeating Ravana
as my first story. I wrote this story in
the same concept as a father telling his child a story.
I made mention of Sita to allow the reader to
an insight into the world. I wanted to
make the reader want to read the second story.
I
wrote the beginning with Vishnu as the
speaker. I did this so Vishnu could describe the idea of his
greatness,
importance, significance, and confidence.
I wanted Vishnu to be the speaker so that Vishnu’s confidence
that he
would kill Ravana was clear no matter what occurred.
I
also wanted Vishnu to be the one who said that he
would be born as the son of Dasaratha to give a little background on
Rama
without having to go into a lot of detail.
By placing Vishnu as the speaker at the beginning of story it
gives the
reader a clearer idea that a child is hearing a “glory day” story from
a
dad.
In addition I felt it was important to open up a point to talk about Ravana and how Ravana treated people. This also opened the story so that Ravana’s traits and characteristics could be described to the reader.