I have fallen in love with the Ramayana. Thank you World History class- I knew you'd be a good one to take. I spent my day yesterday reading an ancient Indian story- the Ramayana. It is a story about true love between Rama and Sita. Let me tell you why I love it:
**Ramayana Spoiler alert!**
When the two first lay eyes on each other it is love. They met eyes only for a second, but spent the rest of the day unable to forget the image of the others' face. "The question went on drumming in her mind: 'Who is he? Where has he gone? flashing into view and gone again- or am I subject to hallucination? It could not be so- a mere hallucination cannot weaken one so much.'" Sita is tormented. Rama says that, "the moon, too, seemeed to emphasize his sense of loniliness.... Now he kept thinking of the girl on the balcony and longed for another site of her"
The good news is- they do meet and get married. Rama is heir to the throne, but is banished to the fortest for 14 years by his step-mother. Sita follows him into the wilderness. He build them the most beautiful hut to live in. One day Sita sees a golden deer that she desires as a pet. Rama leaves his brother to watch after his wife, while he hunts down the prize deer. Sita is tormented by the thought that her husband is in danger, so she tells the brother to go after her husband or else she will kill herself. He feels obligated, but leaves her in a protective circle. if anyone was to enter it they would immediately die.
The too-powerful nine-headed evil demon God, Ravana, seeks to have Sita as his own. He comes to her in disguise and leads her out of the protective circle. he kidnaps her and takes her to his kingdom. Ravana is cursed- he can never touch a woman unless she allows him. This is very lucky for Sita'a virtue.
For the next few months her Husband, Rama, gathers an army and tracks down the palace of Ravana. He says, "Just when you have taken away the core of my life, you want to take more? There is nothing more to take." to a soldier of Ravana. Rama sends a messanger to locate his wife. She is standing at a tree pulling a rope over her neck when the messanger hands her the ring of her husband. She is filled with hope. there is a huge battle and Rama is victorious over the nine headed deamon.
He takes his wife- she is proved to have retained her virtue by a fire god.
"From the heart of the flame rose the god of fire, bearing Sita, and presented her with a word of blessing... Rama now welcomed Sita back into his arms."
After twelve or thirteen more years they are allowed to return to their kingdom and begin their reign.
You may have noticed that Rama's skin is blue. This is because he is the reincarnation of the god Vishnu- sent to earth to kill the powerful God Ravana that can only be killed by a human. The seemingly nieve and stupid moves of Sita allow him to accomplish the task his life was meant for.
His skin reminds me of the recent words of Regina Spektor:
Blue lips
Blue veins
The Color of our planet from far far away
Blue lips
Blue veins
The Color of our planet from far far away
Over the past 48 hours I have become very good at Texas Hold em. Ok well not very good. I still can never tell when I have good cards. But I have an extreme case of beginners luck. Yesterday I robbed my teacher, Travis, out of all of his 15 starbursts. It was pretty awesome.
