Value Education and Spirituality 19 – Ramayana 1 – Kaikeyi – Don’t be deluded by malicious misinformers

(The lectures from 9 to 18 in this series will be uploaded later)

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna Welcome back to our discussion on value education and spirituality we will discuss lessons from the Ramayan now the Ramayan is a book that can be understood at multiple levels at one level it is the story of god who has descended and is performing his leela but at another level it is also a lesson in it is also a story that offers us moral and ethical lessons about how to act and how to make decisions about how to act so we will take different incidents from the Ramayan and in short discuss lessons from them so let’s consider the incident that actually actually though it was traumatic set the scene for the unfolding of the main story of the Ramayan and that was Kaikeyi being misled by Mantra so look at the situation before this incident now at that time Dashrath was the king of Ayodhya and he had three wives that time the female population was often more than the male and women needed to be protected so often the kings had many wives so Polyandry was there at that time Polygamy was there and then so Kaikeyi was his youngest wife and Kaushalya was the eldest wife senior most wife and her son was to become the king and there is relative enmity between the co-wives and naturally because Kaushalya and Ram was the eldest he was going to become the king and at that time Mantra came and Kaikeyi was relaxing in her chambers and she said oh foolish lady what are you doing sitting here peacefully when disaster is about to strike upon you now Mantra had a slightly pouty irritable sort of nature and that’s why Kaikeyi did not take her very seriously, what is the matter and he said don’t you know Ram is going to be enthroned as the king actually Kaikeyi loved Ram like her own son and Ram also loved her as much as he loved his own mother so she was so pleased when she heard this and she actually took out her necklace jewel necklace and gave it to Mantra and he said take this, thank you for having brought such wonderful news this is a reward for you Mantra she was supposed to maidservant but she had some audacity she hurled the necklace down and he says what is there to celebrate this is the day of ruination for you what are you talking about he says if you if Ram becomes appointed as the prince regent then eventually become the king then his mother will become the most important woman in the palace and you will become neglected, your son will become neglected you will be lost completely, he says what are you speaking Ram loves me and Ram loves Bharat also, who knows after Ram, Bharat may become the king Mantra laughed sad she said what, how can he become the king, once the kingdom goes to Ram, it will go from Ram to his son it will never come back to you and if you think everything is innocent why is this coronation being performed this announcement being made, this ceremony being performed when Bharat is not there it’s a conspiracy, when Bharat is out he is being deprived of his rights, Kaikeyi started thinking, actually it was just happenstance there was no intentional plan that Bharat and Shatrughna had to be out at that time, they had just gone elsewhere and Dashrath Maharaj felt inspired, impelled that the time had come for starting the process of succession and so he decided to appoint it, so it was his feeling of urgency not any scheming or conspiracy that made this, but Mantra grabbed on to that piece of straw and she presented it as if it was conclusive evidence and the sheer force of argument with which Mantra presented, Kaikeyi started thinking, she was hearing and thinking, hearing and thinking and as they kept talking actually it was only Mantra doing the talking, Kaikeyi was listening, initially she was trying to oppose Kanthara, but after some time she just became silent and heard she heard from and after that session was over before that session she thought that Ram was her best friend was like her own son not her best friend, sorry was like her own son and she loved him but by the end of that session she was thinking that Ram is my mortal enemy and I have to get him out and that’s what she eventually did, she asked Ashwath for the two hours and that send Ram out of the forest out of the forest and make Bharath the next king after you now Ashwath Maharaj was so devastated by this he begged please don’t do this he said even if you want Bharath to become the king, fine but don’t send Ram out, I cannot live without Ram now Mantra had poisoned Kaikeyi so much, he said that don’t let Ram stay, if Ram is in the kingdom Bharath will not accept the kingdom only and even if Bharath accepts, people will not accept him so he has to be sent out and she did not relent Dashrath Maharaj actually fell at her feet and begged but still she did not relent and we know what happened after that Ram was exiled, the whole kingdom was devastated, Kaikeyi was reviled but still her heart didn’t change then her husband died because of heartbreak at this great tragedy that had come upon family, still her heart didn’t relent, it was only after Bharath came back and she told Bharath in a grand way first she said pretending to be sorrowful that the king has passed away, the king has met the destination that everyone has to meet but the kingdom awaits you now this kingdom awaits me, what do you mean Ram will become the king, he said no I have got the kingdom for you and started telling the story very proudly as if she had done something wonderful for Bharath and Bharath heard with increasing horror and he looked disbelievingly hands clutched on his head what have you done, he said you are not my mother, you are the goddess of destruction descended into our family to break our whole dynasty he said I if you had not been a woman I would have killed you but I reject you, you are no longer my mother and when Kaikeyi heard this it was at that time that her bubble burst she had been thinking that I was doing something noble to save my son from ignominy while she was actually doing something which brought Bharath and herself into ignominy and sank the whole family and indeed the kingdom into agony so why did she do such a thing because she was misled and this is what can happen to us also now when we hear from some people who have their own malicious agendas then we can by hearing one side of the story making judgements based on that we can ruin we can ruin relationships we can break hearts we can bring unbearable misery on ourselves now actually Manthara was a hunchback lady now it was a normal society it happens that people who have some deformities they are sometimes teased a little bit so that is unfortunate of course but she when Kaikeyi was married to Dashrath Maharaj she had been a nurse for Kaikeyi even in the kingdom of Kaikeya and she had come with Kaikeyi to Ayodhya now Kaikeyi because of her beauty soon became Dashrath’s favourite queen and because Kaikeyi had come from another place to this place she relied especially on Manthara so Manthara became like her favourite maid servant so because she was the favourite maid servant of the favourite queen of the king she soon gained a relative position of prestige in the palace staff and she felt that if Kaikeyi is no longer the most important woman in the palace then I will no longer be the most important servant of the most important woman and then what will happen to the position that I have got, I will lose that position and so she was selfishly motivated to protect her own position she destroyed Kaikeyi’s loving disposition towards Ram and she destroyed the whole population’s joy and happiness now so the point here to understand is that when people tell us malicious things about people, terrible things about others we can’t just hear from them submissively and accept it now what was the mistake of Kaikeyi now one mistake of course was she just kept hearing from Manthara but second mistake which is a bigger mistake, sometimes we may just go to some place and some people we may start talking and somebody we are speaking things things about people whom we respect and love they start speaking all sorts of negative things at that time one thing is we can just walk away from that place but if we can’t do that, at the very least what we could have done is, we should do is clarify Kaikeyi could have gone and talked with Dashrath Maharaj asked whether all this was true if she did not have trust in Dashrath Maharaj she could have gone to the palace priest and the sage Vasishtha and asked him she could have asked any of the other elders but so she heard one side of the story and that was also not, actually there was no side of the story only, it was a very distorted one corner fragment that Shatrughna and Bharata were not there, that was taken away whole story of conspiracy was built based on that and she heard that and she accepted that and she acted terribly against her intelligence against her conscience and brought remission upon herself and her kingdom so hasty judgements based on hearing only one side of the story and especially by hearing from malicious people who have their own agendas and without hearing the other side of the story that is an extremely dangerous thing to do so taking action using one side of the story not hearing the other side of the story, something which we should not do, that is what Kaikeyi did and she brought so much grief and we can also bring grief into our lives others lives and even real relationships if we hear from malicious people who have their own agendas and who spew poison about others to fulfill their agendas we have to be very careful about whom we associate with and especially whom we hear from and all the more so when those people start speaking negatively viciously about those whom we love and respect thank you Hare Krishna