The Bermuda triangle!!!
Let’s travel back to the times of Rama. He is in the forest with wife Sita and brother Lakshmana. He is serving Vanavasa and all things are hunky dory and they are in the pink of health. Their life style had been documented and now it’s the bible of health at all major fitness centres around the world!
During one of those fitness regimens, Surpanaka, on an aerial survey (ala Donald Trump) gets to see the hunk Rama with the rippling muscle. She can’t afford to fly high any more, manages to land and plays the role of peeping Jane to the hilt. She didn’t have to muster courage to proposition Rama as she was Courage-Personified. The offer is there to take.
Now Rama is in a fix; he retorts, “Hey lady, I’m a one-lady man and she is right here. However, I have equally good-looking brother and why don’t you try him”.
Roles essayed: Surpanaka- perpetrator; Rama – victim; Lakshmana - savior
Surpanaka now moves to Lakshmana and the offer is made without any hesitation. As is Lakshmana, the angry young man of those years, who always wears anger on his sleeves, draws out the knife and wipes the nose off her face!! Surpanaka flies off in a jiff and updates Ravana. He plots to avenge the humiliation.
Roles essayed: Surpanaka- victim, Ravana-savior and Lakshmana – perpetrator
The plot thickens. Maareecha, disguised as Golden Deer, sashays in front of Sita. She wants it at any cost. She requests Rama to get the Deer for her. She pleads, begs and Rama yields. Rama leaves Lakshmana to guard Sita and goes on the hunt.
Roles essayed: Maareecha – perpetrator, Sita – victim and Rama – savior
While the wild goose chase is on, Maareecha mimics Rama’s cry and sends Sita into a tizzy. She orders Lakshmana to look out for Rama but he never budges and says that he is following the orders. Sita succumbs and throws a taunt saying that he was looking for such a situation to be with her…
Roles essayed: Sita – perpetrator, Lakshmana – victim
The circumstances change but the same beings change the role they play according to the dictates of the situation. It’s a Bermuda triangle and you get sucked anyways!
Rama, Sita, Surpanaka were all sucked into the triangle and playing the role that’s thrown to you becomes almost a necessary evil. However it takes a real effort to sit outside the triangle and analyze your emotions and feelings. Getting carried away without rhyme or reason is the natural but the first reaction.
Now, could we operate out of the triangle? The answer is a yes and a no. Let’s consider two people who are fighting for their lives. One ends up killing the other. What punishment could be meted out to the killer?
Opinion flows without even asking-Jail, gallows, shoot, torture him to death and so on. If the space they are operating is normal societal environs, the above punishment could/may be justified. If the environ is a war-field, the victim is revered as a patriot and the killer rewarded. Thus the space in which one operates is attributed highest significance-- both the physical environs and the space between the ears..
All the manifestation of anger (Lakshmana), desire to be accepted (Surpanaka), being adamant for no reason and emotionally black-mailing (Sita) , getting carried away or being elusive (Rama) and being protective or avenging humiliation (Ravana) is all within us…Its not the interplay of characters as in the story above. More often than not it’s the conflict of emotions /the flux of emotions within you! Every emotion of yours could be laid on the operation table, cut open and understood!
You are the perpetrator, you are the victim and you are the savior!!! Thus be happy as YOU are the reason for your misery and nobody else!!
PS: Thanks to a Doc whom I met in Agra and movie Upendra