topics: |  myth | hindu | ramayana

Ramayana:
 Bharat is to become king - but why does Rama need to go to the forest?
 In the Mahabharata, the rAmopakhyan by rishi markandeya tells how Brahma
 directed a Gandharvi to descend to earth as Manthara to ensure that Rama
 is forced to go to the forest and rid the world of Ravana. 27
Thus it was all destiny.

Destiny and desire, karma and kama, are the two forces that propel the
world.  Destiny is a reaction, an obligation that follows an action.
Desire is an aspiration that forces the world to transform in a particular
way.  We have the freedom to accept life as it is or to make it the way we
want it to be.  That is what makes us Manavas or humans.    31

[Elsewhere, Devdutt points to the power of desire - as in the tale of
Savitri:

    Typically, Indians are considered a fatalistic people. We believe in
    karma, that life is pre-determined. And yet, we find the following story
    in the vana parva of the Mahabharata, narrated by the sage Markandeya to
    the Pandavas.

    Once upon a time, there was a princess called Savitri, who was the only
    child of her father. She fell in love with Satyavan, a prince whose
    father had been driven out of his kingdom by his enemies, and so lived in
    abject poverty in the forest. Her father opposed this marriage not only
    because Satyavan was poor but also because he was destined to die within
    a year of marriage. Savitri followed her heart nevertheless. A year of
    happy married life followed. A year later, at the appointed hour, Yama,
    the god of death, hurled his noose and took Satyavan's life out of his
    body. Savitri followed him. "Go back and cremate his body," he advised
    her. She refused to do so and kept following Yama into the land of the
    dead. Exasperated, he offered her three boons so that she would go away,
    "Anything except the life of your husband." Savitri first asked that her
    father-in-law regain his kingship. Then she asked her father get a son
    and heir. And finally she asked that she be the mother of Satyavan's
    sons. "So be it," said Yama and continued on his journey to the land of
    the dead. After some time he noticed that Savitri was still following
    him. "You gave me your word that you would return to the land of the
    living," he said. "You  give me no choice. You said I would be the mother
    of Satyavan's children. How can a dead body make me a mother? I must
    therefore follow Satyavan's soul into the land of the dead." Yama
    realized he had been outwitted. As custodian of the laws of karma, his
    boons had to be realized. The only way for Savitri to bear Satyavan's
    children was to make Satyavan's alive again. And so it happened.

    in a fatalistic society, such stories [and the rituals, e.g. of karva
    chauth] should not exist. Whatever will happen will happen so why pray
    and perform rituals. Clearly, it means people believe it is possible to
    change fate by intense will and by the grace of God.

    Long ago, Yagnavalkya, the greatest sage of the Upanishadic era, was
    asked, "Is the world governed by fate or free will?" He replied,
    "Both. They are like the two wheels on either side of the chariot. If
    you depend on one too much you go around in circles."

    [Yama is the god of fate.]   Before Yama, one is helpless. With Kama,
    one is hopeful.

    ancient indian board games:
    Snakes and ladders: destiny
    Pachisi : mixture of luck and skill.
      Another variant of this game was Ganjifa which evolved into the modern
	game of Playing Cards. The first throw of the cards depended on
	fate/luck while the way the cards were used in the course of the game
	depended on skill/free will.

    Pachisi evolved into Chaturanga (which had four different types of
    coins, namely the horse, the chariot, the elephant, the foot soldier)
    which then traveled to Arabia and then Europe and became known as
    Chess. During this evolution and migration, the dice was
    abandoned. Now, chess is purely a game of skill. Of mathematics. Of
    free will.  ]

Destiny: long ago, Dasarath on a hunt shot off an arrow hearing a sound,
	and killed Shravan Kumar, only son of blind parents.  They cursed him
	that he would die of grief for his son.  Later, he accepts his fate
	as Rama leaves.
Desire: when Dasarath does not accept his childlessness and marries three
	wives and also performs the yajna to have children

When Dasharatha is helping the gods in a battle with the asuras, his axle
suddenly breaks.  At that point, Kaikeyi was accompanying him - and she puts
her hand into the axle so the chariot can be driven away.  This is why he
offers her two boons.

Dasarath's first child, from Kaushalya, is Shanta, daughter, not Rama.  She
is married to ekashringa.

tapa: heat generated through celibacy and other forms of sensory
	withdrawal.
tapasya: