Week 4 Story: The One Who Betrayed His Brother

Ram, Lakshman, Hanuman, and the rest of Sugriva's army set out to rescue Sita from Ravana. As they're journeying across the lands and through the numerous villages surrounding Lanka, they see many beautiful lakes, at which they take rest once a day. One day at one of these lakes, Lakshman suddenly hears a woman singing. It is the most beautiful singing he has ever heard in his life, and without even thinking of telling the others, he goes in search for this voice. He drifts far away from Ram and the army following him, and finally reaches an ashram adorned with flowers, just how he constructs his. He can still hear the beautiful voice, as if it is calling to him and drawing him closer. Finally, when he reaches a pond behind the little house, he is awestruck. Before him is a woman so beautiful and so welcoming that he can't find the will to move. He is in love. Or at least, he thinks he is. Little does he know, he stepped into a large trap for him. The woman's voice and appearance was a disguise for her true self - Soorpanaka. Ever since he mutilated her for trying to strike Sita, she felt the need to get revenge. And she was almost done. 

As Soorpanaka got closer, Lakshman felt a drift of happiness come over him and immediately bowed down to her. Soorpanaka told him that she accidentally trespassed Ravana's land in Lanka while trying to get to her own home, and he banished her to this spot; the only way she can pass through Lanka is if she finds a man who can take her across without actually stepping on land (she knew Ram and Lakshman had a chariot that could fly). Lakshman, still in her spell, reassured her that he would always take care of her and invited her to come with his army to Lanka. Soorpanaka, still in her disguise, agreed. When they got back, Ram was extremely suspicious of Lakshman's situation, but he knew his brother had great judgment, so in the end he gave him the benefit of the doubt and allowed the woman to stay.

When they went to sleep, Soorpanaka transformed into her true self, and carried Lakshman to Ravana's palace. She had enchanted him so that he would follow her orders; slowly by slowly, he revealed Ram's location and his plan for attacking Ravana and rescuing Sita. No sooner had Ram and his army woken up from the sun's rays, did Ravana and his army attack their ground. The next few moments were ones of confusion, hurry, and realization of betrayal once they saw Lakshman driving Ravana's chariot. Ram could not believe his eyes, and his heart suddenly filled with anger. Soorpanaka and Ravana did not realize what would happen if Ram was in a rage. He slayed most of Ravana's army with only three arrows, jumped around from horse to horse, chariot to chariot, just swinging his bow, trying to kill Ravana and successfully dodging all the objects and people flying at him. The only people left to kill were Soorpanaka and Ravana. When Ram finally hit Soorpanaka with one of his arrows, Lakshman became free of her spell. He immediately jumped into action and stabbed her, while Ram focused on Ravana. His anger was still at a unusually high level, and he decapitated Ravana's heads one by one. The heads kept growing back, but his army around him suggested going for Ravana's heart, since that could not be replaced. Finally with a plan in mind, the entire army of Sugriva ran at Ravana and focused on tearing his heads from his body, while Ram shot arrows at his enemy. Finally, enough arrows hit Ravana to where he could not move and his heads began growing back slowly. Ram finally got off his chariot and walked over to Ravana, and with one swift move, he killed Ravana once and for all. The battlefield was quiet for a few moments, while everyone realized what just occurred; then, cries of victory all over sprang about. They had won! They had finally defeated Ravana, who had been terrorizing the lands for years!

Ram finally was able to cross the lake between him and Lanka, where Sita was being held. As soon as he saw her, he picked her up and immediately swore to her that he would never let her out of his sight again. Sita knew in her heart that Ram would always protect her, and they graciously welcomed each other. Finally, when Lakshman arrived, Ram stared at him coldly. Lakshman tried explaining what had happened to him, but Ram was not responding to him as a brother. He was looking at him through a different lens, as if he was the enemy now. Lakshman lamented for hours, but when Ram was clearly not satisfied with his explanation and continued to say his soul had been poisoned, he began to gather some wood and make a fire for himself. Lakshman cried out, "O Agni, great god of fire, be my witness." He threw himself into the fire, and less than a minute later, Agni rose from the flames and presented Lakshman to Ram with his blessing. Ram was finally convinced that his brother still had a pure heart, and welcomed him gracefully.

Source: A depiction of the battle between Ram and Ravana.

Bibliography: R. K. Narayan's Ramayana, The Battle.

Author's Note: 
I made this story pretty long, just as the battle between Ram and Ravana was. I kind of thought of Narnia and how Edmund betrayed his family for the Witch, but then realized his mistake and came back to his family. So in this story, I chose Lakshman to betray Ram's side, because I felt like that would have the biggest impact on Ram since he trusted his brother more than anything. I made Soorpanaka lure Lakshman to his side because of the earlier plot story about Lakshman mutilating Soorpanaka; this part was kind of a revenge story. At the end of the Ramayana, Ram tests Sita because he thinks she is impure after spending so much time at the enemy's lair. She jumps in the fire until the god of fire presents her to Ram with his blessings. Since Lakshman was the one that Ram thought was at fault here, I changed it to where Lakshman jumped into the fire until Ram accepted him. The one quote I had in there, when Lakshman jumped in, came straight from R. K. Narayan's story.