Conquerable Mountain and Unconquerable Ego
  • Mind of any human being is very complex. All through the history of human
    kind people have tried to map this mind and continuously failed. Inside the
    mind is the most vital feeling of each person the Ego. All people need ego.
    Ego at a normal level is the self esteem. Every human being tries to present
    him/herself in a nice way in front of others. This presentation of the self
    becomes very important when it being presented before the opposite sex.
    Each and every person has a negative quality in him, but when he tries to
    present himself to others, he tries to avoid them as much as possible. It is
    a very natural action of any person to try to create a good impression about
    himself to others. This is at a very basic level i.e. when your ego is under
    control. In this state at least a person acknowledges his negatives and
    hence tries to hide it. But when Ego is beyond control and the presentation
    of the self is filled only with assumed greatness of the self. The mind
    never acknowledges the negative the person has and hence completely ignores
    it. It doesn't try to hide it, rather ignores the negatives as if they never
    existed.

    This state of uncontrolled ego is explored by Kamban. Kamban's Ravana has
    won over the world. He is the supreme lord and has defeated every one else.
    His ego is beyond control as he thinks there is no match for him in this
    world. Yet he is normal human being. He is in love with Sita. He is meeting
    Sita for the first time and Sita is alone(yeah his plan worked perfectly
    Rama and Lakshmana was behind the deer). He assumes the form of sage and
    visits her. As sage he speaks greatness of Ravana (which is offcourse
    himself) and tries to seduce sita through words( as surpanahaka did to
    Ravana by describing Sita'a beauty). The whole episode takes around 20
    stanzas. But I would like to illustrate Kamban's psychological depth to his
    character Ravana through one of the stanzas.
    http://karkanirka.wordpress.com/2008/11/22/ravana-kailash/

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