The Ethics Behind The Epics

As an Indian American who spent the first nine years of my life in New Delhi, I was surprised nobody had ever told me the whole story of the Ramayana and Mahabharata from the beginning to the end. I had known individual stories - some in significantly more detail than we covered in class - but I lacked the big picture. What caught me the most off-guard and in turn increased my appreciation of my cultural roots much more than ever before was the morals and ethics that can be drawn from the actions of Rama, Sita, and Laxmana. The questions (which were brought to the fore by Guru) really made me think. The following, in particular, are still in my head over a week after our discussion:

1. What do we do when someone has a negative thought about us?

2. Is it a part of our dharma to help others take revenge even though the person we are about to harm has done nothing wrong to us?

As for the first question, I'd assume people today generally don't just leave like Laxmana did when Sita had a negative thought about him. I myself (and I like to think I'm in the majority here) spend time with the person and try to refute their thought. I can't say, however, that this always works..

The second question is something that was posed thousands of years ago, but is still relevant today, especially when we look at global politics. Is it the duty of strong nations to be the world police? Is it in fact wrong for nations like the US and EU to take such an active role in world affairs?

These questions may never have an absolute answer, and that is what makes them so important and relevant through time.