A Ramayana Fan Fiction
Valmiki once asked Brahma, “Why should I pen the Ramayana when you say Ravana will live in every human heart in Kaliyuga?”
Brahma smiled, the kind of smile that made Valmiki uneasy, because it hides both irony and inevitability.
He told the sage, “You are not writing to inspire Kaliyuga, Valmiki. You are writing to complete it. That age will be full of humans who fall to the highest standard they hold themselves accountable to, when no one is watching. And when they are watched, they will perform a nobility they can only learn from the life of Rama. Violence will not come from ignorance of Rama, but from invoking Rama to justify it. Without your writing, Kaliyuga cannot reach its destiny, and I cannot reach mine.”
Valmiki bowed, realizing that what Brahma was asking of him was not to save the beings of Kaliyuga, but to reveal them.
The question isn’t whether Ravana lives in us. The question is whether we can meet him without pretending to be Rama.