Beasts

When I was a kid, I loved reading the Amar Chitra Katha books.  The Amar Chitra Katha books were a series of illustrated comic books that depicted stories from Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain religions.  I loved the characters in those stories.  Those characters, as Pi said in Life of Pi:

"...were my superheroes growing up. Hanuman, the monkey god, lifting an entire mountain to save his friend Lakshman. Ganesh the elephant headed, risking his life to save the honor of his mother Pārvati. Vishnu, the Supreme Soul. The Soul of all things. Vishnu sleeps, floating on the shoreless cosmic ocean, and we are the stuff of his dreams."

 But you see, it was always easy to tell who the heroes and the villains were in those stories.  Even as they were being introduced, the good characters would have halos around their face, like a miniature moon acting as their personal shadow.  And the villains would have horns and tusks.  Even those who would later become traitors would have their eyes heavily shadowed with kohl, so as to reveal their dark intentions through their soft appearances.


This is not a technique that is limited to Indian illustrations.  Do not all of our Western heroes/heroines and villains follow similar archetypes?  The blonde-haired maiden pursued by a dark-haired villain?  The tall and handsome prince?  The crooked back scientist that creates a monster?  And of course, the beloved Wicked Witch from the Land of Oz wore black all the time because...

...black makes you look more slender?


But characters in history have proven to not follow these archetypes.

I remember when I was in middle school, as we were discussing the Holocaust, the thought behind everyone's mind was "How could people not spot the villains and call out 'wolf'?  Why did noone do anything to stop these atrocities!"

There are two parts to the answer to these questions.  First, it's not easy to tell evil even if it stands before you.  The problem is that Hitlers' can be charming. Stalins' can be sweet.  Columbuses' can give you the last 20 cents you needed for your coffee when you were out of change.  People don't have the same archetypes that the villains from our childhood stories have.  Even the archetypes can blend together.  For Hitler's mustache was actually of British origin and was popularized by the innocent comedian Charlie Chaplin.

Sometimes these archetypes can get in the way of even determining who is a friend and who is an enemy.  When I was young, I remember being at the temple in Srirangam.  Srirangam is a beautiful Vaishnavite temple in South India. It is huge.  The outer walls have a circumference of 6 miles. It is 156 acres in size, about 1.5 times larger than Vatican City (109 acres).

I remember being overwhelmed with the crowds of people and the tall gopurams towering over 200 feet.  And suddenly in the masses, I was lost.

Not spiritually lost, but literally lost.  I had no idea where my family was.  I tried seeking help from those around me.  These was one girl who came up to me and asked me if I was lost.  I was about to speak when her mother grabbed her hand and pulled her away:

"Yain andha karuppaana passanngal koodu paysera? Yarro pethu pitchakarranga..." Translation: "Why are you talking with those dark-skinned kids? They are probably just beggars!"


And in that moment I was the black sheep.  I always knew that that I was darker than most people in my family, but I never knew that that carried any influence on how I may be perceived in public.  I had forgotten that in the Amar Chitra Katha stories, the heroes were always shaded in pink while the villains were shaded in black or dark grey. I found my family within the next few minutes, but the moment deeply scarred me.



But it also opened my eyes to reality.  It's not as easy to spot good people in a crowd.  And it's similarly not easy to spot the beasts.   The beasts in this world may appear with charming faces, sweet expressions, and kind gestures. Also, probably most frightening, they may even possess positions of power.

In the Mahabharatha, there is a story of where the evil Kauravas, after winning a game of dice, bring out the Princess Draupadi to be stripped before the entire court and thereby humiliated.

In an extremely moving scene, she defiantly looks at all the lords of the court and spits in their face.  She states "where righteousness and justice do not exist, it ceases to be a court; it is a gang of robbers".


For me, this scene was moving for many reasons.  Draupadi was in a handicapped state where even those who knew how unfair the situation was, did not come to her rescue.  The "beasts" in her situation were all princes and lords of the court with the power to execute her.  However, she was defiant and spoke in favor of righteousness, even though a plea for mercy might have been more helpful for her plight.  And that's the second part of the answer to why the Holocaust occurred.  People were too afraid to stand up and face the beasts since the beasts were in positions of power.


What I've learned in my life is to always be alert.  There are beasts that prowl around us all the time.  We have two duties: (1) To not let appearances, traits, and other characteristics be the determining factor of who is righteous and who is not, and (2) when confronted by one of these beasts, to step forward in the name of righteousness, instead of cowering, even if we are not in a position of power.