Beyond Good and Evil

What is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil.

Friedrich Nietzsche

India’s colourful celebration of festivals is well-known the world over. We rejoice much, and not just because we have so many official holidays from work. There was perhaps a time when we rejoiced in all colours of life, but recently, the warm and light shades have been receiving precedence over the cool and dark ones.

Colourful Roots

We are the nation of Krishna, the notoriously shady god who seduced, cheated and brazenly found stealthy ways out of tricky situation. The king of the nature pantheon, Indra, often found underhanded ways of maintaining power even when sincere demons tried establishing thriving kingdoms. The sculptures on our many, many temples depict trade, sex and worship in equal measure. While our leadership may still emulate these qualities, popular religion is intent on white-washing our colourful gods, perhaps painting them a particular shade of tangerine.

The recent festival of Dusshera, Dassera, Vijayadhashami, however you celebrate it in your unique culture, is most popularly regarded as the victory of Rama over Ravana, Durga over Mahishasura, Good over Evil. But this not universal. There are yet people who look beyond good and evil.

Reversal of Popular Paradigms

The Gond people of Central India have long understood this truth in the wisdom of their tribal ways so congruent with Nature. In their telling of the Ramayana, Ravana was never devilish, just another grey character like all the others. According to them, it is the Tulsidasa telling that demonised Ravana, who was decently portrayed even in Valmiki’s original telling. Similarly, people in Mandsaur, Bisrakh, Kangra, Mandya, Kolar and Jodhpur associate their lands with Ravana’s origin myth and celebrate him rather than burn him.

Similarly, the Santhals and Asur tribes in West Bengal, Odisha, Assam, Chattisgarh, and the Korku of Madhya Pradesh worship Mahishasura. In fact, the Kannada town of Mysuru (Mysore) is a compact version of ‘Mahishasurana Ooru’ (the village of Mahishasura).

We know that as far back as the Rig Veda and the Zend Avesta, opposite views were recorded in religious texts. The Asura — demon of the Hindu, was the Ahura — god, of the Zoroastrian.

Finding Colour in the Dark Ages

Now, I do wish you the happiest of celebrations, and an abundant harvest. I wish you a happy new year (if this is one of yours) that brings with it all the colours of life. Not just the blacks and whites, but the many greys as well. I wish that you see for yourself that this dreary burden of wanting good, happy, cheerful, positive, awesome, lovely, wonderful, yada yada yada all the time is exhausting. No one, not one of us, can have a life of exclusive happiness. The peaks rise higher because of the valleys. The lights shine brighter against dark shadows. Overcoming challenges is not just about victory, but also about facing the challenges in the first place.

Shrirang Godbole has written of life and death in a beautiful song — ‘Zindagi Kya Baat Hai’ for the film Astitva (2000) that I have translated here-

What is this life?
What is this life?
It is an open ocean
Where ships have drowned.
It is deserted and decrepit,
Fallen civilisations.
What you call life
Is but the start of death.

What is this life?
What is this life?
Don’t get forlorn,
Life finds a way.
Why don’t you see
The bloom on the tomb?
What you call dark
Is the beginning of the day.

References

Ravana Worship — Link
Beyond good and evil — Link
Mahishasura Worship — Link
Zindagi kya baat hai — Link