Kaikeyi - A Study In Tragedy
Daughter of the Kekayas, as strong-willed as any of their men, and twice as complicated. Why do we blame her today? Is it because she sent Ram to exile? Or because she asked for her own son to be crowded king? Probably both. Knowing that she was merely the vessel to carry Manthara's wishes into the world does not make us hate her any less.
Yet, she deserves our respect. We may associate many evils with her, but the one thing that we conveniently forget is her repentance. Also, how did a king as wise as Dasarath, whose name itself spells a dexterity to fight all directions together (literally, someone who can drive ten chariots in the ten directions all at the same time), not recognize her true face', as some may choose to call it? Was he that bad a judge of character? It does not seem so, for we see no other evidence which proves him to be slow in recognizing people; indeed, it must have been a part of his training at gurukul, where he would have been taught all he needed to know about how to run a kingdom by Sage Vasistha, one of the first seven sages of Earth.
Dasarath saw fit to ask Rani Kaikeyi (she was not Maharani, that status was accorded to Kausalya and Kausalya alone) to act as his charioteer in his war against Samhasur. Losing consciousness, he was saved by Kaikeyi as she expertly drove his chariot away, saving his life. It was the result of this act of bravery that ultimately became the cause of Ram's exile.
But we are not discussing why and how she succeeded in seeing her (and Manthara's) plans bear fruit; it is what happened next that concerns us for the moment.
To ask for forgiveness after being accused of murdering your own husband is not something that mere mortals could do. It is said that Dasarath died of a broken heart with his eldest son's name on his lips; it is also said that this broken heart was induced by Kaikeyi's asking of the two boons in such manner. Bharat refused to take the throne, and Ayodhya, named so because it had never been conquered, was suddenly vulnerable without a king. If there is a better way for a queen to earn the ire of her people, we are yet to hear of it.
It is not this fault of hers that is at the core of this discussion; it is her repentance.
She walked barefoot to the hermitage where Ram was, and in front of the entire population of Ayodhya (which went to convince him to return, and if not, partake of his exile with him) apologised and asked him to return. For a queen like Kaikeyi, with ahankaar' reverberating in her every cell, in her very soul, this was unexpected, and a huge personal challenge.
She had to wait an entire yug for her deliverance, when in the eternal cycle of rebirth, she was born again as Devaki, Krisna's birth mother, who had to live without her son till he came of age. This was a result of her prayer to the Gods, who decreed that as penance, she would be born to face this punishment of bereavement. Also, this was the result of her promise to Kausalya, Ram's birth mother who had to go through the agony of living without her son for fourteen years; Kausalya was reborn as Yasoda, who had the privilege of watching Krisna grow up to be the man he was destined to be.
And she had to wait till Kalyug to receive the forgiveness of the people at large.
Do we forgive her and accept her apology?
My answer is yes what's yoursđđđ
Cricket
