Week 3: Threatening the Sea (Storytelling)

So, let me tell you about my one encounter with the great and powerful Rama.  At first, when I heard Rama was coming to cross my sea, I was so excited to meet him. I would keep my waves calm as he sailed over. I assumed he brought ships for his army to take across the sea.

Little did I know, he had no ship and was in a terrible mood. I mean, I understand that losing Sita upset him. Also, he had been fasting for a couple days so he was probably very hungry. But it was impossible to have a normal conversation with him.

So, he summoned me, Varuna, the god of the sea between his shore and Lanka. I appeared to him immediately, excited for the chance to meet Rama and to help him defeat Ravana. I was ready to discuss ideas with Rama when he said, “Make way for my armies.”

For a second I just stared at him as I tried to decide what to say. I mean, he had to put some effort into it. I couldn't just move all this water. So I said to Rama, still trying to be patient and helpful, “I am as much subject to the laws of nature as other elements. What can I do?” Now, I thought Rama would realize his mistake and understand that I did not have unlimited power to help him.

Before I knew what happened, Rama’s face turned red and he began shouting at me. No one ever treated me that poorly in my entire life. His unintelligible shouts and curses cut through air.  I even heard him threaten to shoot me with his arrows and evaporate my water.

I stared at him in shock. What could I possibly do to make my water move for him? Unlike the Red Sea, I couldn’t just part and return to normal at the will of a staff. Moses was such a show off. I had much more water in me than the Red Sea. I also had the fish to consider. They hated being bunched up together. Finally, to stop Rama’s curses and shouts, I tried to find some middle ground. “What if I helped you build a bridge?” I asked. “You could get your army to help. Between all of us, you could cross soon.”

Rama considered this for a moment before nodding, his anger gone as quickly as it came. “So be it,” he said simply before stalking off, shouting orders at his army of monkeys to bring materials for a bridge.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I resumed my normal activity, being careful to keep waves away from where Rama and his army worked. I watched as Rama’s monkey army and woodland animals worked together to make the huge bridge to Lanka.

The stories I heard about Rama’s greatness are undoubtedly true, but I avoided him for the rest of his stay on my shores. Thankfully, everything worked out for all of us. Rama found Sita and I returned to my regular routine.

Before Rama, no one threatened to evaporate my waters, nor anyone since. Hopefully I won’t be in a situation like that again.

Monkeys and Bears build bridge to Lanka. Wikimedia. 

Author's Note: For this story, I changed the point of view to Varuna, the sea god that Rama summons when he is trying to cross to Lanka. Besides the perspective change, I didn't change too much, as I just wanted the opposite perspective of Rama's. I also modernized the language some, although I kept much of the dialogue between Varuna and Rama the same.

In this scene of Ramayana, I thought Rama was being kind of ridiculous. I particularly chose this story because of how Rama acted in the original.

 Everyone who meets Rama is in awe of his greatness and he usually acts quite heroic and good-natured with people who are helping him. However, there are times when he acts very judgmental, rash, and a bit whiny. He almost  seems like a child who is used to continually getting his way, and then when something happens to change that he throws a fit. A tantrum was kind of what I saw from his behavior in this scene from the original story.

The sea god was bound by natural laws and yet Rama threatens him in the hope that he will somehow do the impossible. It's lucky the sea god was not irritated about his encounter with Rama and still agreed to help the hero get across to Lanka to save Sita.

For anyone who isn't familiar with Christianity, the mention of Moses, his staff, and the Red Sea in the story is a reference to a story in the Christian Bible. In the story, to escape with the Jewish slaves from Egypt, Moses parts the waters of the red sea with his staff, allowing them passage.

Bibliography: Narayan, R. K. (1972) The Ramayana. Pg. 132-133.