Till today I have a question somewhere deep inside my mind, whose answer eludes me. Now that we have many matured minds, I want to put forth this unanswered question of mine. Expecting some peace!

 I hope all my authors know about the great Ramayana. (Even today's kids watch Lord Rama also as part of their favorite cartoon characters; I hope people at least know about Lord Rama, The great King Ravan and all). There are many things to learn from Ramayana, they say. But every time I think of this saga I fail to understand the obvious strategy that this epic preaches. Let me explain it clearly. Rama and Ravan, consider these two characters. Rama, his name brings vibes of positiveness, makes you feel pure, it encourages you and promises you, be on the path of good, and then you are going to win (May not battles, but you'll win the war). The path may be difficult but surely it leads to success and victory. Ravan, on the contrary, reminds us of the evil path, which may look inviting but has a scary end waiting for you. I hope all will agree on this.

Now let me share what is my perception on this. When I look at Lord Rama’s life, I end up searching for his happiness. There was no period in his life, where he has got some rewards for his decision to walk on the path the righteousness. All his childhood was spent in an Ashram as part of his learning, he came back as the most efficient and eligible contender for Kingship of Ayodhya. To his dismay, he was sent for Vanvaas, for 14 long years to live just as any other civilian or worse than that. The 14 years period, which could have been a luxurious life of a king and a great family life, landed in a battle field. After all the struggle and battle, when he returned though he found his position back, he lost his happiness again with Sita maa leaving him. He had to spend rest of his life being a responsible King, but without his wife and kids. I see no good period in his entire lifetime, just the word remains that Rama was a great king and he always followed the path of good and truth. A great king, an iconic character remained a very poor family man!!

Now coming to our other character of discussion, King Ravan. He was an extremely intelligent person and an efficient king of his province, a true devotee of Lord Shiva. He was blessed with all his wishes pleasing Lord Shiva and all his life he lived as a true king. People say the way You die tells the kind of person you are. A kind hearted person gets an easy, painless and most importantly EARLY death. They say, the more sins you have done the more number of days you have to live in this cruel world. So even when I see Ravan's death, I feel he had an excellent good luck there as well. He was dead by the God himself, what more a demon like him can ask for.

Hence my question, straight and simple, what did Rama get by being on the path of truth and good through out his life and what did Ravan loose by being on the negative side? Why are we supposed to be good on earth? What good do we get in return? Why go till Rama and Ravan, I'll give you example of our own society. Compare a government servant and a thief. A govt employee through out his life will be honest and faithful and will get nothing out of his life excepting a good name (After death we do not even remember what some of our great leaders did us, forget about a common man's goodness). But a thief or a mafia leader, will live life king size and enjoy all possible luxury in his life, and will die soon with a bad name. So what path to choose? 60 years of painful life or 30 years of luxurious life?

By this I want to invite a healthy discussion here. I want to know what people think about it. Does anyone else on earth also have similar doubts? Please share here your views, waiting eagerly.