Ravana Counts Himself Alone and Turns to Boundless Illusion
Lanka Kanda, Doha 88
Doha 88 · Movement 3 of 3
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Ravana looks upon the destruction of the demon host and considers the new shape of the battle. Around him his companies have been broken, while bears and vanaras remain in overwhelming numbers.
His thought reduces the field to a calculation. I am alone, he tells himself, and they are many. Yet the conclusion does not bring surrender, repentance, or even a true measure of the power opposing him. It leads him toward another instrument of control.
He resolves to spread boundless maya. When force cannot master appearances, he will multiply appearances themselves. The strategy belongs perfectly to the mind that has refused reality at every earlier threshold. Ravana does not ask what strength moves through the many servants before him, or who stands as the source of the world he wishes to distort. Alone inside his calculation, he prepares an illusion without limit.
Ravana answers the loss of his armies by multiplying appearances, still unwilling to face the one reality before him.
Read the passage from the Manas
रावन हृदयँ बिचारा भा निसिचर संघार। मैं अकेल कपि भालु बहु माया करौं अपार।।88।।
Ravana pondered in his heart over the destruction of his demon army: 'I stand alone, while the monkeys and bears are legion. I shall work boundless maya.'