The other day I was thinking about Vibhishana; yes, yes Ravana’s brother Vibhishana! How many other Vibhishana’s you know?
I am not sure what made me think about him. Maybe because Dussehra and Diwali are round the corner. Anyways, it struck me that hardly anyone ever names their kid Vibhishana. Actually make that never because I've never enocountered a person by the name of Vibhishana. It carries the same stigma as the name Draupadi – but the problem with Draupadi is that she slept with five men so it is understandable that nobody would want to name their girl after her but what’s wrong with Vibhishana? What crime did he commit? In fact he helped out Rama win the war against the evil Ravana! Inspite of that – we mostly find the name Vibhishana to be part of only derogatory references. What gives?
Well here is my 2 cents. It seems to me that as Indians we probably value loyalty more than righteousness and courage. It must have taken a lot of courage for Vibhishana to spy against his powerful brother to help Rama. He would have met a certain death had he been caught. Yet, he helped Rama out of a sense of morality and a sense of right and wrong. Little did he know that he would be jeered over the centuries with phrases like “?? ?? ???? ???? ??????”.
Would he have secured a more favorable place in history and minds of people if he had stuck around with Ravana instead? Probably yes – because if you leap across to another Hindu epic – the Mahabharata you find two patriarchs – Bhishma Pitamah and Dronacharaya who stuck with Kauravas out of their sense of loyalties despite knowing that the Pandavas were on the right side and you don’t find them to be vilified like Vibhishana.
Putting all this into a modern context, is it possible that the psychology that meted out such harsh treatment to Vibhishana is still prevalent today and this is the reason why we have so few whistle blowers against corruption in the highest areas of society? I am not a sociologist and not qualified enough to jump to that conclusion – but it is something to chew upon.