This is the other angle of the story of Sita’s banishment. Painful as the story is, apparently ending on a tragic note, a closer look reveals something else. It is not only Rama but Sita too who had come to establish the highest ideal for an Aryan woman in the face of apparently impossible challenges. Even as Rama, her life too is a life of renunciation and sacrifice, two qualities that were most appreciated by the builders of India. She too never succumbs to another man, even if he were the conqueror of the three worlds and rich with the wealth of Kubera. She spurns the advances of Ravana in the face of heavy odds, refuses the lures in the face of terror, gave the test of fire (agnipariksha) willingly to safeguard Rama’s honour and, when despite all this, she is banished to the forest, she remains calm and courageous and brings up two strong and happy children without the least trace of the shadow of her personal pain falling upon their life. She grows stronger through the difficulties and the challenges rather than bitter and broken. And when the hour of reunion is at hand she prefers to walk back to mother earth, in the lap of material nature shaking the moral conscience of a whole people. Through the banishment and her refusal to go back to the kingdom whose people had once rejected her, Sita sets an unparalleled example of an emancipated and empowered woman. Through the act of banishment, yet choosing not to remarry, both Rama and Sita humanised the animal and rakshasic type of humanity initiating them into a life of inner renunciation and sacrifice as the basis of Dharma.
Ram is incomplete without Sita and Sita without Rama. This incompleteness is not dependency but complimentarity. If we look closely we shall see that Rama is physically strong, among the strongest of warriors of all times. Though steady in his mind, calm as a sage yet he finds it difficult to deal with his emotions when those closest to him are hurt or injured. Sita, on the other hand, brought up in Mithila, then known as the city of knowledge, shows exceptional emotional strength and resilience under duress. She doesn’t break down nor is she weak in any sense of the word. An icon of immense spiritual strength, she is often shown providing the support that Rama needs during moments of crisis. According to one version it is she who, knowing the dilemma that Rama is facing as people whisper allegations of partisanship on him due to his acceptance of Sita after abduction and stay at Ravana’s place, it is Sita who proposes to leave quietly. While Rama kills Ravana, it is Sita who destroys Sahasra Ravana who is the psychological counterpart of Ravana and much more dangerous thereby since he pollutes the mind of the citizens of Ayodhya. It is again Sita who grants the boon of immortality to Hanuman, which is no ordinary feat by any means. And of course it is Sita who delivers and brings up their children single-handedly in the forest, in the Ashram of Rishi Valmiki and ensures that they grow into strong and beautiful beings. Her children are her best answer to all the allegations against her. They are the living testimony of who she is. Thus Sita emerges as a strong independent woman who neither cries nor begs for help in the face of adversity, not even from her parents, but takes it all upon herself and comes out pure and stronger through every test of fire. Such is the image of a strong independent woman portrayed in the Ramayana, a heart of fire harboring a divine intensity of love that gives itself seeking nothing in return. How different and noble and high is this ideal, far above the current ideas about feminism that portrays the liberated woman as wild and reckless, busy earning and spending money on appearances and comforts or worse still, wine and dine and smoke and dance! So too the Ramayana challenges our current idea of individuality as doing whatever we desire or feel like, as long as permitted by the law of the land. But the ideal of the individual portrayed in the Ramayana is that neither the individual or the society exists for its own sake. Both exist for and are meant to serve dharma which is neither outer law nor a religious rule but the truth of life, the truth of creation, the truth of everything interwoven in the fabric of creation from times sempiternal, Sanatana Dharma.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
