It is clearly a symbolic story as one cannot imagine an actual physical process behind it.
Sita Mata embodied the love of Mahalakshmi and she is a goddess who does not force herself but quietly withdraws if she finds the heart of men is not ready to receive her gifts of love and beauty and harmony. It was not the burden of misunderstandings but the burden of a humanity that is not ready to accept the possibility of true love. It was not self death but self loss that Sita’s merger with the earth symbolises. She emerged from the earth as the power to redeem earth from the trampling of the Asura. After her mission was over, she went back to earth to stay there as a power and strength for all women who suffer at the hands of the Asura in man. In and through her life she showed by example the strength of a woman against every odd. In her death, she gave herself to the earth as a permanent power and presence to empower all women with her strength. It is a divine sacrifice for the good of earth and not a helpless death. The doors of the house of Rama and of Valmiki were open for her. She was not helpless. But her earthly mission was over but she made her departure too a sacrifice and a gift to earth and women by merging her powers with the earth and a its creatures.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
