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Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

 

                 Sita’s Sins, Big and Small

 

       We endeavour our best to tread the path of virtue and righteousness. We consciously shun all wrong-doing and strive hard to tread the narrow and straight path of Dharma. We prompt ourselves to perform meritorious deeds at every available opportunity. In short, we make every effort to espouse good conduct and eschew all others.

 

     However, the faculties we are endowed with often pull us in directions in which we may not be willing to travel. The Five Indriyas every person is bestowed with form both friend and foe. When they lead us in the right direction, there can be no better friends than they. However, many a time, the eye insists on seeing forbidden sights, the ears revel in hearing gossip, the mind fills itself with the most unwanted of thoughts and last, but not the least, the tongue gets us most into trouble, saying unwanted things which, true or false, better remain unsaid.  While the reasons for such indiscretions with the indiriyas are manifold, the principal ones are KAma, KrOdha, MOha, LObha,Mata and MAtsarya, the six eternal enemies which push us into wrong-doing, willy-nilly. And almost everybody, with rare exceptions, appear to fall into the treacherous trap laid by these faulty faculties. If it is any consolation for us, even Sita Piratti, acclaimed to be the epitome of womanly virtue (“nAreeNAm utttamA vadhoo”) appears to have fallen prey to this failing and given play to Her tongue in a hurting manner, which later brought on grievous consequences. She appears to have indulged in speech more cruel than the biting winter wind and caused hurt more grievous than any weapon of war. Though such conduct is totally out of character for the Divine Consort, it is perhaps intended to teach us lessons (as every event in Srimad Ramayana does) in continence and tolerance. The beauty of the great Epic lies in its portraying right conduct not only through the positive actions of its divine characters, but also through underlining the disastrous effects of their minor misdeeds, intended or otherwise.

 

 It must be said, to the defence of Piratti, that anyone in Her place and circumstances would have reacted perhaps with greater vehemence in word and deed, even if he or she had been an absolute paragon of temperance and restraint. Her conduct was thus very excusable and was occasioned by great provocation: yet, by Her own admission and by Her lofty standards, it was unforgivable conduct for which She duly reaped the bitter fruit. And retribution for the wrongs was swift and prompt, making Her suffer what no other woman would.  The torment that Sri Mythily underwent in the Asoka vanam, surrounded by terrifying rAkshasIs who pulled no punches in trying to browbeat Her into being Ravana’s mistress, the asurA’s own frequent appearances and words steeped in venom, the prolonged separation from Her beloved Raghava whom She had vowed not to be apart from even for a second, the killing suspense as to what had happened to the brothers Rama after they went one after the other in pursuit of the golden deer, the remorse that was eating Her away, for having succumbed  to the charms of the impossibly beautiful animal and desired its acquisition at any cost, the apparent absence of any light or an end to the long and dark tunnel of suffering that seemingly stretched away interminably, the slim possibility and prospects of escaping from the asurA’s fortress to liberty and reunion with Her beloved, the great dilemma as to whether it was better to end Her life rather than undergo the insufferable ordeal or to live on in the hope of Sri Rama mounting a rescue effort (however improbable it sounded)- these and a hundred other agonies distressed the Divine Consort, prompting Her to rue time and again having uttered those words of insult, which were obviously the root cause of all that was happening now.

 

When we are in the grip of terrible torment, it is usual for us to blame others for our problems. We tend to look for a convenient scapegoat, on whom could be nailed the cross for our distress. We are so very sure our own guiltlessness that we invariably dismiss possibilities of the troubles being self-inflicted. We  never wonder as to what could be behind the suffering and sorrow, what we might have possibly said or done, which could have led to the present predicament. It is a hallmark of Piratt’s humility and honesty that She indulges not in the blame game, but in self-analysis, trying to fathom the reasons for the cruel blow dealt by fate on Her unsuspecting self.

And, after much rumination, She comes up with the offences for which She was probably being penalised now. She feels sure that it must be those misdemenours which must have occasioned all the suffering-

 

“mama Eva dushkritam kinchit mahat asti na samsaya:

 samartthou api yat mAm na avEkshEtE parantapou”

 

Piratti feels that it is impossible for Sri Raghava not to know of Her anguish and agony. And once He decides to destroy Ravana and rescue Her, none can indeed stand in His way. He is capable, as is Lakshmana, of destroying enemies like mere flies. Given all this, Her continued suffering must indeed be due to Her own fate, Her own intransigences and transgressions, big and small, which had resulted in Her being apparently ignored by the brothers Rama. There was absolutely no doubt about this, for it was otherwise inexplicable. When the man was willing, capable and had adopted as His life’s mission the protection of the oppressed, what else could be the reason behind such indifference to Her travails?

 

Sri Mythily speaks of sins (dushkritam), small (kinchit) and big (mahat), which She must have committed, to merit such misery. Though She doesn’t indicate what could these offences be, our Poorvacharyas have delved deep into the Epic and brought out with difficulty two possible occasions of  inappropriate speech on the part of Piratti.

 

While  leaving for His fourteen-year exile in the woods, Sri Rama categorically declines to take Sita along, pointing out the innumerable terrors and travails the jungle holds for the delicate Princess, who had known nothing but luxury since birth. He argues convincingly (but not convincingly enough for His wife), that Her place is at Ayodhya, looking after the aged in-laws. Driven by Her boundless love for the Prince of Ayodhya and by the desire to be with Him always, in pleasure or in pain, in comfort or in distress, in regal splendour or in a penniless state, motivated solely by Her repugnance for an existence, however luxurious, apart from Her caring Consort, Sri Mythily argues vehemently with Sri Rama, repudiating each and every one of His seasoned arguments in favour of Her staying back at Ayodhya. When even the ultimate arsenal of women, copious tears, fails to move the Prince, in Her anxiety to avoid separation from Her beloved, Piratti uses a few words which constiute the ultimate insult to any man, that of doubting His masculinity and prowess. When Rama refuses steadfastly to take Her along, Sita tells Him in anger and despair that it was indeed a pity that Her father should have married Her off to a woman in a man’s garb, for, the reluctance to have Her accompany Him to the jungle and to protect Her from all that might happen en route, signified the existence of an yellow streak in Rama, which was the hallmark not of the scion of the famed IkshvAku dynasty, but that of a cowardly woman. Here are the hurting words of Mythily, uttered in anger and haste and repented at distressful leisure-

 

“kim tvA manyata VaidEha: pita mE MithilAdhipa:

 Rama jAmAtaram prApya striyam purusha vigraham”

 

Some may feel, how could Sita have uttered such words to Rama, who was the personification of bravery, virility and matchless prowess, as demonstrated at the very first encounter with Sita, through the masterful handling of the Shiva dhanus? And are these not words behoving a much lesser mortal than Piratti, acclaimed as the embodiment of all possible virtue? The Pativrata that She was, how was it possible for Her to have spoken such harsh words as would be deeply hurtful to even the most ordinary of mortals and more so to Raghunandana?

 

Sri Valmiki justifies Sita’s conduct by trotting out the excuse that it was prompted not by a desire to insult or to get the better of the spouse in a verbal skirmish, or even as a matter of egoistic eccentricity. “praNayAt Eva samkruddhA” says the Maharshi, confirming that Sita’s speech of anger and anguish was born solely from overwhelming love and boundless affection, making it impossible for Janakanandini to think of an existence bereft of Rama. Shastras permit the usage of four strategies for achievement of any goal-SAmam, bhEdam, dAnam and dandam-the last one, force or coercive action, to be undertaken when all else fails. It was this strategy that Sita adopted in calling Him a woman, having failed to impress Raghava with all Her forceful, impassioned and well-reasoned out arguments.

 

Acharyas aver that it is these barbs of hurt hurled at Her spouse that Sri Mythily means, when She talks of “dushkritam kinchit”-some minor misdemeanour. One is surprised-if uttering the ultimate unsult, that of casting aspersions on the husband’s masculinity, that too of no less a person than the Paramapurusha, is to be termed a minor misdemeanour, what indeed could be the major one?

 

-to be continued-

 

Srimate Sri LakshmINrsimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

Dasan, sadagopan


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