Dear friends, In this posting, the focus will be on the utter Despair suffered by Sita-pirAtti in the "sundara-kAndam". This particular theme cannot really be studied without also examining at the same time, rather closely, the dark side of the human mind -- the psychology of suicide. While despair led Sri Rama to contemplate -- and very nearly actually perpetrate -- mindless violence and terror on the world at large (as discussed in the previous post), Sita's despair drove her in the opposite direction -- i.e. inflicting mindless violence on herself to the very extreme end by taking out her life herself. ************* Chapter 28 of the 'sundara-kaanda' is a stunningly poignant one in the whole of the canto. It depicts the moving scene where Sita soliloquizes on her sorry plight, her tragic fate in life, her utter sense of helplessness, her terminal weariness in life and the desire to end her misery once and for all. Ravana meets her in the Asokavana and in spite of his best efforts to make her yield to his advances, is rebuffed outright by Sita. Utterly enraged with her rejection, the King of Lanka gives her a 2-month reprieve in which to change her mind. "After that, O Mythili" he tells her menacingly, "if you are not mine, surely you will be none else's spouse either. You shall certainly die here in Lanka". Later, after Ravana leaves, and her 'rAkshasi' prison-guards fall off to sleep at their stations, and she is left all alone in the deathly desolation of the Asokavana, it is then in the eerie stillness of the night that Sita's heart finally cracks and sorrow gushes out in a torrent. She laments. And the following words come forth out of her like a grim mist of hot and abundant tears that drops out of the morning sky: mOghA hi dharmascharitO mayAyAm tathiaka-patneetvamidam nirartham yA tvAm na pashyAmi krushA vivarNA heenA tvayA sangamanE nirAshA "Separated from you, O Rama, reduced to bones, with no blood in this royal body of mine, and having no further hope of ever meeting you, I who am your chaste wife, look at the desperate situation I'm in now! Of what use now is our love for each other? The vow of fidelity I observed, and the rule of monogamy that you have been observing, O Rama, have both become really meaningless and vain." ************ Dukham bathEdam mama dukhitAyA mAsow chirAyAdhi-gamishyathO dhvOw Baddhasya vadhyasya tathA nishAthE rAjAparAdhAdiva taskarasya "Just as the waiting prisoner on death-row, before the fateful day of his execution arrives, feels the hours of the previous night drag too long and agonizingly, so will it be unbearable to me too, this period of 2 months given as reprieve by Ravana to me! How shall I survive these days? And why?" ****************** Ananya-devatmiyam kshamA cha bhoomow cha shayyA niyamascha dharmE pativratAtvam viphalam mamEdam krutam krutagnOshviva mAnushANAm "Just as a good deed done unto an ungrateful man proves to be of no use at all, so too does my vow of chastity -- that which made me look upon you, O Rama, as my God, that which made me willingly go to sleep on the hard and bare floor in my present state of imprisonment here and that which has kept me till now on the path of duty as a chaste wife to you --- that vow, O Rama, has now proved futile." ************ Sa jIvitam kshipramaham tyajEyam vishENa shastrEna shitEna vaapi Vishasya dAtA na hi mEsti kaschit shastrasya vA vEshmani rAkshasasya "I really ought to have have ended my life long ago! I should have hastened my end with a draft of poison or plunged some sharp instrument into my breast as soon as I was brought into Lanka. Why did I wait this long in the hope that I might again set my eyes upon you, O Rama! In this city of violent and heartless rakshasAs, alas, what cruel irony, there was none however to bring me either poison or sword that I could have used upon myself." ************** naivAsti dOsham mama noonamatra vadhyA-hamasyA-priya-darshanasya bhAvam na chAsyA-hamanu-pradAtumalam- dvijO mantramivAdvijAya "So I shall commit suicide this very instant. It is not at all sinful for one like me to take my life. Just as a noble person refuses to impart the Vedas to one who is not a "twice-born", I am not going to submit myself to the unworthy intentions of this Ravana who has lost his senses over me." ***************** Bitter and tragic are Sita's words indeed. When one reads Valmiki's account of this scene in the "sundara-kaandam" one can't help shedding tears and suppressing a lump that rises up in our throats. Sita then continues: ?Hard must be my heart that preyed upon by misery and though abandoned by hope, it still continues to beat and endures when it ought to have shattered to pieces already.? ?If I am not destined to look upon you ever again, Rama, and if I must fade away without hope, disfigured in body and spirit and utterly dejected, what good has my unwearied practice of dharma done to me, or the steadfast devotion of my soul to my husband? "Ah woe to me! I?ll perish in this woe-begone plight, but you O Rama, at the end of the 14th year of exile that shall soon arrive, having obeyed the paternal and royal command to the letter, and with a mind disburdened and self-complacent, O Rama, you will surely return triumphantly to Ayodhya, take new wives for yourself, bedeck them with rich jewels and live with them happy and free from care... won't you?" "My heart surrendered to you while yet a little girl from Mithila and dwelling in you all these years in perfect joy and contentment -- tell me, what hardship, miseries and indignities have I indeed not suffered for your sake? And yet, alas, eveything has gone in vain, and I must die forlorn and unwept. "Why should I drag this wretched existence anymore? I can and shall end it now?? ************** The "sundara-kaandam" then narrates how Sita resolved then and there to end her life -- under the 'sisumshpa" tree in the groves of the Asokavana.... using her long beautiful tresses -- coiling them around her neck like a hangman's sephulcral noose.... ************* What was the state of Sita's mind in those dark moments of that fateful night in Lanka? What drove her to suicide? When a man and woman are separated from each other as Rama and Sita were, what happens to their inner beings that it simply loses all sense of purpose and meaning in life? Why? Can a man and woman in this mortal world love each other ever so intensely and truly as Rama and Sita did? Isn't the sundara-kaandam truly a great love-story? What indeed is the true nature of "pati-vratatvam", the vow of conjugal fidelity? Is it really such a great human ideal as the "sundara-kaanda" portrays it to be?..... Such indeed are the questions that naturally arise in our minds after reading the great and tragic soliloquy of Sita-pirAtti in the sundara-kaandam". IN the next posting we will discuss those questions in greater detail. Regards, daasan, Sudarshan MK Warm Regards, Sudarshan " A life is perhaps worth nothing; but nothing certainly is worth as much as life". (Andre Malraux) __________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Answers: Share what you know. Learn something new http://in.answers.yahoo.com/ ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Something is new at Yahoo! Groups. 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