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Continued
from yesterday’s instalment
 The arguments between Sri Rama and Janaki run to over three cantos and more than seventy-five Slokas are exchanged between them, Rama pacifying and persuading her and Sita appealing to him against his will. 'It is to the husband that a woman takes to as her sole refuge. You are my asylum. "Father, mother, brother, son and daughter-in-law, my darling, reap each his or her destiny enjoying their own merits (earned in their previous lives). A wife alone actually shares the fortune of her husband, O jewel among men! For this very reason I too stand enjoined by my parents-in-law) that I should as well take up my abode in the forest." (Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhya Kanda, Canto XXVII, Sloka 4 and 5)
'After a period of time in the life of any person, every other relation moves in his or her own way, as is destined. Not the wife. She shares all the joys and sorrows of her husband. She remains with him till her or his end. My parents-in-law will have no difficulty in permitting me to go with you for this very reason. It is for this reason, I should also go with you to the forest.'
Her arguments sound too innocent in the beginning. She speaks like a child and gives out a 'very valid' reason for her being taken to the jungle. 'There is an advantage in your taking me with you.'
"If you depart this very day for the forest (of Dandaka) which is difficult to penetrate, O scion of Raghu, I shall walk ahead of you crushing (under my soles) blades of (the sacred) Kusa grass and thorns (that lie in the way)." (Ibid, Sloka 7)
The forest must be dense, or I think it should be so. There would be no path to tread 'on. I would walk ahead of you. My feet would bend the grass and make it easy for you to walk on. I would remove the thorns that lie in your way, while I walk ahead of you!'
 One is not able to resist the smile that flits to the lips so very naturally at this innocence. Whose feet are tenderer between the two! Would Rama ever allow her to walk ahead of him in the forest, though he is not prepared to do so now, allowing her to bear the difficulties! Her child-like innocence makes her to speak that way. It is of course to be seen that this is only an exterior that is superimposed on a very matured, a very evolved, a very sensible personality. She takes to baby talking only when she is with her Rama. It is this quality to which Tamil literature refers to as
'madam.' Innocence, or feigned ignorance. It is a quality that is supposed to be exhibited only to the one who rules her heart. It is with him, after all, that she can - and is supposed to - take liberties with. Was this sweet innocence not the reason for him to go in pursuit of the golden deer!
Though she sounds so naive, she is not to be taken for granted. She has her way with words. She knows how to present her case. If innocence doesn't appeal, she would appeal to his emotions; if that doesn't work, she would prevail over his intellect! But always with love. Always with 'him' at the centre and not herself.
More follows...
Published on 9th
January 2003
Hari Krishnan
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