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Continued
from yesterday’s instalment
 This particular scene in Valmiki Ramayana has more surprises in store for us. They would even shock those of us who tend to look at the words of Sita uttered during this conversation with her endeared husband with the eyes of an intellect. "A mind all logic is like a knife all blades. It hurts the hand that uses it," wrote Rabindranath Tagore. A knife should be held by its handle! The emotions that swell in the mind of Sita have to be seen in perspective and taken into account accordingly, before anyone dares to pass any judgment on this dazzling diamond of a character.
Well, that is a small prelude to something that sounds harsh in the words of Sita and have been held with critical eyes, as Right Hon'ble Srinivasa Sastriyar points out, including those of the greatest of commentators of Valmiki Ramayana, Govindaraja. We will go into the scene more fully now.
The child-like beginning of her arguments, which we saw in our last post, did not in any way impress Sri Rama. We see her moving above that level now, in the very next Sloka. She speaks of conjugal duties. 'It is your duty to take me wherever you go,' she insists. 'I am your wife and is like water that is partly drunk by a man from a vessel. As the person carries the vessel around since he has drunk from it, it is your duty to take me with you since I am your water and I am that vessel.'
"Casting away envy (at my courage in voluntarily offering to accompany you to the forest) and wrath (at my insolence in flouting your command to stay in Ayodhya), confidently take me (with you)
as one would take water remaining (in one's pot) after one has drunk it
once, O valiant prince!" (Valmiki Ramayana, Canto XXVII, Sloka 8)
'You say life in the jungle is difficult and dangerous too. I know you are capable of protecting me from the dangers, my darling!' she makes the next move in the direction of reasoning. "(As for yourself), you are indeed capable of duly supporting in the forest (even) other men (who are not related to you) much more myself (who am your wedded wife and entirely dependent on you), O Rama, who bestow on others." (Ibid, Sloka 14)
 'I know your nature is such that you will not give up your Dharma of protection even when you are in the forest. You will continue to protect those who have taken to their pursuits in the jungle, though they are in no way related to you. When such being so, would it be so difficult for you to save me, to protect me, to defend me? Take me with you my
Rama!'
Save these words for a later conversation in the jungle when Sita questions Sri Rama for having assured the sages to protect them by eliminating the demons from the face of the earth. That is another piece of conversation that is often quoted against her. All Logic. That is the trouble with the critics. The mind should be given its due and proper place sometimes above the brain, if at all Truth is kept in focus.
A word for those readers who have not seen anything harsh in the words of Sita, as mentioned in the beginning of this instalment, please wait. We will have to travel a little more.
More follows...
Published on 12th
January 2003
Hari Krishnan
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