Musings on Sita's "agni-pravEsam" #15

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Dear members & friends who are following this thread,

 

In the rather quaint anecdote related by Mukkur Swamy,

"anumAna" led people to believe, as we saw in the last post, that simply

because the "vaidika brahmin" on Usman Road was seen to enter a wayside

restaurant, he was also a profound profaner of Vedic rectitude and a

disgrace to his brethren of the faith.

 

The anecdote sharply illustrates how the human process of "rational

inference" --- "anumAnam" --- a process virtually idolized by the

scientific man of the modern age into an infallible aid in his efforts to

understand the truth about the world around him and about himself .... how

such a process of "anumAna" very often leads to anything but the Truth.

 

It is the fallibility of "anumAna" as a valid means ("pramANa") of

attaining Truth ..."para-brahm-ic" truth ..... it is that human fallibility

that is implied in the phrase used in the "purusha-suktam" which

proclaims to us, "nAnyafpanthA vidyatEyanAya......".

 

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The same fallibility of "anumANa" is equally well illustrated in the scenes

scripted by Sri.Valmiki and which lead to the "agni-pravEsam".

 

If you go back a few weeks to look up Musing#7 in this series you will see

how in it is described the scene where Vibeeshana goes to Asokavana to

fetch Sita-pirAtti. The "rAkshasa" king conveys to Her the desire of

Sri.Rama that She should present Herself to Him .... duly bathed,

groomed and be-jewelled.

 

Sita on hearing this strange request of Sri.Rama is perplexed:

 

""EvamuktA tu vaidEhi pratyUvAcha vibeeshaNam I

asnAthA drashtu-micchAmi BhartAram rAkshasADhipa II"

 

She tells Vibeeshana,"I'd rather first see Him as I am --- soiled, grimy,

grief-stricken and tear-ridden.... Why does He want me to appear before Him

bathed and bejewelled? To appear as though I have been leading a gay life

these several months? Let Him see me, Vibeeshana, let Him see me, please,

as I am, exactly as I have remained these many months of separation

here......pining away for my Lord".

 

Vibeeshana of course demurs and insists Sita better carry out Her husband's

desire.

 

And hence She is given a royal bath, dressed up in silks, decked with

jewellery.... and carried on a palanquin by courtiers amidst much pomp and

pagaentry through a great concourse of Vibeeshana's subjects and

Sugriva's warriors.... and eventually She is let into Sri.Rama's grim

and smouldering presence.....

 

We described that vivid scene in fair amout of detail in Musing#7.

 

In recalling that scene of extreme pathos we speculated too on what might

have been the outcome of events in the "yuddha-kAnda" if Sita had been

allowed to present Herself to Sri.Rama in the same state in which She had

been living in Asokavana:

 

"........should Vibeeshana have yielded to Her", we asked ourselves, "had

he yielded when Sita pleads with Vibeeshana to let her go to her Lord in

the same state in which she'd lived all those lonely months in

Ashokavanam..... if only she'd been allowed to go to Rama looking exactly

as Vibeeshana had found her ......pale, forlorn, grimy and unkempt....

if only Vibeeshana had yielded.... would the "agni-pravEsam" ever have

occurred?".

 

"And again", we asked,"would not the sight of a wretched Sita.... as She

really was....would it not have been, at once and forever, more than ample

testimony to Sri.Rama, and to the whole world at large, of Her pristine

virtue.... of her innocence... of her supreme nobility...?".

 

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Now, when we begin to so reflect on the sequence of events in this

"sargA" we are indeed hard-pressed to satisfactorily explain to ourselves:

 

(a) why should Sita have been prevented from appearing in Her natural state

and condition before Rama?

 

(b) why was She forced, as She Herself plaintively wondered, to appear

before Her Lord in a state of sartorial elegance designed to surely give

anyone watching Her, in that vast assembly of men, of "vAnara" and

"rAkshasA",

the impression, nay, the strongest suspicion that She "had perhaps been

leading a gay life all along in Ravana's Lanka ?.....

 

© why this deliberate attempt by Valmiki to create deeply misleading

appearances which only serve to prejudice and slur Sita-pirAtti's image

and characterisation?

 

Yes, it is indeed very, very, very difficult to explain Valmiki's

intentions here......just as it was equally difficult in the Mukkur Swamy

story... we may well imagine... just as it was difficult to tell, at first

sight, why that poor "vaidika brahmin" strode into that wayside

restaurant on Usman Road without a moment's thought or caution....!!

 

But what IS however crystal clear in these scenes is only this:

 

The Truth of Sita's pristine sinlessness.... the lustre of that Truth which

Rama Himself inadvertantly described as "blindingly splendorous" ("depO

nEtrAturasyEva

pratikoolAsI may driDam")....(words not dissimilar to those of the Veda

which too

described the Truth of "para-Brahmam" as "aaditya-varnam

tamasas-parastAt").... that Virtue, that Truth of Sita remained well out of

the grasp of the those in Lanka witnessing the scene of Her

re-union with Sri.Rama.

 

.........."Out of grasp" because they were all merely using their frail and

fallible "anumAna" to fathom and to judge the Truth of Sita's lofty

character......

 

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"vAkya-vArinA".... "veda-vAkya" or "sabda-pramANA"..... we will take up in

the next post.

 

adiyEn dAsAnu-dAsan,

sudarshan