Ordeal by Fire--1

[Guest guest]

Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika

Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

 

Ordeal by Fire--1

 

When we hold someone very dear to us, we lavish all our love,

affection and care on the loved one and spare no effort to ensure his

or her comfort and well being.

What would happen if we were to be separated from the beloved person,

due to circumstances beyond our control? We would be beside ourselves

with worry and sorrow and would make every possible effort to

ascertain the whereabouts and bring back the dear one at all cost,

moving heaven and earth in the process. For instance, we find that

parents are prepared to pay any sum within (and often beyond) their

means, to regain a kidnapped son or daughter. The amount of ransoms

that have been paid to abductors the world over for the release of

near and dear relatives would easily amount to astronomical sums

beyond anyone’s imagination.

 

Well, after monumental effort and sacrifice, when we regain the lost

person, what would we do with him or her? (for convenience’s

sake, let us treat the person as a “him”). We would lock

him in a bear hug, unwilling to let go of the precious person lest he

be lost again. We would look at him for long as if for the first time,

smother him with endearments and take all possible measures to ensure

his inseparable presence thenceforth. We would thus treat him with

greater love and care than before and would not even let him out of

our sight.

 

Contrary to such accepted norms of behaviour towards a lost and

regained person, would we ever throw him into the fire, immediately

after his return? Would we deliberately heap insults on the poor

person, who too has undergone quite a lot of trials and tribulations

during the period of separation from us? Would we disappoint him by

turning to him a cold and unsmiling face, making him anything but

welcome? No right-thinking person would answer, “Yes” to

the aforesaid questions, nor would anyone even think of adopting such

conduct.

 

However, someone did conduct himself in such a fashion towards a

long-lost and dear relative. And this someone was not just anyone,

but someone whom we hold in high esteem and regard, someone we have

put on a very high pedestal and consider worthy of unending

adulation. And it is this conduct that has raised irreverent and

perhaps unwarranted questions in our minds from time immemorial,

making us wonder whether there indeed was a minor, cruel streak in

this someone, which remained hidden and reared its ugly head when the

occasion arose.

 

The hard-fought battle of Lanka has just concluded. The entire

exercise, involving considerable blood-letting and loss of

innumerable lives, has been directed towards securing the release of

Sri Janaki, abducted and kept prisoner by Ravana. Ravana is now dead,

all his ten heads cut off by the Rama bANam. Sri VibhishaNa has been

anointed the King of Lanka. Then, and only then, after all these have

happened, does Sri Rama remember the very objective for which He and

the entire vAnara sEnA have been toiling for months together and shed

blood and sweat for. Even then, He does not go in person to Ashoka

Vanika, where His beloved Sita has been languishing for long, to fold

Her in a tight embrace, as would any husband—He just sends a

message through Sri Hanuman, about Ravana’s demise and Her own

freedom. It is left for Hanuman to remind his Master to have a look

at His ladylove, pining away for Him, for whose sake the entire

monumental endeavour had been undertaken—

 

“ yannimita: ayam Arambha: karmaNAm cha phalOchaya:

tAm dEvIm shOka santaptAm MaithilIm drashtum arhasi”.

 

It is indeed ironic that Sri Rama needs to be reminded to see His

beloved Sita, after months of separation.

 

So reminded, Sri Raghava tells Vibhishana to bring Sri Sita to Him,

duly bathed and bedecked in all finery. Sri Janaki, however, refuses

initially to decorate Herself and prefers Her Lord to see Her as She

is, clothed in dirty and torn apparel, Her face and body unwashed and

long hair unkempt. However, when Vibhishana insists, quoting Sri

Raghava, She complies, and comes to Sri Rama in all Her original

splendour, borne in a palanquin.

 

What do we expect Sri Rama to do, at least belatedly? Even if He were

not to embrace Her in public, (since display of intimacy in public

was out of the question), we expect Him to have looked at Her with

eyes brimming over with love, conveying the thousand endearments

which could not be said in words in public. We expect Him to console

Her over the torrid times She had undergone and to assure Her that

all that was past and the future would definitely be a bed of roses.

We expect Him to give Her a detailed account of the suffering that He

Himself underwent due to Her separation and to tell Her how badly She

was missed.

 

Sri Rama does not do any of the things normally expected of Him. When

Sri Mythily comes near and stands opposite Him, looking at His face

with eyes radiating love and relief and bursts into tears, what is

the Prince’s reaction? He looks at Her with a heart and eyes

full of anger and fury—“hridaya antargata krOdhO

vyAhartum upachakramE”. He doesn’t even look Her in the

face, but looks out of the corner of His eyes, with His brows knit in

anger—“sa baddhvA bhrukutIm vaktrE tiryak prOkshita

lOchana:”. He follows up this forbidding glance with words

apparently dipped in venom. He tells Her that whatever He has done to

vanquish the foe and rescue Her from his clutches was done to prove

His valour and to discharge a duty. He had thus fully performed what

was required of a husband, whose wife had been abducted, by

destroying the abductor and setting Her free. He had lived up to the

standards of conduct prescribed for a scion of the IkshvAku dynasty.

He makes it clear that the entire exercise of Ravana vadham etc. was

not done for Her at all, but only to protect His own name from the

ignominy that attaches itself to a husband who is incapable of

protecting His wife or avenging an insult to Her—“ na

tvat arttham mayA krita:”. In venting His fury, Sri Rama

doesn’t even wait for privacy, but hurts His ladylove with

whiplash-like words, in full hearing of the assembled crowd of

vAnarAs and rAkshasAs—“abraveet parusham SItAm madhyE

vAnara rakshasAm”.

 

And what are the words of venom that the Prince directs at the

helpless Sita, who is terribly bewildered at Her husband’s

totally incredible reaction? He lets Her hear what is probably the

most mortal of insults that could ever be hurled at any

woman—that He suspects Her fidelity—“ prApta

chAritra sandEhA”. He says He hates

Her—“pratikoolOsi mE dridam”. And to crown all

other insults He has heaped on the unprotesting Janaki, He tells Her

that She is free to go with any man of Her choice. Adding insult to

injury, Sri Rama, the famed soft-speaker (“mridu bhAshI”)

tells Sita that She could go with Lakshmana, Bharata or for that

matter, even with Sugreeva or Vibhishana, as She pleased. “I

have no use for you” adds Rama, making His feelings abundantly

clear, as if His earlier words left any room for doubt.

 

My hand trembles even as I write these words, for, what could be worse

for a paragon of womanly virtue (“nAreeNAm utttamA

vadhoo”) than to hear such words, which fall in Her ears as

molten lead? Are these words that any husband, leave alone a model

one like Sri Rama, would address to His wife? More so, are these

words to emanate from one who loved His wife verily like His own life

breath—“Ramasya dayitA bhAryA nityam prANa samA

satI”? Did Rama forget for the nonce the glorious words of Sri

Janaka at the time of giving his daughter in marriage, describing

Sita as the greatest of chaste women and as an unerring adherent to

the righteous path—“iyam Sita mama sutA sahadharma charI

tava….PativratA mahAbAgA cchAyEvAnugatA…”? Are

these words to be addressed to the most virtuous of women, who even

doubled as His mother in showering affection and care, after the

demise of Dasaratha? Are these really the words of a Prince, who had

previously hailed Her as being in every way an honour to the IkshvAku

vamsam? Are these indeed sounds out of the mouth of a man who called

Her, not so long back, as dearer to Him than His very life and His

faithful adherent in all DhArmic endeavours—“sa

DharmachAriNi mE tvam prAnEbhyOpi garIyasI”?

 

If it is difficult for us, living millennia later, to stomach such

pitiless insults hurled at the hapless Janaki, imagine how Piratti

Herself would have felt! Just imagine what a cruel shock it must have

been to the damsel, who had eagerly anticipated happy reunion with Her

beloved after a prolonged spell of separation, torture and torment, to

be told that Her character was suspect and that She could go and live

with anyone of Her choice! How heart-breaking such venomous words

must have been to Her and what a cruel surprise to find that the

apparently unending spring of love in Her husband’s heart had

dried up all of a sudden, to be replaced by a spout of pure venom!

 

Sri Valmiki too cries, as is evident from the slokas describing the

episode. The poet says that Sri Sita suffered a physical withdrawal

into Herself, hurt beyond measure by words, which were worse than

poisonous arrows. She was almost dead with the shame of hearing these

insults spoken about Her, of all people, and that too in front of a

huge audience. Her tears were so profuse that they covered Her entire

body. Her body shook as a leaf caught in a hurricane and Her sorrow

became boundless. Before this ignominy, the torture and torment

suffered by Her at the hands of Dasagreeva and his minions paled into

insignificance.

 

Any woman confronting such unjust accusations would react and react

forcibly. Any woman would perhaps hurl back equally hurting barbs at

the accuser and vent her justifiable anger at the unfair insults. Any

woman would tell the husband to go to hell and walk her own way-- any

woman, that is, but not Sita. It is a hallmark of Sri Janaki’s

exemplary character and virtue that She says not a word out of place

and merely appeals to Rama tearfully not to suspect Her, advancing

emotional but eminently logical arguments therefor.

 

And when Sri Rama remains as unmoved by Her distress as by Her words

of reason, Sri Janaki offers to enter the fire, to prove Her chastity

beyond any doubt. She performs a pradakshiNam of Sri Rama (who

doesn’t even look up), instructs Lakshmana to make a fire. She

says, “ If it is true that I am totally unblemished, if it is

true that my conduct and character are the best possible under all

circumstances, if I am true to Sri Raghava by thought, word and deed,

then let the Fire God protect me! If not, let me be burnt to ashes!

If the ever vigilant witnesses to everybody’s actions, comprised

of the Sun, the Wind, the Directions, the Moon, the two confluences of

night and day, Mother Earth and the others—if these witnesses

know me to me of impeccable conduct and as one whose allegiance is

only to her husband, then let this fire protect me!”.

 

And so saying, She respectfully circles the fire and enters it, with

absolutely no concern for Her body, in full sight of the huge crowd

that watches with disbelief that this could be happening to the

lOkamAta Herself. There is a huge commotion emanating from the crowd,

which is unable to stomach the incredible sight and deed. A collective

sigh of wonderment, incredulousness and sorrow rends the air. Women,

aghast at the episode, burst out in tears and beat their breasts,

unable to digest the insult meted out to the best of their species.

Even Sri Rama, whose heart has apparently turned to stone, is

horrified at Sita’s sudden move and sheds tears at last (and so

He ought to!).

 

---to be continued--

 

 

Srimae Sri LaksmINrsimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

Dasan, sadagopan