TiruppAvai flavoured sundara-kaandam: Part 7; The despair of Sita 'pirAtti': pOginraarai pOgAmal kaatthu...

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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)

 

 

 

________

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