Raja Ram of Ayodhya had had everything going well for him. He had got rid of rakshasas; redeemed a pledge given by his father, King Dashrath; won a war against the mighty Ravan of Ten Heads (Dashanan); brought back his wife Sita from Lanka; established a flourishing domain in Ayodhya; and earned the adoration of his kinsfolk and subjects alike. By virtue of his unblemished life and steadfastness, Ram had attained the status of a living god.
Anients Speak
Suman K Sharma
But one day, on learning that a subject of his had questioned Sita’s virtue as she had returned after living in Ravan’s custody, he took a decision which left everyone aghast. The Queen, then in the family way, was to forthwith leave the palace and live for the rest of her days in the forest under the guardianship of her guru, Vashisht. Raja Ram asked Prince Bharat to escort her to the ashram but the latter politely refused to obey his command. Prince Shatrughna followed suit. It was left to Prince Lakshman, ever the obedient younger sibling, to carry out the painful task.
The gallant prince, who was generally known for his temper, broke down when he bade farewell to his sister-in-law. Sita asked him innocently what made him cry. Lakshman did not have the heart to tell her the bitter truth and left her to face her destiny. Later, it was in the jungle that Sita gave birth to sons Luv and Kush.
That is the anti-climax of Rishi Valmiki’s Ramayan. Tulsi Das’s Ramcharit Manas, however, concludes happily with Rama ascending to the Ayodhya throne, without any reference to Sita’s direfate. Some scholars say that the Uttar Kand of Rishi Valmiki’s Ramayan, in which it appears, is not original, but a later addition to the epic.
Whether a fake or genuine, the episode troubles even the most devout of Ram bhaktas. How does such a dastardly decision behove the Maryada Purshottam – the paragon of all virtues? Let us examine this question. First and foremost, Ram had chosen to be a man, an ideal man at that. If that be so, he should have stood for his wife’s honour and quelled any false rumours about her. Were the whole of Ayodhya castigating Sita, he should have forsaken the place and settled somewhere else with her. But Ram was not an ordinary man. He was a king, responsible not only for his wife and the unborn children, but the whole populace he ruled. Above all, he had to maintain the high dignity of the kingship that he held. It would have been as unthinkable for him to punish the castigator of his wife’s fair name as it was to abandon Ayodhya. Instead, he chose the path that would hurt only him and his beloved life.
We have to consider a third aspect as well. Ram was Vishnu incarnate and Sita, His ‘maya’. The Deity had accomplished the objectives of the Ram avatar and it was time now that He asserted His singular position as Godhead by dissociating Himself from His maya.
Pundits would say it was all by Ramleela – godly performance – beyond the comprehension of us mortals. Be that as it may, the message for us is that when even Raja Ram is not spared for having deviated from the worldly duties of a husband, it would be worse for the men of the earth who dare spurn their obligations towards their spouses and the families.
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