Ram returns to his empty abode

Vishnu-avatar Ram had set the ball rolling. Ravan gloated over his success in Sita’s abduction, while Lord Ram, in His garb of a human being,suffered like any other man the pain of the loss of his beloved wife.
In the Swarga-lok, Lords Brahma and Indra had an urgent meeting following Ravan’s entry into Lanka with his captive, Sita. Brahma advised Indra to proceed to Lanka carrying heavenly preparations – sleep inducing one for the rakshasis who were detailed by Ravan to guard Sita, and a specially cooked khir for Sita, which would relieve her of hunger and thirst (see the interpolation between Cantos 56 and 57 of Aranyakand, Balmiki Ramayan – Geeta Press Gorakhpur, Samvat 2080).
Back at Dandkaranya, in the world of mortals, Ram was rushing back to the Parn Shala, having killed Marich. Many were the ill omens he met on the way that increased his worry about Sita. Such omens began to have a touch of reality when he saw Lakshman approaching him from a distance. Ram was alarmed at what that meant-
Aho Lakshman gahrayam te kritam yat tvam vihaay taam/
Sitamihaagatah Saumya kachchit svasti bhavediti//
Na me-asti sanshyo veer sarvtha Janakaatmaja/
Vinashta bhakshita vaapi rakshaservanacharibhi//
O Lakshman! It has been gravely wrong on your part to have come here to leave Sita alone. Will Sita be well there?
Warrior! I do not have any doubt that the rakshasas who wander about in the forest would have either ruined her or eaten her up.
Ibid/Canto 57(xvii-xviii)
Sita, however,had been neither ruined, nor eaten up;captive though she was of Rakshas Ravan. Confident that Ram would come for her sooner than later, she even tried to leave a mark on the mountainous terrain as Ravan’s chariot sped her towards Lanka. As they were passing over a peak, Sita, avoiding Ravan’s eyes, quickly wrapped up all her jewellery in a silk sheet she wore and dropped the bundle on a spot where five monkeys sat watching the air borne craft. Jatayu valiantly tried to thwart her abduction, ruining Ravan’s chariot and killing the donkeys that pulled it, but ended up being mortally injured by Ravan. That demoralised Sita grievously.
On their arrival in Lanka, Ravan took her straight to the women’s quarter in his palace. He did all that was in his power to impress her with his opulence there. The many storied, many pillared, bejewelled palace had abundance of luxuries. It had eye-catching beauty and sweet music too. He boasted to her of a standing army of thirty-two lakh. A thousand rakshas as were in his personal service alone. Compared to his power and pelf, what did her husband possess -a poor man, denied throne at the asking of a woman, Kaikeyi? Ravan contended that Ram was just a dispossessed, pathetic, plodding hermit. He saw nothing wrong in misquoting scriptures telling her that their union was permissible under the code of dharma (ibid, Canto 55(xxxiv). He even placed all the ten of his heads at her feet in token of his total subjection to her.
Sita, however, despised all his pleas of lustful passion. She hated even to address him directly. Taking a straw as a token of the impregnable wall between them, she exclaimed to him –
Yadi pashyet sa Ramastvam roshdeepten chakshusha/
Rakshasatvamadya nirdagdhow yatha Rudren Manmathah//
O Rakshas! If Ram looks at you with his angry eyes, you will burn to ashes this instant just as Lord Shankar had burnt Kaamdev!
Ibid/Canto 56(x)
Exasperated at Sita’s response, Ravan ordered that she be removed to the garden of Ashokvatika to be kept in the custody of Lanka’s most frightening rakshasis, who would “rid her of arrogance.”
Back in Dandkaranya, when Ram and Lakshman reached their Parn Shala, Ram found his worst fear come true. Sita was nowhere to be found. Lakshman offered him conjectures to calm him down. She might be out collecting flowers or exploring the caves nearby. “But why did you have to leave her alone?” A bewildered Ram asked. It was then that Lakshman had to tell him how Sita had driven him out with her wild insinuations. Ram felt miserable. In bitterness, he even asked Lakshman to leave him alone in the jungle and go back to Ayodhya –
Tanmamutsrijya hi vane gaachhodhyapureem shubhaam/
Na tvhm tam vina Sita jeeveyam hi kanthcham//
….Therefore, now you leave me alone in the jungle and return to the beautiful Ayodhyapuri. I can in no way live without Sita now.
– Ibid/Canto 62(xv)
Lakshman gulped down that dose of bitterness. He knew it was a moment for him to shore up his brother’s morale, rather than prove his moral rectitude. In a level voice, he assured Ram that the two of them would single-mindedly search the ocean, mountains and jungles, look into the frightful caves, scour all kinds of lakes and probe all the habitations of devas and gandharvas and they would continue their search till they found the one who had kidnapped Sita. Ram gave into Lakshman’s impassioned speech and the two brothers set out on their mission.
They had a long way to go – scout an unmarked forest area of more than ninety-two thousand square kilometers. Help came to them from two unexpected quarters. First, they came across Jatayu, dying of his mortal wounds. He told them of his fight with Ravan who had abducted Sita and had taken her southwards. Deeply moved by his selfless sacrifice, Ram offered to restore him to health, but the ardent devotee said he was happy to be dying in His cause – “Taat karm nij tain gati paee” – O Venerable, it is because of my good deeds that I have achieved this distinction.”
Further help came to them from Kabandh – a demon who did not have any head or a neck, but just one humongous torso with two arms spanning miles together. With a cavernous mouth to feed and big brown eyes to look for any possible prey, this horrible predator was in fact an accursed divinity who was passing through such an existence for his propensity to hurt rishi-munis of the forest. In gratitude of liberating him, Kadamb not only gave directions to Ram and Lakshman to pursue Ravan, but also told them that Sugriv, the king of monkeys, would be of great help to them in rescuing Sita.
Till then, Ram had been wandering with his brother Lakshman like a distracted prince who needed help from all sources to get back his lost wife. But in the forest area on the shores of the Pampa Lake (in the present-day Karnataka) Lord Ram revealed His divinity to the elderly woman sage, Shabari, telling her of the Navdha Bhakti – nine kinds of devotion (see Ramcharitmanas/Aranyakand/34(iv)-35(v)).
Ram (as Sant Tulsidas describes him in the overture to the Aranyakand of Ramcharitmanas) was “dharm-taror-vivek-jaladheh” – the root of the Dharma Tree and Ocean of Discernment – and he was “Maryada Purshottam” – the best among men bound by customs and conventions – as well.
It is hard to be man-God, Ramkatha avers.