Sita (Ramayana)

Sita was the leading lady in the epic Ramayana. Sita stands for immaculate purity, chastity and patience. Sita has got special place to act in a manner suited to the dignity of her parents, her husband and other relatives. Swami Vivekananda puts her as the ideal of Indian womanhood and warns us that any effort to lead the Indian women away from the path of Sita would be disastrous.

Sita was the daughter of Kind Janaka. She was married to Rama, the prince of Ayodhya. The first trial came to Sita when Rama was banished to the forest for 14 years. Sita immediately offered to accompany him. The younger brother, Lakshmana also went with them.

Sita bore all the hardships of the forest patiently. On the banks of a river they built little cottages. Rama and Lakshmana used to hunt deer and collect fruits. Life in the forest went on for Sita smoothly until she was one day fascinated by a beautiful golden deer. She requested Rama to catch it for her. Rama went. In the absence of Rama and Lakshmana, she was abducted by Ravana, the demon kind of Lanka. Thus, started the second trail of Sita.

Ravana took her to Lanka, begged her to be his queen. But Sita, chastity incarnate, refused even to talk to him directly. She always plucked a blade of grass, threw it in front of her and addressed it only.

Thus Sita waited in Asoka Vana for months, in exile. Finally came the messenger Hanuman with the signet ring from Rama, announcing that her days of penance were coming to an end. She received the token joyfully and gave Hanuman her head-ornament (Chudamani) in return. Hanuman proposed to end Sita’s sorrows at one stroke. She should seat herself on his shoulders and he would leap across the sea. Sita said: ‘I myself am enough to reduce Ravana to ashes with the fire of my chastity. But then, Rama’s arrow will be deprived of its legitimate field of enjoyment”. She decided to remain where she was and bear the agonies of captivity so that Rama’s glory might remain undimmed.

Next was the most poignant trial. Rama came, defeated Ravana in the battle. When Sita was looking forward to unite with Rama, to the shock of all, he behaved in a manner not befitting him. He doubted her chastity and told her that he could not take her back. Hearing these harsh words of Rama uttered before a great assembly of monkeys and demons, Sita, complete in self-possession, told him that he had spoken harsh and cruel words. She asserted that she was pure. When her pleading fell on the deaf ears of Rama, Sita turned to Lakshmana and said, ‘Build me a pyre. I will not live any longer. Fire, consuming fire, is the only remedy for this woe’. She went round Rama and climbed the funeral pyre. But the fire lost its capacity to burn before the fire of her chastity. Sita stood there, an angel of purity and holiness untouched by the fire. She came safe through the fire ordeal. The celestials proclaimed not merely her purity, but even her divinity. Rama accepted her saying, ‘Sita is mine as the rays belong to the sun. I have proved to the world that Sita is pure. That was my intention’.

Sita was not destined to be happy in the company of Rama for long. She was nearing the period of confinement when came the last and trying trial of her life. This time some people of Ayodhya raised a scandal that Rama had taken back Sita who had lived in another man’s captivity. Rama felt that as king he should honour the views of his subjects. If they considered that Sita was guilty he must punish her. So he banished her. Lakshmana was entrusted with the task of leaving her on the banks of the Ganges near sage Valmiki’s Ashram.

In the forest Sita gave birth to twin sons, Lava and Kusha. Years later, from the chanting of Lava and Kusha, Rama found out that Sita was alive. Sita was brought to his presence by sage Valmiki himself. Then Rama asked for an oath of purity from Sita before he took her back. With downcast eyes and with a face of divine resignation Sita said, ‘As I have never let my thought wander away from Rama, so let my mother earth give me an opening. This earth is not for me, nor this husband, nor these subjects whom no proof can ever convince”. As she prayed, the earth opened and she disappeared into it. Sita’s life was thus one of a brave endurance of the trails of destiny.

Sita is one among the Seven Great Women a Hindu is expected to remember in the early morning.