July 31 - Sargas 8 and 9 of Aranya Kanda.
Sri Rama, Lakshmana and Sita get permission from the sage Suteekshna to move around the forest and visit many hermitages. He makes them promise that they will return to the ashrama after their wandering around.
Valmiki now narrates a very important dialogue between Sita and Sri Rama. Sita comes across to me as a woman of great intuition, sense of righteousness, and total dedication to the welfare of her beloved husband. Today we will see only what she broaches. Tomorrow we will see Sri Rama's response.
***
Sri Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita rest for the night after much hospitality from Sage Suteekshna. They get up early morning before sunrise and complete their ablutions. Valmiki says that Sri Rama and Sita bathed in cool and sparkling water amd performed prayers to gods and ancestors.
After getting ready, they approach the sage for permission to leave the ashrama and travel around the forest. They say that the sages accompanying them do not want to delay the start. Sri Rama also says something very poetic.
अविषह्यातपो यावत् सूर्यो नातिविराजते ।
अमार्गेणागतां लक्ष्मीं प्राप्येवान्वयवर्जितः ॥
"Respected sage, we want to make a start and travel before the sun reaches the zenith with intolerable heat, which is as unbearable as the wealth acquired through foul deeds by a man of low birth."
They touch the feet of the sage and get his blessings. Suteekshna warmly embraces the two brothers. He appreciates the way Sita is following Sri Rama like a shadow.
He describes the setting of the hermitages that they will be visiting, situated amidst resplendent nature full of fruits, roots, flowers, animals, birds, cool lakes with lotuses, peacocks, and waterfalls.
The sage extracts a promise from Sri Rama and Lakshmana that they will come back to visit him. He blesses them all.
Sita hands over their weapons to Sri Rama and Lakshmana. They wear their armour, belt up their quivers and swords, and carrying their bows, leave in all majesty.
***
As they make their way, Sita speaks to Sri Rama. There is decorum, respect, wisdom, and a note of concern in her voice and words.
अयं धर्मः सुसूक्ष्मेण विधिना प्राप्यते महान् ।
निवृत्तेन च शक्योऽयं व्यसनात् कामजादिह ॥
"Dear Rama, this ideal we uphold as Dharma is pursued by our actions in a very subtle way and is easy to miss. The only way to earn it is to eliminate from our actions bad deeds and habits occasioned purely by desires and lust. "
त्रीण्येव व्यसनान्यत्र कामजानि भवन्त्युत ।
मित्थ्या वाक्यं तु परमं तस्माद्गुरुतरावुभौ ॥
परदाराभिगमनं विना वैरं च रौद्रता ।
"Dear Rama, in this context we need to look at three vices which are the worst. Top most among them is speaking untruth (and related aspects of cheating, not keeping one's word etc.) The other two are of a rather serious nature. The first is having illicit relations with someone else's wife. The second is inflicting violence and hurting someone who is not one's enemy".
Sita says how deviance from truth is totally foreign to Sri Rama's nature. He has never and will never speak untruth. The second vice of cohabiting with someone else's wife is something patently foreign to his nature as he has demonstrated to Sita during all the years of their marriage. He is impeccable in this aspect.
Sita says that this immaculate behaviour of Sri Rama regarding these two vices is extremely rare, shows his absolute self control, and is praiseworthy indeed.
But the third, i.e. resorting to violence and killing people when there is no enmity with them, looms large as Sri Rama is embarking on this course now.
Consider this. He is going into Dandaka to kill rakshasas. They have not harmed the three of them. There is no enmity. He has given his word to the ascetics they met recently that he will surely kill all the rakshasas.
Coming to the forest as ascetics, Sri Rama and Lakshmana are carrying dreadful weapons and planning to act against the ascetic Dharma of non-violence. Indeed these weapons are as dangerous as a forest fire. They incite one to needless violence.
Sita now tells a story. Once there was a sage in the forest deeply engaged in his austerities. Indra wanted to make him fall from his high asceticism. He arrived as an attendant guard carrying a big sword. He gave it to the sage to take care of it, for safekeeping.
Soon the sage was so enamoured of the glittering sword that he started carrying it around even when he went looking for fruits and roots. Within no time, he was using the sword to cut down trees needlessly. Soon he wreaked violence on animals and birds too. To cut a long story short, Sita says, the sage went to hell as a result of his actions.
"Dear Rama, I am deeply concerned that you are entering Dandaka with these weapons, having a plan to kill rakshasas who have done no harm to you. Weapons if at all should be only for self-protection. Your nature of a kshatriya and fondness for wielding weapons is all right while ruling a kingdom. But here you have come as an ascetic. Imagine the great joy and pride your revered mother and departed father would feel to see you as a pure ascetic full of non-violence and penance in the forest, true to your promise to them."
Sita concludes with words typical of an obedient wife.
स्त्रीचापलादेतदुपाहृतं मे
धर्मं च वक्तुं तव को समर्थः ।
विचार्य बुद्ध्या तु सहानुजेन
यद् रोचते तत् कुरु माचिरेण ॥
" Dear Rama, out of my fickle nature being a woman, have I spoken thus. Indeed who is there competent to give you advice on your Dharma? Please deeply consider all these aspects along with your brother. Then please act as per your wish, without losing time, of course. "
***
॥ श्रीरामजयम् ॥
