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JAIN RAMAYAN
to you. Added to all that, I also compelled you to go through the fire-ordeal. Your supreme chastity has been now proved beyond doubt. Even gods and goddesses enthusiastically came to your rescue but dear Sita! Please pardon me. I seek your forgiveness for all the agonies I caused you. Kindly forget my blunders and pardon me. Now, come on! Get into the Pushpak Viman. The people of Ayodhya are eager to receive you with honour and veneration.”
All shed tears on hearing the words of Shri Ram but Sita remained calm and serene. Slowly her serene face grew serious. It was evident that she had made some determination. She was thinking of renouncing the samsar.
"Dear Lord! You are not to blame for what has happened; nor are the people to blame. Whatever unpleasant things occurred, they occurred on account of my sinful karmas. I should have committed some sinful karmas in my earlier janmas. It is only because of my sinful karmas that you had to punish me thus. You are not at all to blame for anything. You are absolutely faultless and perfect.
But I have decided to destroy the eight karmas and I do not want to be caught in the snares of karmas again. I do not want to fall into the whirlpool of worldly life again. I do not want to depend upon punyakarmas also. When you brought me from Lanka to Ayodhya, I thought of relying on my punyakarmas. At that time, I thought, "My sinful karmas have ended" but oh! I was deceived in thinking so. This is definitely the mockery of fate. As long as the jiva keeps wandering through the four states of existence karmas keep agitating it. Therefore, I have decided to adopt the path of samyam in order to attain deliverance from these karmas."
The very next moment, Sita descended from the lotus. She pulled off her hair with her hands and returned to Shri Ram all her ornaments. Shri Ram stood utterly stupefied. Dumbfounded, he kept looking at Sita with wide-open eyes. Lav and Kush were stunned by their mother's decision. They could not think of saying anything.
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