Sambodhi 2010 Vol 33

Author(s): J B Shah, K M patel
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 10

Satya Vrat Varma
SAMBODHI
His behaviour following the unexpected meeting with Sītā, after ten long years, is all the more enigmatic. In moments of remorse, he humbly pleads guilty', begs her pardon, touches her feet", expresses unequivocal devotion to her”, rates her as the summum bonum of his life, and respectfully asking her to return to Ayodhyā to lend relevance to his meaningless life!4, simultaneously asking her to kill him in case she decides to stay on in the hermitage because his survival without her would be an exercise in futility15. Perhaps in a bid to somehow sustain him without her comforting company, he requests her to send Marikuta and Lava with him which she does in the larger interest of her sons. Obviously, they could not fill the void in his life. He continues to pine for her with no respite in sight.
These tender sentiments and pleading, however, yield place to despicable scheming soon thereafter. He certainly appeals to her softer feelings. He seems to serve a notice of sorts on her in conveying, through the young boys, his resolve to weep to death in case she was firm in her resolve not to return to him16. What follows was the negation of all that Rāma stood for. When he finds her unrelenting, he decides to cheat her into believing that he(Rāma) had ended his life because of his inability to stand the pangs of separation from her. Sītā does move into the trap. However, when, on discovering the truth, she tries to leave for the hermitage after some sharp exchanges with Rāma, he not only blocks all possible routes for her to escape, he even goes to the length of threatening her with dire consequences. This was something which even Lord Sankara could not condone. He rather reviles him severely for his unbecoming conduct. His reconciliation with her (Sītā), brought about by the Lord after hard bargaining between the two, is as mysterious as was the estrangement. The couple lived happily after all the bitterness that had turned their life into a virtual hell..
As depicted in the RKM., the Sanskrit counterpart of the Rāmakien, Rāma is a small-minded, scheming, and unpredictable person with inconsistent conduct which is again evident in his cheer to Laksmana for his killing Sītā in obedience to him. SĪTĀ
Like her husband Sītā too represents an admixture of alien and indigenous components in her character. Whereas the latter is too well known to arouse curiosity, it is the element she owes to the land of her adoption that distinguishes her from what we have known of her, down the ages. She is indeed the child of