Page 10 - GALIET LOVE AND DUTY´S LOTUS: Rama and Sita IV

Galiet & Galiet
is remarkable.”4 When Sita learns of Rama’s exile to the forest, he forbids her to join him. However, Sita is adamant in accompanying him. She uses omen, sanctity of marriage and threat to persuade him to join him in his journey to the forest. Not only Sita hears as a child that she is destined to live in the beauty and dangers of forest for a short time, but she knows it is her duty to follow her husband wherever he goes, for better or worse, for “the husband is the highest god to the wife...belonging to him even in the next world.”5 Sita’s sentiments are so powerful and fervent, in a way, that one feels she “becomes Rama”, echoing slightly Catherine Earnshaw’s words that “she is Heathcliff.”6 Like Catherine, in a way, Sita beautifully expresses her sentiments of loyalty and devotion “...I feel happy in your happiness, sadness in your sorrows, I am solely devoted to you. If you do not take me with you, I will surely put an end to my life...”7 Sita’s devotion is absolute; if Rama rejects taking her to the forest with him, she will commit suicide because life without him is not worth living.
Rama’s love and devotion towards Sita is of equal stature while he remains in the forest free from the pressures of courtly duty and cares. When Rama learns that Ravana has abducted Sita, Rama, at first, feels that his virtues have been turned to faults and, like Sita, contemplates suicide to overcome his endless grief for he “cannot bear her absence.”8 Later, his enraged heart is set on destroying the whole three worlds if he doesn’t find her. Rama is prepared to kill King Vali-Vadha to gain the support of Sugriva’s army and Hanamat, build a bridge to Lanka with the help of hominids, be pierced by serpent arrows from Indrajit and kill many including Ravana in order to save not only his beloved but also his honour. For not only had Rama, earlier, mourned losing Sita, the lotus of his life, but had also wept for losing his father, his mother and his Kingdom, Ayodhya of his heart. For fourteen years, Rama and Sita, as wanderers and exiles, shall succumb to the
4 Nagaiah, Samudralala. An Appreciation of Valmiki’s Ramayana. Tirupati: Nagaiah, 1981.
5 Nagaiah, Samudralala. An Appreciation of Valmiki’s Ramayana. Tirupati: Nagaiah, 1981. (II-29-18,19,20,21)
6 Catherine tells Nelly “I am Heathcliff 3⁄4 he is always, always in my mind, not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself 3⁄4 but as my own being; so, don’t talk of our separation again...” Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. A Norton Critical Edition. London, UK: W.W. Norton & Company. 2003. Chapter 6, pp. 63-64.
7 Nagaiah, Samudralala. An Appreciation of Valmiki’s Ramayana. Tirupati: Nagaiah, 1981. (II-29-18,19,20,21)
8 Bhava-bhuti’s own description of Rama’s feelings toward Sita. “She is Good Fortune dwelling in my house; a pencil of ambrosia to my eyes. Her touch upon my body is an ointment of sandalwood; her arm upon my neck is smooth and cool as pearls. What of her would not be dear, were there not that which I cannot bear: her absence.
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