Page 11 - GALIET LOVE AND DUTY´S LOTUS: Rama and Sita IV

Galiet & Galiet
lights and shadows, to the beauty and perils of the forests’ infinite paths filled with hermits and savages, bliss and ravages; and in those special and rare occasions afforded to human beings, revel in the wonders of nature under the rapture of a magnetic honey-moon.
Not only is their devotion beautiful while in the forest, but Rama and Sita’s willingness to sacrifice their lives and endure the tragic struggle between necessity and liberty, the real and the ideal while Ravana holds Sita captive is noteworthy. Sita, wretched and in a fit of temper, puts her own life in danger. Unlike her usual composed self, she rudely demands that Lakshmana, against Rama’s explicit orders, abandon her side so that he may rush to rescue Rama. Sita has heard Rama’s desperate cry9 while he is on his quest to fetch the precious golden deer. Just as Persephone10 is abducted by Hades and taken to Tartarus, Sita is abducted by Ravana11, the forces of darkness, and taken to his palace in the golden city of Lanka. Jatayu, the aged vulture, reminiscent of the water nymph Cyane, fails to stop Ravana just as Cyane fails to stop Hades.
Similarly, Ravana clips Jatayu’s lovely wings and he perishes just as Cyane, in deep sorrow for loosing Persephone, dissolves, like a tear, into the ever-flowing waters of her spring. Rama’s arduous journey to find his beloved Sita, in a way, is reminiscent of Demeter’s journey to find her beloved daughter. Both feel slighted, resentful and embark on long journeys. When Demeter tears away her veil and challenges her identity, Rama also questions and challenges his identity 3⁄4 both feel their virtues have become their weaknesses. However, Demeter’s rage will cause a famine on the world while Rama’s rage will speak of destroying the three worlds.12 In the end, both shall rove the earth: Demeter wanders to Eleusis searching for Persephone while Rama journeys south searching for Sita. Yet it shall be Rama, unlike Demeter,13 who shall reclaim and lose his beloved Sita forever. Rama reaches the land of the Vanara hominids where he meets Sugriva,
9 Marica in disguise.
10 Homeric Hymn to Demeter. West, Martin. Homeric Hymns. Homeric Apocrypha. Lives of Homer. Hymn to Demeter. London: Harvard University Press, 2003.
11 Ravana is disguised as a mendicant, and Sita gives him hospitality.
12 Rama, said to be an avatar of Vishnu, has the power to control the three worlds.
13 Persephone eats the pomegranate seed and, as a result of her transgression, can be with Demeter only two thirds of the year.
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