Page 16 - GALIET LOVE AND DUTY´S LOTUS: Rama and Sita IV

Galiet & Galiet
Ayodhya. Like King Dasaratha, King Rama is equally compelled to follow the same path by sacrificing his beloved Sita and his children to preserve dharma. However, we need to remember that King Dasaratha rejects the favourable public opinion to reinstate Rama. His actions are motivated solely by the highest social and moral good. By contrast, King Rama accepts the negative public opinion towards Sita and, although his actions are motivated by the highest good, he, indirectly, advocates the lesser good. While swearing false is “what most harms men on earth,”33 for it injures peace, beauty and order in either kingdom or state; mistreatment and abandonment of women and children, particularly those polluted against their will, cause greater harm to kingdom or state in the longer term: under Hegel’s master-slave modus operandi, it welcomes resentment, upheaval and disorder.
By listening to the gods and educating his subjects as to truth, King Rama would not only have preserved his beloved Sita by his side but also would have shown that in times of personal crisis opportunities exist to transcend the burdens of tradition and mores. Such challenging moments, if handled with caution and with a greater sense of justice, can serve to add prominence to king or statesman more than what can be gained through universal approval and by safeguarding the extraordinary sense of honour of the Kshatriya. Critical moments such as this could have enabled King Rama to paint his family name with new colours of virtue by setting higher moral standards of compassion, justice, conduct and governance. King Rama’s infatuation with preserving his family’s honour shall echo his misfortune and shall remind us of Diotima’s memorable words to Socrates:
“...they’re [men] ready to brave any danger for the sake of this [honour], much more than they are for their children; and they are prepared to suffer through all sorts of ordeals and even die for the sake of glory...and the memory of their virtue...anyone will do anything for the sake of immortal virtue and the glorious fame that follows; and the better the people, the more they will do, for they are all in love with immortality.” 34
33 Hesiod. Theogony, Works and Days. Trans. West, M.L. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978. Lines 226-260 p.10
34 Plato. The Symposium. 208c-e. Plato. Complete Works. Symposium. Ed. John M. Cooper. Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing, 1997.
• 16•