Week 3, Reading Diary D,Sita and Rama

Sita and Rama

PDE Ramayana: Sita and Rama

Sita image found www.youtube.com

This!

Then Sita looked on Rama sadly, like a deer, with tear-filled eyes, and Rama, seeing her so near, but bethinking him of honour in the sight of men, was torn in twain. "I have wiped away the insult to our family and to myself," said he, "but thou art stained by dwelling with another than myself. What man of high degree receives back a wife who hath lived long in another's house? Ravan has held thee on his lap and gazed on thee with lustful eyes. I have avenged his evil deed, but I am unattached to thee. O gentle one, I am forced by a sense of honour to renounce thee, for how should Ravana have overlooked thee, so fair and dainty as thou art, when he had thee at his will? Do thou choose what home thou wilt, whether with Lakshmana, or Bharata, or Sugriva, or with Vibhishana."

The last paragraph of this chapter that I pasted above is enough to send anyone, saint or not over the edge.

Author's Note; I chose this story because it is the start of when a bad situation just got worse instead of end happily ever after for Rama and Sita. As the reader of the storyline, it's a jolt because the divine couple incarnate are reunited and the obstacles have been overcome! But not really, because as we learn here in this chapter it would be socially unacceptable for Rama to be with Sita. Rama is in no position to rock the boat that he just got into. This is probably where the therapist would like to start the focus of broken trust. The Blondie song "Heart of Glass" echoes in my mind as theme music for this episode in their marriage.

Bibliography;Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists by Sister Nivedita (1914)