76. EPILOGUE :

Dasaratha's troubles began with love.
Then the love of Rama and Sita is the
theme and substance of Ayodhya Kanda.
In love that is not opposed to dharma,
we find a manifestation of God. So was it
affirmed by Sri Krishna when he
explained his manifold being to Arjuna.
The Ramayana has, for its twin theme,
love that is opposed to dharma also. The
Ramayana is undoubtedly a great love
story.


Those who regard the Ramayana as an
allegory interpret Sita as the individual
soul and Rama as the Supreme Being.
God seeks and pursues the human soul till
He secures it. He is eager to save us. It is
enough if we just do not obstruct or resist.


There are also other interpretations and
applications of the Ramayana. Sita, the
female counterpart of the Supreme Being,
is the embodiment of compassion and
grace. Compassion is the Supreme Mother
and she is enthroned in the heart of the
Lord. When she casts her merciful glance
on us, we reach the feet of God.


Parvati's function in relation to Siva
and Lakshmi's in relation to Hari are both
identical, and are just variations of the
same creed of dependence on God's grace.
God as Father and God as Mother are not
distinct. If the Lord were to be parted
from compassion, our plight would be just
that of Ravana who separated Sita from
Rama. The quality of the Lord's
compassion can be understood from the
experience of true human love.


Many meanings can be read in the
Ramayana and its beauty appreciated in
many ways as from a real diamond many
glorious colors emanate. Seventeen
months ago I began writing these weekly
chapters not without fear and trembling.
This week I close it full of thankfulness
for the health of body and peace of mind
that enabled me to complete this humble
service. Learned men will no doubt find
many faults in what I have written. But
they must be glad also that it has done
some good.


A word to the children who read these
chapters. I have told the story of the
Prince of Ayodhya mainly for your sake.
Grown up people may read Valmiki and
Kamban. Those who know how to sing
can render with joy the sweet songs on
Rama given to us by Tyagaraja. But this
story that I have told can be read direct by
you, children, without anyone's help.


You should look upon Rama,
Lakshmana and Hanuman like your own
fathers and elder brothers who are by your
side ever eager to help you. Grow to be
like Bharata, Lakshmana and Hanuman,
good and brave souls, full of love and
strength.


Mothers too, I know, have been
reading this story with joy. This has been
a great encouragement to me. They can
understand why I have told the story in
simple words and short sentences for the
sake of our children. Everything we do,
we do for the sake of our children, do we
not? Only women can realise and relive
the experiences and feelings of Sita.


The story of Sita as told by Valmiki
and Kamban can be fully appreciated only
by women. Only they can fully appreciate
the courage of Jatayu and the prowess of
Hanuman. Sita's sorrows have not ended
with the Ramayana. They go on, still, in
the lives of our women.


In the Rama avatar, Rama did not
know that he was God incarnate. Krishna
knew that he was an avatar and acted
accordingly. We should read the two
stories with this difference in mind. The
despair and grief that the man Rama
experienced, Krishna never knew. When
he sucked at the demon-woman's breast or
was bound with a rope and thrashed for
mischief, he cared not nor grieved.


Standing weaponless in the battlefield, he
led the warrior to destroy the wicked. In
every episode of Krishna we see the
difference between the two avatars.
I have followed the story of the Prince
of Ayodhya as told by Valmiki. There was
a legend current among people, I think
even before Valmiki's time, that after
recovering Sita, for fear of scandal, Rama
sent her away to live in the forest.


This pathetic episode must have sprung
from the sorrow-laden imagination of our
women. It has taken shape as the Uttara
Kanda of Ramayana. Although there is
beauty in the Uttara Kanda, I must say my
heart rebels against it. Valmiki had
disposed of this old legend through the
fire ordeal in the battlefield. Even that
ordeal does not seem to me as consistent
with Rama's character. It is painful to read
it.


As the prince returned from Mithila he
met Parasurama. I have heard it said that
with that meeting Parasurama's avatar
came to an end. Likewise, it should be
held, I think, that Rama's avatar came to
an end with the slaying of Ravana. After
that battle, Rama remained only as a King
of the Ikshvaku race.


On this theory, Rama's treatment of
Sita after the battle and in the Uttara
Kanda can be explained simply as the
behavior of a king in accordance with the
customs of the times.


But, how can we comment on a work
composed thousands of years ago and
coming down to us in palm-leaf
manuscripts subject to corruption? If,
even after the fire-ordeal in the Yuddha
Kanda, it is said in the Uttara Kanda that
Sita was sent to the forest, we may take it
that it mirrors the voiceless and endless
suffering of our women folk.


Sorrow and joy are both alike the play
of God. God himself took with him his
divine spouse, the embodiment of his own
supreme compassion, into the world of
men and women, and enacted with her a
great drama of joy and sorrow in the
Ramayana.


Rain falling from the heaven flows into
the rivers and flows down to join the sea.
Again from the sea the water is sucked up
by the sun and rises to the sky, whence it
descends again as rain and flows down as
rivers. Even so, feelings and values rise
from the people and, touching the poet's
heart, are transformed into a poem which,
in turn, enlightens and inspires the people.
Thus in every land the poets and their
people continuously reinforce each other.


The tenderness and purity and the untold
sufferings of women took shape as the
Uttara Ramayana. Like an unflickering
lamp, it throws light on the quality of their
hearts. Whether the epics and songs of a
nation spring from the faith and ideas of
the common folk, or whether a nation's
faith and ideas are produced by its
literature is a question which one is free to
answer as one likes.


Does a plant spring from the seed or
does seed issue from the plant? Was the
bird or the egg the first cause? Did clouds
rise from the sea or was the sea filled by
the waters from the sky? All such
inquiries take us to the feet of God
transcending speech and thought.


One other point, in describing how
Ravana carried off Sita, Kamban differs
from Valmiki. In Kamban's Ramayana,
Ravana does not seize and carry Sita as
Valmiki describes; without touching her
he lifts her with the earth on which she
stands. Kamban's version is followed by
most popular expositors because this
version is less painful to our feelings.


It is no sin or shame to an innocent
woman if a villain behaves like a brute.
Yet, mistakenly, we in this country look
on the violence of a brute as causing a
blemish to the woman's purity. It is in
deference to this wrong feeling that
Kamban departed from Valmiki here.


For the same reason, Tulasidas relates
that the Sita seized and carried off by
Ravana was not the real Sita at all but a
palpable image of hers left behind by the
real Sita. Thus the story is told in all
North India. During the fire ordeal, it is
the maya-Sita that disappears and the real
Sita springs again and returns from the
flames.

Retold by  C. Rajagopalachari.