Posted:
What a magnificent post, my dear Stuti! What force, what passion! I loved it.
I am very glad that you liked my own take so much, but please do not underestimate yours. It is a wonderful piece of writing. I have looked at the Siya ke Ram forum and noted what a solid fight you put up there as well, faced with all those convoluted arguments like pretzels, trying to explain away the unforgivable. I was most impressed by your tenacity.
Shyamala Aunty
QUOTE=Shinning_Stuti]Just went through some discussions on Mariyaada Purusottam Ram while scrolling aimlessly. May I share my views here too which I posted in SKR forum at last night also? 😳
I am very glad that you liked my own take so much, but please do not underestimate yours. It is a wonderful piece of writing. I have looked at the Siya ke Ram forum and noted what a solid fight you put up there as well, faced with all those convoluted arguments like pretzels, trying to explain away the unforgivable. I was most impressed by your tenacity.
Shyamala Aunty
QUOTE=Shinning_Stuti]Just went through some discussions on Mariyaada Purusottam Ram while scrolling aimlessly. May I share my views here too which I posted in SKR forum at last night also? 😳
Uttarakhand, the very controversial part of Ramayan, always have given the same pain from the days of childhood- from the day I have learnt the very basics of this great epic, has again made me stand in front of the same question... how did Ram protect his dharma by committing such an adhamra with Sita and his unborn children?
Ram was helpless! But this helplessness is the most tragic and painful part... if he would not be helpless, Sita's life would not have filled with the flow of tragedy and humiliation!
I cannot find the answer of a single question- how did an extra-ordinary personality like Ram, designated as God, become helpless in front of some distasteful gossips of some worthless common people? Were the gibberish reasons of the washer-man, who does not hold the 1/4th of the knowledge, humanity, deep study of life and sociology that Ram has, so important and logical that it moved the concrete base of belief and principles of Ram, it became more important than the struggles of Sita, their love and understanding towards each-other and the fire of Agniparikksha? A mean-minded, half-educated washer-man who is mostly skeptical and tortuous towards his wife, says that he would never have accepted his wife if he would be in Ram's place, and also commented that Ram should banish his wife to save his honour, and the king, following his pedestal, gives banishment to his extremely devoted wife forever, that too when she was pregnant with his children... why this helplessness to keep intact his 'mariyaada'? Was that so much important to keep than his patidharm and pitadharm?
He did it to follow his Rajdharm... like an ideal king should do- as we were told from childhood. What is the duty of a king towards his subjects? To take care of their livelihood and happiness, to protect them from the adversities like a father... does it imply that he is to entertain the spicy gossips of the lanes regarding his family-life and his wife's character? Does it mean that the subjects will decide her wife's character and eligibility to be a queen? Are the gossips even more evident than the proof of Agniparikksha, and his own belief on his wife? Then what was the strange power in those people's words, that set Ramchandra in dilemma- that whether he was right to accept his wife or not, and he ended up with the easiest solution to abandon Sita, to welcome a storm in his own life and destroy his personal life along with Sita forever... how did it help in his Rajdharma? What would have changed in the daily lives of Ayoddha if Ram would not send Sita away, and Lav-Kush to get a normal childhood like every prince? As a sensible person Ram should have known that he will never be able to stop these spicy gossips in market by carrying out their wishes... then why this helplessness of Rajdharm- when he himself knows what is right and what is wrong?
Think about the countless women like that washer-man's wife... They did not have the last place to get justice against the tortures of their husbands. Ram had given the verdict to the washer-man to accept his wife but he denied; and moreover his insulting words to the queen resulted greatly, and the respectable queen was banished from the palace under the same injustice. Ram did the same sin like the washer-man, set an example for all the men by doing this... now who would be there for those women whose respects always goes at stake? If a respectable woman like Sita, evidently as pure as fire can be thrown out from her house with the allegation of being an unchaste, what can be happened to the common women? What Rajdharma did Ram save by putting the future of all those women in uncertainty and unknown fear? Why did he chose such a way of 'mariyaada' where none will get any benefit?
Ram was helpless in front of the society. He knew that his actions will be questioned one day... so he chose the easiest path among all- to send Sita for exile- despite knowing she is purest of the pure, despite knowing she is the ray of his life, despite knowing he is going grave sin towards his wife and unborn children, he did it... he literally cheated Sita, he broke her belief! Sita did not lose faith and that was her greatness, but Ram did cheat Sita! He was indeed helpless... standing beside Sita, going against the whole society to keep intact her respect and honour, fighting against the conservative mentalities against women and to break the stereotypes, welcoming the change of society where males would respect women keeping the image of Sita in front... all would be a very very tough job from the throne of a king.
So the easiest solution to keep up his reputation as Mariyaada Purushottam, to increase the honour of his great clan, to prove himself as a selfless king was to sacrifice the greatest blessing of his life! Ram had to do it for keeping his 'mariyaada' intact, to increase his popularity in his subjects, to secure his throne from any kind of rebellion from the spark of society, like a shrewd politician does, if we see the whole thing from the glass of 21st century! Helpless he was... helpless in front of his status, the weight of his heavy crown, the fame that he and his clan has gathered by the long sacrifices in life!
So the easiest solution to keep up his reputation as Mariyaada Purushottam, to increase the honour of his great clan, to prove himself as a selfless king was to sacrifice the greatest blessing of his life! Ram had to do it for keeping his 'mariyaada' intact, to increase his popularity in his subjects, to secure his throne from any kind of rebellion from the spark of society, like a shrewd politician does, if we see the whole thing from the glass of 21st century! Helpless he was... helpless in front of his status, the weight of his heavy crown, the fame that he and his clan has gathered by the long sacrifices in life!
I know it is an impossible task to justify Ram from the filtered mindset of 21st century, so won't try anymore... But it gives immense pain when I think about how this helplessness of Ram, his utter injustice towards his Sita has been elevated and worshiped in the society of that time! I sometimes think that the flow of excellence qualities of Ram's character, which had once elevated him to divine, suddenly had got restricted in the stagnant rules of the society after he stepped into the shoe of a king, making him helpless to do such things that he himself could never justify!
I never can find any greatness in Ram's sacrificing Sita, where in this particular part Sita beams extra-ordinarily with her strength, her positive vibe and her firm determination; her struggles as a single mother with Lav-Kush becomes exploratory that how a mother can raise her children on her own without any single help from her husband, and at last she wins against the society, by finishing her entity as a human being she proved her divinity in front of the whole hypocrite society who once had humiliated her...
I never can find any greatness in Ram's sacrificing Sita, where in this particular part Sita beams extra-ordinarily with her strength, her positive vibe and her firm determination; her struggles as a single mother with Lav-Kush becomes exploratory that how a mother can raise her children on her own without any single help from her husband, and at last she wins against the society, by finishing her entity as a human being she proved her divinity in front of the whole hypocrite society who once had humiliated her...
Anupamaa
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