29 May written - Sita's golden statue to be made - Page 2

Originally posted by: Chandraketu

First things first - the above episode is total fiction - there was never any pressure on Rama to remarry, nor was there any such tension w/ Sita. She didn't need to do any severe penance, as depicted both in the previous serial as well as this one, and there wasn't the issue of Rama's vow to her - something never mentioned in the original Valmiki.

Now to this episode. As Akhl noted, the nightmare was horrendous, as was putting Sita through all that tension and pain - looks like sadism is an innate quality of the Sagars, masquerading as prayashchit and tapasya. If the original story is plain and straightforward, just insert some pain points.😡😡 So Sita goes through this trauma of anticipating that her husband will complete his foresaking her by re-marrying, and wonder what else is there to live for. 😡And then do some severe penances to ultimately split the earth, unlike in the original, where her purity was enough to pull that off without her going through all that extra effort.🤔

In the Tamil movie Lava Kusa, Sita hears the people in and around the ashram talking about the Ashwamedha Yagna and asks everyone there if any yagna can be done without the wife. All of them reply that it is not possible and she assumes that he will remarry and faints when she ponders this within her hut. Then Maharishi Valmiki comes there and sprinkles some water from his water jug. A transluscent form of Sita gets up and goes to Ayodhya. She sees someone sitting there like a queen. The person is veiled by royal clothes. She snatches it away and sees that it is her own golden statue. She is so happy that her Lord has not forgotten her . She makes a mark on the forehead of the statue and hides (I don't know why - I thought she was invisible till then) behind a pillar. Ram comes there pining away for Sita and then notices the mark on the forehead. Immediately he knows that she had come (as per the movie it was a mark which only the two of them knew about) and looks around to see where she had gone. After a while of shouting for her and searching he falls at the foot of the statue and keeps repeating her name. Sita revives him with her touch but leaves before he can catch a glimpse of her.

The only two things I hated in this movie was the people of Ayodhya giving their gold for the statue telling that this was their way of repenting for causing the chaste queen to be sent away. I don't understand why Ram still left Sita in the forest if his subjects repent on sending her away. The next was Hanuman forsaking Ram in the middle of the battle with Luv Kush and going behind the kids who sing a song on Lord Ram.

Also, the biggest problem with the argument about Rama taking a second wife. Let's for the moment assume that Rama did take such a vow, and that he was under pressure to re-marry. We've already seen how his rajdharm trumped his marriage vows to protect and shelter Sita, and his marriage vows were certainly more sacred than any ancillary gifts he gave to Sita in form of vows. 🤔🤔🤔If his marriage vows could be overriden by his rajdharm, then how could this vow of remaining monogamous have survived his rajdharm demands that he provide a wife for the yagna (aside from the statue option?)🤔

I dont think it was a case of marriage vows alone. Ram had vowed that he will marry only once in his life and his wife was Sita and no one else, didn't he? Maharaj Ram could not break his vow now or all his lifetime of keeping up his word would have been shattered.

Now, re: the above episode, just following this storyline, wouldn't it have occured to Lakshman that suggesting an yagna would require the participation of the queen/wife? And if not to the impulsive Lakshman, at least to the more contemplative Bharat? But both gloss over it, and Kaushalya hits Rama with that discovery.🤔

The other thing that strikes me is the rudeness first of Bharat yesterday, and Shatrughan today. 😡😡😡Yesterday, when Rama was contemplating the idea of a Rajasuya yagna, Bharat was pretty hostile in his opposition to the idea, which wasn't such an adharmic idea at all in the first place. I thought that all 3 brothers worshipped Rama. 🤔

I don't understand this sudden anger in the brothers either.

And today, when UMS are discussing Sita's predicament, Shatrughan barges in and rudely scolds them for doubting Rama's fairness in judgement (which anybody can argue was unfair to Sita). 😡Hello - has everybody forgotten that 2 of the queens there were Shatrughan's bhabis, and he could only have addressed Shrutakirti in such a tone? Either, they could have shown Bharat coming in and doing it, or have Shatrughan speak more civilly. Also, instead of holding up Rama's fairness, he could have held up Rama's dedication to raj-dharm, in which case he'd have been on more solid ground, since the thing that the sisters were discussing was the fairness to Sita.🤔

Also, one statement of Shrutakirti was not true. Taking a second wife was not always a Raghukul tradition. True, Dasharath and Sagar had >1 wife, but Raghu, Aja, Dileepa, Harishchandra, all were monogamous.🤔

From what I have read so far, I thought Dileepa had multiple wives. Or was it the same person in different names?

All in all, today's was a crappy episode.😡😡😡

Exit question: is getting the sahastradal kamal (what's that - 1000 lotii?) any easier than getting the swarna-kamal???😈😈😈 What are these 2 kids - unpaid florists for hire???

Again in the movie Lava Kusha, it was shown as if Sita repenting for doubting her Lord and Maharishi Valmiki suggesting a Gowri vrat or puja for which she has to worship the Goddess with 1000 petaled blue lotuses and Luv and Kush get them for her everyday. Sage Valmiki also tells her that she should not stop the worship or leave it mid way at any cost or else it will create disasters for her.

When Hanuman is lured from the battle field by the kids who sing about Lord Ram, they take him to the ashram, stop the singing and run away. Hanuman coming to his senses realises that he is in a different place but hears a familiar voice and goes into the hut to investigate. There he sees Sita Devi worshiping the Goddess and recognizes her and proclaims that she is Sita Devi. Everyone there comes to know that she is Lord Ram's wife and then he speaks of the battle between the father and the sons. Sita, aghast at what was happening leaves the worship and rushes off with Hanuman to stop the war.

oh man so many comments

Originally posted by: Vibhishna

Thanks for the update.

One thing I want to know is that whether they are going to end the serial without showing Bharat's conquest of Gandhara.

Is the story of Shambuka already over?

Shambhuka thankfully hasn't been shown. Also, you missed the discussion on the various versions of the Ramayan that we had - Khalrika-di uncovered quite a few, and looks like this serial has depended heavily on the Ananda-Ramayan.

In Valmiki, you won't find Rama having made any vow of monogamy - that seems to be a later invention. In fact, in Valmiki, neither does Rama make such a vow, nor does anybody in Ayodhya pressure him to re-marry. Since this monogamy vow is a latter invention, my point remains - it couldn't have been superior to his wedding vows, taken w/ fire as the witness, as opposed to this vow, which according to legend, was made on the suhaag raat (post-wedding night). It's difficult to argue that such a vow would be higher than the wedding vow itself, so if the former could be trumped by raj-dharm, so could the latter.

Dileepa - there were 2 Dileepas in the story. The one who was Raghu's father had a queen named Sudakshina, and they didn't have any sons due to Surabhi's curse, and that curse was broken once they served Nandini. The other Dileepa was the son of Anshuman and father of Bhagiratha - I have no idea whether he had 1 wife or more. Is the latter the one you have in mind? The former Dileepa (who came much later) unlike Dasharath didn't re-marry in order to get kids - he just kept trying w/ Sudakshina, and after getting Nandini's blessings, she gave birth to Raghu. I think that's how the custom of venerating cows originated not only in Raghukul, but in Hinduism as well (others can correct me if I'm wrong).

Thanks for the account of what the movie 'Lava-Kusha' showed.

Originally posted by: ananyacool

I don't think Bharat's conquest will be shown and neither will shambuka's story appear. If its to be believed that June 26th will be the last episode then there's very lil time left to cover these stories.

Vidhi ka vidhan!

If they show the Ananda Ramayan ending, they may not show any of the conquests. They may simply show Rama and Sita distributing kingdoms to Kush, Luv, Angad, Chandraketu, Taksha and Pushkal like birdseed and then all bros & bahus leaving for Vaikuntha.

Kiranraghu

I think there was a time gap between each of the events, although that hasn't been depicted in the serial. Having said that, Valmiki knew everything ahead of time, so this sort of speed wouldn't be strange given the context.