Originally posted by: Angie12
Janaki, it was nice debating with you too and I enjoyed reading your views despite our differences.😊 Our opinions are different because our starting premise is different. For me, Ram/Sita were avataar, but took birth as human beings with no exceptional powers as that was Raavan's boon that only a human being with no extra ordinary powers could kill him. So Ram/Sita's reactions were of human's too - feelings of despair, loss, unhappiness etc. as opposed to Krishna who was born with powers and had detachment. Hence his Gita lesson of Karm theory.
Just one last thing. It is not true that women in Treta Yug did not know fighting. Kakayi knew how to fight and she accompanied Dasrath in wars. That's how she got the boons from him. In one of the fights against demons, Indra had asked Dasrath for his help. Dasrath got wounded and lost consciousness. It was Kakayi who fought back and drove the chariot and rescued him. As a result, Dasrath gave her two boons. She used them later to get Ram exiled for 14 years.
Yes, I agree Kaikeyi knew how to fight, but she was a woman who behaved out of the norm. It just wasn't a common practice back then, or else Kaushalya and Sumitra would have fought with Dashrath in wars too.
I also don't agree that Ram & Sita did not have extraordinary powers, because if they did not, then how did Ram revive Ahalya with the touch of his foot? That story in Valmiki Ramayana is very divine in nature. No normal human being could magically turn a cursed stone back into a woman, so Ram must have been born with magical powers. He just did not use them frequently unless guided by Gurus. The boon for Ravan was that no one except a human could kill him. There was no rule that the human could not have extraordinary powers.
Also, if Sita did not have extraordinary powers, how did she bless Hanuman with immortality in Sundar Kand? Only Goddesses could do that. How did she lift the divine Shiv Dhanush, which no ordinary warrior could lift? Lifting the Shiv Dhanush was not something to be taught. Strong warriors, demons, and Gods could not even lift it. Sita could lift it only because she was Mahalakshmi and retained those powers as Sita, and Ram could only lift it because he had the powers of Lord Vishnu. And of course, Parashuram could lift it since he also was an incarnation of Vishnu.
Even Valmiki Ramayan, which portrays the story in a more humanistic light than Ramcharitmanas, has many divine incidents which could not have been carried out by mere humans. This is why I strongly believe that Ram & Sita knew they were Gods. They just pretended not to know in order to teach humans the ideal way of living, but some incidents in Ramayan could not have happened had they not known they were Gods, such as the Ahalya incident and Sita blessing Hanuman to be immortal and a storehouse of virtues.