Valmiki Ramayana - Aranya Kanda in ProseSarga 9

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Permitted by Sage Suteekshna, started is that son Raghu dynasty, and Vaidehi voicing softly spoke this to her husband...

Comment: Seetha addresses Rama, throughout this chapter, and its percept is as below. "Wielding weaponry you are entering into an area where the demons are dense, and intolerantly you embark to kill them, thereupon we two get separated, and that in turn is intolerable to you...so let us leave weapons [back at hermitage] and go to forests, [to see sages...] Govindaraja. "The promise made to sages in eradicating demons is himsaatmaka, injurious; they can be won over by ahimsa, non-injurious methods also. So Seetha narrated a tell-tale story as to how brutal a mind becomes, if a weapon is wielded..." Maheshvara Tirtha. She is talking with a heartfelt friendly voice. If it be said why this snigdha, friendliness, is anew, it is replied that friendship is going to be separated soon. None can avert Rama to make a promise and never he deviates on what he promised. Aware of this stubbornness of Rama, her heart felt a foreboding, and she that love-blind Seetha started telling friendlily, with regard to her friendship with Rama, that may disrupt soon.

"But adharma, un-righteousness you attain [even though you are by your nature are] a great celebrity, if [examined] in very minute way... And by discarding the desire-produced indulgences... it is possible [to over come this adharma, unrighteousness,] here [in this world...and personalities like you, who are above the worldly indulgences, can easily overcome this...]

"Only three self-gratifications are there, the definite products of desire, [one is speaking] fallacious utterances, [which itself is] worse and also the worst than the other two...

Comment: Seetha is foretelling the triggering points to the course of Ramayana. The addictions or self-gratifying acts are defined as:

m®ga y˜kÿ˜ div˜ svapna× pari v˜da× striyo mada×|
taurya trikam v®th˜ a÷y˜ ca k˜maja× daþako guõa× ||manu sm®ti

mR^igayaakshaa= hunting game; divaa+svapnaH= day dreaming [sleeping in daytime]; pari+vaada= abusing others; striyaomadaH= indulgence in women; taurya+trikam= artistic impulses, three of them; vR^ithaa +aTyaa + ca= wasteful wandering, also; kaamajaH= desire produced; dashako+guNaH= ten, traits.

Hunting, sleeping in daytime, abusing others, indulgence in women, three artistic impulses,[namely music, dance and drama,] wasteful wandering, are the ten desire produced traits --- Manu smriti.

"Fascination for other's wife, furiousness without enmity, and fallacious utterances, [are three great malefic self-gratifications, and telling specious words is not there in you,] in the past nor will be there in future, to you...Oh! Raghava... Wherefrom there be a desire in you for other's women...ruinous one of virtue, oh, Lord of Men, it is not there in you nor it will also be...never... Even in your heart, Rama, that...[the interest in other's women,] is not evident, oh! Prince, for you are always interested in your own wife alone...

"Righteous, observant of truth, obliger of father's orders you are...and enshrined in you is all the virtuousness and truthfulness... Oh! Dextrous one, all that [righteousness, truthfulness etc.,] is possible to be shouldered by those that can control their senses. And your control on senses...I also know, oh, graceful one for a gaze...

"That third one, this fury to torture others' lives without enmity, being effectuated [by you now...] unwarily, even that, it is totally affronting you...

"You promised, oh, valiant one, the dwellers of Dandaka forest, intending to safeguard the hermits by killing demons in war... With that intent only, into this forest well known as Dandaka, you entered upon with your brother taking arrows and bow...

"Then on seeing your starting, my mind is apprehensively upset about your bearing, and on reflecting verily, then [there appears to be] no beneficial good [for you...]

"Oh! Brave one; your going towards Dandaka forest is not delightful to me, the cause for that...I tell you, and let this be heard while I tell... You, verily [wielding] bows and arrows along with your brother, on entering the forest and on seeing the forest ramblers, on all of them...you deplete arrows... Verily for Kshatriya-s the bow, and for burning fire its fuel...if available in adjacency, the luminosity [of the fire,] and strength [of Kshatriya-s,] enhances immensely...

"Once upon a time, there was a hermit, Oh! Dextrous one, and he is a great soul, true-worded and a purified one...in some merited forest that was wonted by animals and birds... To cause hindrance to that hermit's penance, Indra, husband of Sachi then came to that hermitage, handling a sword and donning a soldier's guise... There in that hermitage's threshold, Lord Indra gave that best sword to store, on a redeemable basis, to that sage who is lasting in his piousness... On receiving that sword, he who is duteous in guarding the entrustment, moved about in the forest [always handling the sword,] to safeguard the confidence reposed in him... Wherever he goes, even to obtain tubers or fruits also, he does not go without the sword, that dedicated guardian of that entrustment, [namely the sword...] Carrying that sword always, that hermit made his own faculty infuriated, loosing determination in penance... Then he, afflicted by infamy became inadvertent thus declined by un-virtue by associating with that weapon, and that sage went to hell... Thus, all this happened earlier, only for the reason of associating with a weapon...and the sequel of associating with fire is said to be the same, as with the association of the weapon...

"In affinity and in respect also, I am reminding but not tutoring you, not in anyway... doing that activity [of thinking to kill the demons,] of yours by wielding bow... That thought of yours, to kill them without any enmity, the demons dwelling in Dandaka forest, or without any of their wrongdoing...by all the people [in all worlds...] oh! Brave one, your killing them is unwelcome... For the valiant Kshatriya-s, when in forests with their selves controlled, the purpose of the bow is this much 'safeguarding the sufferers...'

"Where that weapon? Where this forest? Where the principles of Kshatriya? And where is the sageness? All this is inconsistent... By us, let the laws of the land be esteemed...  Thus by avariciousness mind becomes maligned, when in subjection of weapon...[thus you may,] on going to Ayodhya again you can follow the tenet of Kshatriya-s...

"Everlasting satisfaction will be there to my father-in-law and mothers-in-laws, even after relinquishing the kingdom you becoming a devout sage... "From virtuousness prosperity emanates...  from righteousness originates happiness, and by honourableness all are achieved...  this universe is the essence of probity... By soulful ones with those and those principles [of virtuousness,] exhaust themselves, and efforts are made by experts to realize dharma... Pleasure is not achievable by pleasuring alone...[for toiling alone yields it...] Always with a pure mind tread along the righteousness, oh, soft-hearted one, in these sagely forests...and indeed, you know everything in all the three worlds, in all its nuances...

"I cite all this with my womanly waver, and who is capable to talk of dharma with you? Ponder mindfully along with your brother...and what that is appropriate, you do it...but not belatedly...

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Endnote

This particular chapter is an interesting juncture in Ramayana, where Seetha reminds about the question of triggering cause for Rama's waging a war against demons. Seetha's doubt is well explained in Dharmaakuutam, the encyclopaedic commentary on Ramayana, with reference to dharma, The Righteousness. A number of pages are allotted there for this sarga/chapter, and in there it is said, that if Seetha is said to be self-contradictory in telling Rama that bow and arrows are a must to Kshatriya-s to protect the helpless when saying 'safeguard the sufferers, [then only Ksharitya-s should] use their bow..." as at verse 3-9-26 above, and also questioning immediately at 3-9-27, 'where the Kshatriya dharma, where the hermit's way of living...' etc. It is said, not so...she is not contradicting herself in her statements, but asking Rama to have a cause, without resorting to weaponry against those demons. ata× tad rakÿaõ˜ya ˜yudham na gr˜hyam iti etad abhipr˜yakatv˜t ||

She is inquisitive to know why Rama alone shall raise the bow and arrows against some demons hurting some sages. These sages are having super powers and Lord Indra like celestial chiefs are coming to these sages to take them to heaven with their mortal bodies. But these super hermits are not going to heaven, which is the minimum ambition of any penance, but requesting Rama to protect them from demons. And Rama obligingly started to wage this unilateral war, where any war requires a triggering point. Can't the super sages eliminate these demons, with their powers acquired by their penances? This is the question of Seetha. For this, Rama replies so convincingly in the next chapter, saying that the sages cannot issue forth a curse at the demons, in the course of their penance. Sage Vishvamitra, though being a furious sage, once sought the help of Rama to counter the Demoness Tataka. And Rama rendered it. Now also these sages do not waste their powers at the mischievous demons, but ask Rama to safeguard their interests, for Rama is the king, whether he may be in capital or in forests.

Secondly, Rama is subjected to the throne of Ayodhya, now being held by his brother Bharata, and as a loyalist to that throne, Ram should act in accordance with the rules of his kingdom.  This area Dandaka forests is under the ambit of their own kingdom. So Rama has to perform the deeds suitable to their kingdom. When killing Vali, Rama speaks to Vali "all this area is under our kingdom, now held by Bharata, and it is my duty to act in accordance with the decree of that throne..."

 Regarding the cause, Seetha's doubt comes true and she alone becomes the ultimate cause for Rama, to wage the final war with Ravana.

Thus, this is the 9th chapter in Aranya Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana, the First Epic poem of India. 

© 2001, Desiraju Hanumanta Rao