Hari Om.
Let us begin the twenty eighth sarga of the sundara kAnDam by offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.
The saga of sItA’s devastating grief was dragging for too long and was testing her patience. She had reached the point of complete breakdown with her patience completely gone. She had suicidal thoughts and lamented the lack of means to end her life. The ogresses in the meanwhile kept the pressure up and threatened to swallow her whole or in pieces and make merry if she doesn’t fall in line with rAvaNa’s wish. The grief was reaching its peak and just then as sItA was desperate, came an elderly demoness by name trijaTA spoke up. She admonished the ogresses for their crassness and turned the heat on them recalling the dream that she had which foretold the victory of rAma and fatal defeat of rAvaNa. They curiously inquired about her dream and she gave a graphical account of the conquest of lanka by rAma and ignominious fall of rAvaNa and all his associates except for his brother vibhIshaNa. Importantly, trijaTA also said an emissary of rAma, a vAnara burnt down the entire lanka in her dream. The vAnara was in proximity listening! Was it reassuring enough for sItA? Onwards…
Responding to unpleasant ultimatum that rAvaNa served to her, sItA was much tormented and being in the middle of the ogresses, the scared woman resembled a young she-elephant fallen into the clutches of a lion and she wailed like a young child lost in a deserted forest and lamented –
“Isn’t it true indeed that the learned say an untimely death is not possible, here I am, even if being tormented endlessly, am surviving bereft of merit. Devoid of any joy and full of misery and yet, my hard heart doesn’t break into a thousand pieces like the mountain peak withstand the onslaught of thunder. I stand free of guilt here and the crooked rAvaNa is going to kill me. I cannot offer myself to him just like a learned brAhmin cannot offer sacred knowledge to someone who is not a dwija. If the lord of the world doesn’t arrive, the ignoble fellow will shear my limbs before long just like a barber aborts the fetus in the womb (to save the woman). Alas, I have to out up with this misery for two more months and await my execution like a criminal who has offended the king.
Hey rAma, hey lakshmaNa, gey sumitrA, hey kausalyA, oh my mother – out of my measly fortune I am perishing here like a sinking ship caught in huge storm. Certainly the two princes were done away with by the demon who came in the guide of the deer like lion cubs electrocuted by lightning!
Alas, it was destiny indeed which came in the guise of the deer and enticed me then. Like a fool, I sent my noble husband as well as his younger brother to fetch it.
नूनं स कालो मृगरूपधारी
मामल्पभाग्यां लुलुभे तदानीम्।
यत्रार्यपुत्रं विससर्ज मूढा
रामानुजं लक्ष्मणपूर्वजं च।।5.28.10।।
O rAma, you have truth as a vow, O long armed one, O handsome one with a moon-like countenance, O well-wisher and do-gooder of the workd, you are not aware that I am going to be killed by the demons. I have been observing the extreme vow of chastity, of devotion to you alone without thinking of any other god, I have been forbearing, I slept on the ground and have stuck to the moral code. Yet, this vow of mine towards you has been in vain, just like good done to an ungrateful person.
अनन्य दैवत्वमियं क्षमा च
भूमौ च शय्या नियमश्च धर्मे।
पतिव्रतात्वं विफलं ममेदं
कृतं कृतघ्नेष्विव मानुषाणाम्।।5.28.12।।
All this dharma that I have practiced and observed for your sake is futile as I get no glimpse of you and am hopeless of uniting with you and am emaciated in that thought. I think, you will fulfil the order of your father, complete your exile and go back to ayOdhyA as an accomplished one and will revel in the company of damsels. As for me, I have only desired you, I have been committed to you have practiced austerities and vows for your sake and being meritless am going to give up my life soon. I would like to give up this life at once, but alas, there is no one here among demons who would help me with some poison or a weapon to do that”.
Thus, remembering rAma with all her heart, sItA grieved piteously, with a parched throat, she was trembling and approached the lovely SimSupa tree that was in full bloom. Thinking variously, sulking deeply, she took her braid of hair in her hand and thought she will noose it round her neck and in no time reach the abode of yama. As she reached out to a branch to tie her braid and put the noose on her neck, all the while thinking of rAma, lakshmaNa and the glorious ikshvAku clan, the gracious woman experienced many an omen that dispelled grief and filled her with great courage. The omens she experienced were those that were laid down in the scriptures as harbingers of good times.
Here we conclude the twenty eighth sarga of the sundara kAnDam of SrImath vAlmiKi rAmAyaNam and humbly offer it at the lotus feet of SrIrAma. Hari: Om!
jAi SrIrAma.
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Next: 5.29. Good auguries galore
Previous: 5.27. trijaTA’s soothing and soothsaying dream
rAmabhaktisAmrAjyam 