Dear Noor,
Look not with 21st century eyes at Sita. You are selectively believing some things and rejecting other things according to your conditioning and conveniencem and this is what MF Hussain also did...
This great epic happened in a yuga when a completely different mindset and a completely different spiritual culture was prevailing and it's sometimes hard for us Kali Yugis to understand all this...

Just like the elements protected Sita when she jumped in the fire, the same heat protected her when Ravana tried to approach her. Also, Ravana was a Shiv bhakt, and that also helped in controlling him...

a very useful and clarifying source. Sita was indeed mahaan. I believe people still feel aggrieved about her treatment, even the land is a hotbed of injustice today, just look at the curse that is upon Ayodhya, surely this is Sita's curse. The poorer Shri Rama is considered as a husband, the greater the dutiful king, just look at what the Queen of England has had to sacriface for her sense of duty.

How wonderful the story of Ramayan could be re-interpret again..I myself named after Sita Devi and not by design having a serious relationship now with a guy named Rama.
I have been falling in love with the Ramayan story since a child and this writing of yours is very much indeed inspiring and enlightened me with Sita's true wisdom..
Thank you for sharing your beautiful thoughts with us,,

This article inspired a school project. The information was very informative-- nothing was missing. Thank you so much for providing this article for students like myself.

Great article and analysis by the authors! Thank you very much - excellent portrayal of Sita - its very meaningful that she deserted Rama and not the other way around.

I love Sita Devi so much! Thanks so much for this beautiful article on Her life!

I have seen the Ramayana seriel in DD channel when I was growing. But only now I have read such an engraved small version of Ramayana. There may be any number of Ramayana, but we as a human have to follow only the truth to live in World. Laws are to be discussed and followed, but truth (Religion) should be felt and not to be discussed. Jai Ram, Jai Sita...

I have been having a stressful week at work and everything was going wrong after reading this powerful artical I was mezmerized and all my stress melted away

What a great retell about a story that has been passed down for generatoins.

I have read the ramayan in 2 different ways and have heard 25 retells on it never have I heard such wonderful writen words

A GOOD ARTICLE ....realy its wonderfull

Lets consider reality for a moment:
Lets say a beautiful woman stays is kidnapped by a lustful man and stays with him for a long period of time.
Is it possible by any stretch of imagination that she did not have nay sexual contact with him ?
I think Ravana must have ravished Sita ; not only him but also his male relatives and other countrymen.

I very much enjoyed this beautiful article. Though, i had heard a addition to this tale: when lakshman questions ram as to why he was not sent to receive his sister-in-law, ram replies that a fire has to be prepared as we have to take back sita from the fire-god. To clarify his statement, ram tells his bro that he had previous knowledge of sita's kidnapping before the actual incident and hence had asked her to take refuge with the fire-god. And sita did so leaving behind a shadow of hers. Hence no one knew about it and ram was forced to create the whole agni-pariksha episode to cover up his true divine identity. I am not sure how far this is true, but it makes sense to me.

I personally would like to know what example Ram set, as described by the author,

"In other words, Rama wanted to set a standard, a stainless example for his subjects and followers to look up to."

What is this so-called "standard" - that victims of the crime of kidnapping have no rights? I don't get it.

As with Yudhisthira's overwhelming adherence to the pure road to the next life as Nirvana (i.e. self-extinction in the soul), Ram fails to see that acceptance of things beyond our control and / or knowledge of certainty is often the higher road. Sita's self-sacrifice, a reflection of that by Sati in the face of her father's view that Shiva's act of violence had attainted her, too, is only valid because she was the goddess incarnate and her cause of the highest moral ground. Many women have been encouraged to emulate her example on lesser grounds, sometimes positively shamelessly abusive onees, with probably dire consequences in both this world and the next incarnation for both the suttee and the man who was its cause.

Very well narrated article on the Ramayana. Beautiful depiction of mother Sita's patience in life and devotion to her husband. Well written about Sri Rama's role, actions to uphold dharma while sacrificing a lot. Thank you for illuminating our minds in these times on earth where dharma is hard to preserve.

What a wonderful narration. I was mesmerized. Thank you for making my day.

Thank you for such a detailed revelation of Sitaji's life.

What a well-written comprehensive retelling of an old traditional tale - quite inspiring!

I am a writer with a special interest in symbolism amd metaphysics; also an artist, and so find pleasure in the lovely words and images you present to people. Many in the West have little understanding of Asian life and thought, or of the iconography of the different spiritual systems - you do something to dispell this ignorance.

Thank you.

Thoroughly enjoyed the Sita and Rama article. I found especial interest in Sita's engulfment by mother earth, what a beautiful tale. Thank you for sharing!

Namaste.

I am enjoying reading your last article, "The Silent Power of Suffering." It is an interesting interpretation and is giving me something to think about in this regards...that what seems like powerlessness is actually a manifestation of power.

My Goddess group met last week and we honored Dhumavati. Such tenderness was evoked through her suffering and her strength was revealed to us. WE were all surprised to find ourselves bathed in love..a paradox considering her quarrelsome, obsteterous nature. WE created through Her an alter of roses past their prime with an exquisite beauty all their own even in decay..an altar sparse, but subtle and powerful. In the middle we had a picture from your gallery of Dhumavati dressed in white, her hair loose, riding her chariot. Do you recall this image? WE all expressed gratitude to you for sending Her to us in this way. WE never plan our altar or even what Mahavidya will visit us, but it magically unfolds. WE have been meeting like this once a month for the past five years. What a journey it is!

Your articles have kept me spellbound with details beyond being merely informative; "class act" readings of a high caliber. Thank you very much.

Thank you for that 'story' and your work to provide the wisdom of India.

But it was a former world that needed ideal monarchs to teach the "populace" how to progress in a hopeless history... but hence it has nothing more to do with the Dharma to sacrifice ones happiness for a "larger national interest" and to turn this earth from a battelfield to a graveyard where we (the searcher for trouth) can still find all these "stainless examples" for the brain and heartless subjects and followers of mad-going gods.

And is it realy a historical truth that "the sacrifice of (a) Jesus sufficice to free a sorrowing world?...

Well, I hope to meet Sita on the dark side of that 'supremely triumpant' reason of a politicaly correct act for a 'larger' interest than the happiness of a wo-MAN…

Excellent article on Sita Ram. I appreciate all the energy you put into these mailings.

Satchitananda

Thanks for a wonderful article. I have thoroughly enjoyed all your monthly newsletters and will continue to lookforward to reading them each month - Meera

Thank You Nitin !!

excellent article
jai shree ram