Sita’s options.

It was Tretha Yuga again. Sita found herself in the forest, heavy with child. Uncomprehending tears and unbearable grief gave way to resolve.

‘No more’, she said. “no more tears and tests of my love for Rama. This time, the story will be different’.

Valmiki found her and offered her shelter. ‘No, father,’ she said. “Not this time!”

She wended her painful way through the forest. Was she not Neelakanta’s sister? She too held the poison in her throat, neither expressing her grief nor swallowing it.

A forest dweller chanced upon her. ” Oh lovely damsel! What villain has forsaken you! Be mine!” he urged, with desire in his eyes. “Fallen Woman!” cried the women folk in his family, ‘Dare you cross our threshold?’

“I’m Sita, Sri Rama’s consort, would they speak to ME this way?’ The humiliation of it all joined the pain in her throat.

She walked further down her new path. There she saw a prince, fair as the moon in heaven. “What kind of a man was he to discard a priceless gem like you, and to let you suffer the hardships of the jungle alone,” he said.

At his order, the palanquin stopped for her. “Women should be treated like goddesses.” he said, “Not like discardable garments”. Sita listened. He went on.,”My queen is devoted to me, she’ll show you to my harem’.

Sita’s eyes widened in surprise and pain. The prince continued..”You understand that I cannot make another man’s wife one of my queens..”

Sita walked away from the prince, back towards the Maharshi’s Ashram.

There she saw a young disciple, his face radiant with the knowledge acquired in a divine pursuit.

“Must you suffer?” he asked, “can you not remarry?”
Sita looked at him with a question in her eyes. “would you?”
“No mother,” he said, shaking his head, “I have a different goal”.

Sita stood in quiet contemplation. Rama broke the bow to win Janaka’s daughter. Ravana carried Rama’s wife off to avenge an insult to his sister. Rama and Ravana fought for their honour, not for Sita herself. That was past.

For her own honour she rejected the prince’s harem, and the insults of the forest women. What they offered was an unacceptable future. While the young disciple respected her – he would not personally take up her burden.

She walked towards the Ashram. Valmiki held up the lantern for Sita to come in. She touched his feet, and said, “This is my only option father, very little has changed in all these Mahayugas.”

Valmiki, spoke with the kindness and wisdom of a thousand years in his voice… “My dear child., there is a much higher aim to life. Live for the life that lives within you.”