Originally posted by: sita11
Folks I found a beautiful article abt SITAJI on internet by writer RD.RAKESH in the magazine THE SUNDAY POST .The title of the article is ' SITA THE SYMBOL OF CHASTITY ',i am posting only the imp. parts of tht article !!!
By R.D. Rakesh
SITA was brought up with great love and care and with all comforts by KING JANAK. She was the paragon of beauty. Tulasidas, a great poet has described her unparalleled beauty in the following lines:-
"She lends charm to charm itself, he said to himself, and looks as if a flame of light is burning in the house of loveliness. The smiles already employed by the poets are all stale and hackneyed; to whom shall I liken Videha's daughter" She is also called Vaidehi. She is called Ayonija (not born of a womb of woman). She is considered dutiful daughter of Janak. He also loved her very much.
SITA is one of the most popular heroines in the Hindu mythology. She is also famous as the wife of Rama, the hero of the epic Ramayana. She is considered as the model Hindu wife. After her marriage with Rama, her mother-in-law Kaushalya also brought her up with love and affection. In her words:-
"Moreover, I have found in her a beloved daughter-in-law, exceedingly beautiful, amiable and accomplished. I have treated her as the very apple of my eye and loved her so much that my very soul is centered in Janaki. I have tended her as carefully as a creeper of paradise and watered her growth with streams of affection. Never yet has Sita left bed or seat or lap or cradle to set foot upon the hard ground. I have been tending her like a life giving herb and never even asked her to trim the wick of a lamp.
Sita has been described as the ideal wife of Rama in the Ramayan. She was very loyal to him. She remained steadfast in her loyalty to him throughout he whole life. He was the centre of her life. He was always in her mind. Her role as the ideal wife has been mentioned in several episodes in the Ramayan. When Dasharath, King of Ayodhya, told Rama to go into exile in the forest for fourteen years, Rama advised her to remain in the royal palace of Ayodhya because she would not bear the ordeals and discomforts of the forest. She became very sad. She told Rama that a husband was a god to his wife. Without husband a wife's life is meaningless. Tulasidas has described this with these words:-
"As a body bereft of life, as a river without water, so, my lord, is a woman without her husband. In your company, my husband, all are delights, as long as I can behold your countenance that vies in brightness with the immaculate autumn moon."
shall willingly dwell in the forest as formerly I inhabited the palace of my father having no anxiety in three worlds and reflecting only on my duties towards my lord.
The Ramayana of Valmiki, trans. Hari Prasad Shastri, 3 vols.
Sita was so loyal to her husband, she persuades Ram not to leave her alone in 'Ayodhya because "to be with thee is heaven, to be without thee is hell, this is the truth."
Sita never touched another man except Rama even in her dream. When Hanuman, monkey god requested her to return to Ayodhya from Lanka, on his back, she outrightly refused his request because by carrying her on his back, he would touch her body. This also proves how loyal she was to her husband.
Sita was imprisoned in Ravan's Ashok garden in Lanka. He proposes her to accept him as her new husband. She was stunned and shocked at this proposal and became very furious. She even threatened to burn him to ashes with the fire that she had achieved from her chastity of character. She did not do that because she had no permission from her husband Rama.
Sita loyalty and chastity had been put on trial on several occasions in the Ramayan. Rama defeated Ravana in the war. Sita was brought before Rama but he wanted to prove the chastity of Sita in front of the people because she spent many years in the Ashok garden of Ravana. She asked Lakshman to prepare a funeral pyre because she wished to die after this accusation, but the god of fire refused to harm her because she was pure in her character. Rama was totally convinced of her purity and accepted her as his faithful wife.
Sita is thus a perennial source of inspiration for all the Hindu women today. She is an ideal woman who never disobeyed her husband. She always accompanied Rama whether in the palace or in the forest. She was the constant companion of Rama.
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