Sita : adopted daughter of Janaka, king of Videha (or Mithīla), hence also known as Jānaki, Vaidehi, & Maithili. She is one of the Pañcakanyāḥ (see Ahalyā).
... to take Sita back and gave her freedom to choose the future course of her life on the ground that her chastity was in doubt; she having lived in the abode of Ravana. He accepted the gift of Sita only when Agni, the lord of the mystic fire of purity, declared Sita to be pure and it was only then that Sri Rama expressed his own personal belief in regard to Sita and her purity. For Sri Rama, Sita was not... husband of Sita, he needed no proof of her chastity as he was inwardly convinced of the unquestionable character of Sita. But it was right for him as king, to demand from Sita the queen, proof, which the people of the kingdom would require of their queen. Despite all this, when Sri Rama heard that the people of Ayodhya were critical of Sri Rama's acceptance of Sita, he decided at once to exile Sita into... twins that the great poem was composed by the great sage Valmiki, sends a message to Valmiki to bring with him Sita. Valmiki arrives with Sita and declares the purity of Sita and that the twin boys were born to her. Sri Rama, however, asks that Sita should publicly declare her chastity. Sita on her part remains steadfast and while declaring her chastity prays to Mother Earth to open so that she may ...
... king, therefore to be observed; Holy, since by a monarch's sacred hands Anointed to inviolable rule. Be patient; thou art wise and good. For I Today begin exile, Sita, today Leave thee, 0 Sita. But when I am gone Into the paths of the ascetics old Do thou in vows and fasts spend blamelessly Thy lonely seasons. With the dawn arise And when thou hast adored... Once more he spoke and kissed her brimming eyes. " Of a high blood thou comest and thy soul Turns naturally to duties high. Now, too, 0 Sita, let thy duty be thy guide; Elect thy husband's will. Thou shouldst obey, Sita, my words, who art a woman weak. Page 304 The woods are full of hardship, full of peril, And 'tis thy ease that I command. Nay... Austere of mind, who such discomforts choose, Nor any fear must feel of fearful things. Dream not of it, 0 Sita; nothing good The mind recalls in that disastrous life For thee unmeet; only stern miseries And toils ruthless and many dangers drear." Then Sita with the tears upon her face Made answer very sad and low: "Many Sorrows and perils of that forest life ...
... zamindar sat up properly. It was the story of Rama and Sita. The story reached when Sita is about to be abducted. Sita tells Rama: I am so very happy in this forest. This exile in the forest is even better than Ayodhya.' The zamindar didn't quite like this. He began muttering 'Enough! You needn't feign anymore.' Then he turned towards Sita and wagging his finger at her directly he said: 'Listen... was quivering with rage. Over the heads of the seated audience he pointed at Sita menacingly: 'Listen to me now, young lass, I am warning you again! What's happened has happened. Don't you send Lakshman now. Lakshiman must remain with you!' Just then Ram's anguished cry was heard: 'O Sita! O Lakshmana!' Sita was terribly upset and exclaimed: 'My dear Lakshamana I think Ram is in danger... pathos. Just then Ravana appeared before Sita in the guise of an ascetic seeking alms. The zamindar could not control his rage anymore. He had forgotten that it was but a play. For him it was all so very real. He waved his hand vehemently: 'Beware, Sita! Don't you give him any alms! Don't cross the line. I won't allow it. You had better obey!' Sita wanted to give him alms without moving ...
... Dasaratha (in that order). But Rama's fate impinges with particular force on two women, Kausalya and Sita - the mother and the wife. Sri Aurobindo therefore chooses passages from Sarga 20 and Sargas 26-30 for translation: Kausalya's tears are the background, while the issue between Rama and Sita is the * On one of his visits to Baroda, Romesh Chandra Dutt is said to have remarked about Sri ... appeased, but being crossed Most dangerous grow the wrathful hearts of kings.. , 42 Page 82 Was it really so bad as that? Or was Rama but prodding and testing Sita - prodding a wound with fiery coal? But Sita answers steadily: What words are these, Rama, from thee? What frail unworthy spirit Converses with me uttering thoughts depraved, Inglorious, full of ignominy... She is half-crushed by the accumulated wrongs of a life-time, and here is the final shattering blow! She would follow Rama to the woods, if she might... Then comes the great encounter with Sita the Wife. It is a complete miniature drama in itself. Sita's high expectations - her sharp forebodings at the sight of Rama - Rama's strangely faltering and unconvincing speech: But thou before ...
... should be popularised in modem speech." 19 Sri Aurobindo has clearly expressed his admiration for the great Sanskrit poets. 20 He writes to his brother that he has read the tales of Rama, Sita and Savitri "in the swift and mighty language of Valmiki 21 and Vyasa and thrilled with their joys and sorrows..." 22 And admiration for Kalidasa is evident when he speaks of "his power of expressing... and reached an unexampled pure wideness and beauty of self-expression." 46 Valmiki makes the opposition of the good and the evil palpable and visible in powerful evocative passages. When Sita hears of Rama's banishment she says that she will go with him to the forests, and evokes a picture of the forest that is good and beautiful. Rama who wants to dissuade her paints a different picture... finally the rendering of Sri Aurobindo. The rendering in English is an important link in the transmission of the Valmikian vision into the vision and manner of Sri Aurobindo. The first passage: Sita says, icchāmi parataḥ śailān palvalāni sarāṃsi ca// draṣṭum sarvatra nirbhitā tvayā nathena dhimata/ haṃsa-kāraṇḍavakirṃaḥ padminiḥ sādhu-puṣpitāh// iccheyaṃ sukhini draṣṭum ...
... and Sita thus: "Lochan maga Ramahi ura ani Dine palaka kapata sayani "Bringing Rama to her heart along the path of the sight, Sita closed the doors with her winking" The aspect of beauty expressed here differs so much from the charm of mere external form. The poet does not describe here the beauty of either Rama or Sita, or the attraction they felt. The love that Sita felt... felt for Rama seems so spontaneous, so much like recognition of the souls for each other. It seems as if Sita took Rama to her heart through the path of her sight and then closed, not merely her eyes but, the doors of her heart, so that there was no chance for anyone else to enter there. And the suggestion—the Dhwani—indicates that Rama could not go out of her heart even if he wanted to. There is no ...
... and Sita thus: "Lochan Maga Ramahi Ura Ani Dine Palaka Kapata Sayani" "Bringing Rama to her heart along the path of the sight, Sita closed the doors with her winking." The aspect of beauty expressed here differs so much from the charm of mere external form. The poet does not describe here the beauty of either Rama or Sita, or the attraction they felt. The love that Sita felt for... for Rama seems so spontaneous, so much like recognition of the souls for each other. It seems as if Sita took Rama to her heart through the path of her sight and then closed not merely her eyes but the doors of her heart, so that there was no chance for anyone else to enter there. And the suggestion- the Dhwani-indicates that Rama could not go out of her _____________________ 10 Tintern Abbey ...
... Page 116 Rama, Sita and Lakshmana at Panchavati (Pahari, 1st century ) Courtesy : Govt. Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh (India ) Page 117 Rama visit the sage Bharadwaj, then the three are crossing the river with a raft for sita, on their way to Chitrakoot. Guler 1775/80, Museum Rietberg, Zurich Page 118 Rama, Sita and Lakshmana in the forest... eyed god) does his own chariot, driven by swift horses — Śrī Rāma (a scion of Raghu), flaming with glory, quickly departed. Thundering Page 47 Top: Sita giving away possessions Bottom : Ram distributing away his wealth (Mewar ) Page 48 like a cloud in the sky and making the quarters... means of flowers gathered by one, 0 Sīta! Hence a forest is a source of suffering. (16) Eating sparingly dwellers in forests have to appease their hunger with fruits etc. obtained according to season, 0 Sita, princess of Mithila! Hence a forest is full of hardships. (17) "The wind blows furiously everyday, thick darkness prevails and hunger (too) is rapacious. Besides, there are great perils in the ...
... wife, Sita, who chose to accompany Sri Rama in exile, her abduction by the demon king Ravana, his (Sri Rama's) war with and destruction of Ravana and eventual rescue of Sita, and his return with Sita to Ayodhya, where he was coronated these are the main events of the major part of the story of Ramayana. Subsequently, Sri Rama, under the compulsion of public disapproval of the acceptance of Sita, since... to mind the character and actions of one of the most celebrated personalities of Indian history, namely, Sri Rama;52 in particular, the decision he took to exile his beloved wife, Sita. From his personal point of view, Sita did not deserve to be exiled; as Socrates did not believe that he deserved to be punished; and yet both bowed before the demands of state or society, which is normally subject to... since she had lived in captivity at Ravana's palace, exiled Sita from his kingdom. The difficult decision he had to take in this connection has raised much controversy about the responsibility of the King in the discharge of his public duties and the role that public opinion should play in the life of the King. Sri Rama has been worshipped in India as an ideal son, ideal husband, ideal friend, ideal brother ...
... that I admit the validity of your remarks about Rama, even taken as a piecemeal criticism; but that I have no time for today. 1 maintain my position about the killing of Ball and the banishment of Sita—in spite of Ball's preliminary objection to the procedure, afterwards retracted, and in spite of the opinion of Rama's relatives. Necessarily from the point of view of the antique dharma—not from... ordered community, not the separate development and satisfaction of the individual was the pressing need of the human evolution) he sacrificed his own happiness and domes- tic life and the happiness of Sita. In that he was at one with the moral sense of all the antique races, though at variance with the later romantic individualistic sentimental morality c the modern man who can afford to have that less... Well, I thought I had finished with Rama who after all belong to the past. The māyāmrga was an absolute necessity for removing Rama from the Ashram, otherwise Ravana could not have been able to carry Sita off, so the Divine or Valmiki (to whichever you like to give the credit of the incident) arranged it in that way (a very poetic way, you must admit) and the instrumental Personality accepted the veiling ...
... Ravana and the rescue of Sita, is all deception in order to set an example? Then the Ramayana and Rama lose all their value. And his lamentation for Sita is also a pretension? Does an Avatar resort to deception in order to teach people? PURANI: What about Sita's Agniparisha? 1 BECHARLAL: That was real, they say. But the Sita that was stolen by Ravana was not the real Sita, but her shadow. (Laughter)... (Laughter) SRI AUROBINDO: So all the time the real Sita was with Rama? And why then did Rama play that deception with Hanuman about Gandhamadan parvat? He could have told him straight away that it was in such and such a place, instead of Hanuman having to search for it everywhere. The shadow-of-Sita story reminds me of Helen of Troy's story. Someone—perhaps Euripides—says that it was not the real ...
... of Valmiki has been an agent of almost incalculable power in the moulding of the cultural mind of India: it has presented to it to be loved and imitated in figures Page 350 like Rama and Sita, made so divinely and with such a revelation of reality as to become objects of enduring cult and worship, or like Hanuman, Lakshmana, Bharata the living human image of its ethical ideals; it has fashioned... fidelity to the ordinary measures which would here be false because wholly out of place. The complaint of lifelessness and want of personality in the epic characters is equally unfounded: Rama and Sita, Arjuna and Yudhisthira, Bhishma and Duryodhana and Karna are intensely real and human and alive to the Indian mind. Only the main insistence, here as in Indian art, is not on the outward saliences... aids to the presentation, but on the soul life and the inner soul quality presented with as absolute a vividness and strength and purity of outline as possible. The idealism of characters like Rama and Sita is no pale and vapid unreality; they are vivid with the truth of the ideal life, of the greatness that man may be and does become when he gives his soul a chance and it is no sound objection that there ...
... much faster. It's one way of looking at it! ( Laughter ) In the same way, I have heard two versions (but as I said, one was broad-minded and the other extremely orthodox) about the end of Sita; one said that Sita chose to be swallowed up in the earth to prove her innocence, whilst the very orthodox version said that it was just because she was not innocent that she was swallowed up! ( Laughter ) ... different versions. There are different versions, aren't there? Above all, for two very important facts ( Mother turns to Nolini ) concerning the end: the defeat and death of Ravana, and then the death of Sita. I have heard it narrated very differently, with different significances, by different pandits. According to their turn of mind, if I may say so, some who were very very very orthodox told me certain ...
... too re-entered his hut weeping. (31) Page 151 Ravana adducts Sita after sending Marica in the guise of a golden deer to lure Rama Laksmana away Guler, 1775/80, Museum Reitberg, Zurich Sri Rama asking all being the whereabouts of Sita Asking the elephant Asking the deer Asking the cranes (Benares school... Rama and Sugreeva Mewar Hanuman, bronze, Madras Museum, Chola, Circa 1020 Hanuman showing Sita,s ornaments to Rama (Guler, Pahari, circa 1780-90, Nation Museum, Delhi) ...
... answer me? Stay, tarry a while, O Sita with excellent limbs! Is there no compassion in your heart for me? You are not excessively given to fun; why then do you disregard me? You stand disclosed by your yellow silk garment, O lady with an excellent complexion! You have been seen by me even while running. Halt if you have any affection for me. Or it was definitely not Sita of charming smiles, who has most... Nala, comfort me." This passage is to be compared with many verses in the Aranyakanda of the Ramayana when Rama begs the whole forest, the trees and the animals to tell him whether they have seen Sita. Let quote the verse in which Rama asks the lion about his wife. "O lion, if you have seen my beloved with a face luminous like the moon, the princess of Mithila, tell me freely, do ...
... account. This struck Mr. Patkar, and one day he casually asked you why you kept your money like that. You simply laughed and said, 'It is a proof that we are living amidst honest and good people. " Sita took up the thread, "He asked you again, 'You never keep any account which may testify to the honesty of the people around you?' Then with a serene face you gave a reply which he remembers even after... satisfactory because, if they raise questions Page 159 in our minds, there is nobody to answer them. Whereas when you explain with the help of examples, everything seems so simple," replied Sita. "So then, we were taken to the police station, and later to the lock-up. All the while, the police were trying their level-best to make me admit my guilt. They were ever so sweet in their speech... he came up to the hills during summer. (Laughter) But I refused this very kind offer with a clear 'No, thank you.' " Page 200 "Why did you refuse the British invitation?" asked little Sita. "Because it was in fact a trap, silly!" exclaimed Rahul. Sri Aurobindo laughed. "Exactly! They must have thought me to be really raw, knowing nothing of the world, if they believed that I would ...
... stolen lady Sita away from her husband and carried her off in his chariot to his palace on the island of Lanka. Sumptuous was the palace and delightful the garden in which he imprisoned the princess Sita. Yet she was unhappy and every day she would shed tears, not knowing whether she would ever see her Lord Rama again. Glorious Rama learnt from Hanuman the monkey-king where his wife Sita was held... kissed his feet. Then he rose and sat at the right hand of the throne. "O my brother," he said, "if you wish to live happily and keep the throne of this beautiful island of Lanka, give back the lovely Sita, for she is the wife of another. Go to Rama and ask his forgiveness, and he will not turn away his face. Be not arrogant and foolhardy." A wise man, Malyavan, heard these words and was glad. He exclaimed ...
... Sri Rama (iii) Hanūmān conveys Śrī Rāma's message to Sita Canto XXXI (Sundarakanda) H aving indulged in speculation of various kinds, Hanūmān (who was endowed with extraordinary intelligence), they say, made the following sweet speech within the hearing of Sītā (a princess of the Videha territory): — (1) "In the line of the Ikswākus there was a... looking inquiringly into all the (four) quarters as well as into the intermediate points Sītā experienced supreme rapture thinking (all the time) of Śrī Rāma Page 159 Rāvana threatening Sita Courtesy: Govt Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh (India) Kangra, circa 1820 Page 160 Rama with all her being. (18) Glancing from side to side as well as up and down, she espied... came silent in order (to be' able) to hear more his delightful speech dealing with the theme of Śrī Rāma. (31) Placing his joined palms on his head (as a token of submission) on hearing the reply of SIta, Hanūmān (son of the wind god) of redoubt able prowess made the following excellent submission: — (32) "The lotus eyed Śrī Rāma does not know you to be here. There fore he does not take you back soon ...
... describes: That fight between Rāma and Rāvana, in which after a long time their valour found scope for their mutual encounter, seemed not in vain. —Canto XII. 87 Rama's Love for SIta and for Nature, Sītā was a woman of rare beauty and character, and without a reference to her the Rāmāyana cannot even be conceived of. As is evident from the poet's description in... he found Sītā encircled by the demonesses, like the life-giving plant (mahausadhi) being clasped on all sides by poisonous creepers. — Canto XII. 61 Here the implication is that Sita was not at all affected by or afraid of the demonesses in any way. As a matter of fact, the simile of mahausadhi or the life giving plant in Sītā's context reminds us of Vālmīkī Rāmāyana, Sundarakānda... conduct which are followed by good men), vis à vis, Rāksasadharma (principles of the demons that take into account only their own typical self-interest at the cost of all others). Comparison of Sita with a life-giving plant amidst poisonous creepers in the form of demonesses by Kālidāsa naturally calls to the mind of the reader her astonishingly exemplary conduct, bereft of any fear whatso- ...
... is difficult to follow him or to accept his measure of values. To an oriental mind at least Rama and Ravana are as vivid and great and real characters as the personalities of Homer and Shakespeare, Sita and Draupadi certainly not less living than Helen or Cleopatra, Damayanti and Shakuntala and other feminine types not less Page 251 sweet, gracious and alive than Alcestis or Desdemona.... Charlemagne. It is interested in Chanakya, but much more interested in Chaitanya. Page 252 And in literature also just as in actual life it has the same turn. This European mind finds Rama and Sita uninteresting and unreal, because they are too virtuous, too ideal, too white in colour; but to the Indian mind even apart from all religious sentiment they are figures of an absorbing reality which ...
... feel yourself bound by her and pant for release? In her hand alone is the key which shall unlock your fetters. Does she stand between you & the Lord? She is Sita; pray to her, she will stand aside & show Him to you; but presume not to separate Sita & Rama, to cast her out into some distant Lanca under the guard of giant self-tortures so that you may have Rama to yourself in Ayodhya. Wrestle with Kali ...
... Sri Aurobindo, what Divine Incarnations was she in the past? When we think of Sita, Rama's wife, or of Radha, the chief feminine figure in Krishna's Godlike play, lila, on earth, we do not bring in the designation "Avatar". They are the closest to it and yet there is a line of demarcation. If the Mother was Sita or Radha, she could not be said to have made an unambiguous Avataric appearance ...
... similar to similar supernatural peregrination stories in Arabic and in old Persian literature—to say nothing of the descents of Ulysses and Aeneas", 109 to say nothing again of the wanderings of Rama, Sita and Lakshmana in the Ramayana and of the Pandavas in the Mahabharata. Aswapati's spiritual peregrination, described at considerable length in Book II (The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds), has... here as Evil, Ignorance and Darkness and Savitri as Light, Love and Goodness, the struggle between them is more in the nature of the struggle between Ravana and Rama in the Ramayana for the rescue of Sita, or between the Kauravas and the Pandavas in the Mahabharata for the righting of a wrong. In the 'legend' Savitri solves her own personal problem, and in the process of regaining her ...
... chance?) at Dhanushkodi, far to the south, near the great temple of Rameswaram, whose high violet towers stood out above dunes of white sand; the temple of mental man’s first Avatar, and of his wife, Sita— who was engulfed alive by the Earth she loved—perhaps to pay homage to that story of the distant past, before going to meet the future. She already felt that something you breathe in with the country's... be lurking in the very opposite direction. A dark Shakti now reigns over the world. If it is true that in India, in more gracious ages, woman was regarded as a living symbol of the Shakti (Rama and Sita, Shiva and Parvati, Leonardo da Vinci and Mona Lisa, Sri Aurobindo and Mother)—for in fact Woman is the Shakti, the creative Force, the foundation of life, and without her no real creation can ever ...
... the Inquisitor-General, sentenced over 114,000 victims—of which 10,220 were burned. When Napoleon conquered Spain in 1808, the battle- 1 History of Hindu-Christian Encounters, by Sita Ram Goel (Voice of India). All quotes from this book are with the kind permission of the author. He even gave me carte blanche to quote from any book published by Voice of India. Isn't he nice ! ... native soil and plant Christianity instead. So it was sauve-qui-peut with our Saraswat Brahmins. It was a precipitate flight. Hugging the coast they sailed down south 1 As quoted by Sita Ram Goel in History of Hindu-Christian Encounters. Page 141 and found their new home in South Kanara "where life and religion were quite secure under the Nayaka rulers of Keladi ...
... founded an ashram near Dacca. At the end of his life he became a Vaishnav. He wrote a book called Prashnottor [Questions and Answers]. 45. mayamrga: a magical golden deer which enticed Sita in the Ramayana. Sita requests Rama to catch the deer for her and in his absence, she is abducted by Ravana. 46. Sattva, Rajas and Tamas are the three gunas (qualities or modes) of everything in... Telugu boy, from Nellore, in Andhra Pradesh. His mother is Krishnamma and his father Rama Reddy, or Satyakarma, became theAshram's treasurer. 91. Manodhar: a Bengali sadhak, the Ashram's barber. Sita: ' Harm's companion. 92. Radhananda or Shuddhananda Bharati was born in 1893 in Tamil Nadu. He studied Tamil literature in-depth and soon flowered into a poet and composer. He lived ...
... validity of your remarks Page 490 about Rama, even taken as a piecemeal criticism; but that I have no time for today. I maintain my position about the killing of Bali and the banishment of Sita in spite of Bali's preliminary objection to the procedure, afterwards retracted, and in spite of the opinions of Rama's relatives. Necessarily from the point of view of the antique dharma—not from that... the ordered community, not the separate development and satisfaction of the individual was the pressing need of human evolution) he sacrificed his own happiness and domestic life and the happiness of Sita. In that he was at one with the moral sense of all the antique races, though at variance with the later romantic individualistic sentimental morality of the modern man who can afford to have that less... Page 495 Why should Rama not have kāma as well as prema ?—they were supposed to go together as between husband and wife in ancient India. The performances of Rama in the viraha of Sita are due to Valmiki's poetic idea which was also Kalidasa's and everybody else's in those far-off times about how a complete lover should behave in such a quandary. Whether the actual Rama bothered himself ...
... Sri Rama (v) Sita's ordeal and Return of Śrī Rāma, Sita and Lakshmana to Ayodhyā Canto CXIV H aving greeted the foremost of all archers, Śrī Rāma, whose eyes resembled the petals of a lotus, that great sage (Hanūmān) submitted to him as follows: — (1) "You ought to see that divine princess of Mithilā, who is sorely stricken with grief... my victory!" (19) Hearing this command of the scion of Raghu, Vibhīsana, o knew what is right, speedily began to disperse the crowd. Page 231 Agni Pariksha, the fire ordal of Sita, Kangra, circa AD 1810, Nationalo Museam, Delhi Page 233 Rākshasas clad in jackets and wearing turbans, their hands car rying staffs which made a jingling sound, paced all round, dispersing... bestowed on me (by you) and my mother (too) was gratified (thereby). I (for my part hereby) give it back to you (just) as you conferred it on me." Page 257 Rama and Sita, Pahari, 19th century Courtesy: Govt. Museam and Art Gallery, Chandigarh (India) Page 258 ...
... Sri Rama vii) Luv and Kuśa sing the Rāmāyana in Śrī Rāma's Court The last Ordeal of Sita Canto LXXXXIV As the night passed and the day approached, both (Kuśa and Lava) having taken their bath and made offerings to the fire, sang (the poem) there as instructed formerly by the sage Vālmīki. That scion of Kakutstha heard that musical recitation... stationary like a rock, the great sage came soon after, accompanied by Sītā. (10) Sītā followed the sage, with face bowed down and hands folded, full of tears, her mind fixed on Śrī Rāma. (11) Seeing Sita approaching after Vālmīki (as) the Sruti (Vedas) follows Brahma (creator). (There) was a great uproar of appreciation. (12) Thereafter there was all over the sound of sorrowful sighs from those who... destroyed just before my eyes. (4) She who had similarly disappeared when carried away to Lankā beyond the ocean; even then I brought her back from there; why not from the depths Page 280 Sita returns to mother Earth, detail, Kangra, circa AD 1810, Nation Museum, Delhi Page 281 of the Earth? He spoke: (5) "0 goddess of Earth venerable one, return to me my Sītā or else I will ...
... another eyesight which, without the instrumental aid, can see far distances both in space and time. Let us take some examples. In the Ramayana we come to the episode after the abduction of Sita when the efforts to locate her whereabouts are on. The party sent by Sugriva to find her has arrived at the inaccessible Vindhya Mountain. But as yet there is no success in fulfilling the difficult... Ravana, approaches them for his own reasons. But soon he understands the nature of the task they are engaged in. Seeing their helpless plight Sampati tells them that he could easily see the presence of Sita in the far Ashoka Vane in the south some 100 yojanas (1200 km) away from that place. He also tells them that he could spot her there unmistakably, for he belongs to that class of birds whose flight... objects at great distances. Sampati also tells the party about the prediction made by the Rishi Nishakara who could by the power of his tapasya foresee future events, that Rama would succeed in getting Sita back. We have been told about the third eye of Shiva. It has another power. The bodacious demons were causing havoc and the world was in trouble. The gods were concerned, but they were also ...
... butting Burodadu. This annoyed Burodadu very much and at once he ordered: "There, send this one to the temple today and don't forget." (31) Let me tell you the story of my finding Sita. When I was young, my grandfather's mother used to tell me stories from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and I would always listen to her with great wonder, utterly spellbound. In my child's... pet dog in Calcutta (1936) Page 28 Pranab at Calcutta Zoo - 1938 Page 29 Dadu said: "If you can break this bow like Rama did then I'll find a Sita for you too." I tried my best to break it but a strong bow made by a real Santhal was not easy to break. I could not with all my might. Dadu kept smiling as he watched me try. I had an armoury... they were before. A lot of dust had collected over them. As I took up the bow and pulled at the string the bow broke with a snap. But by then my Burodadu was no more and so I could not win my Sita! (32) W hile at Berhampore I went to visit the palace of Maharaja Nandakumar. Although hardly anything was left of the palace I saw a painting of Sri Chaitanyadev. Perhaps a not-so ...
... claim to world-wide acceptance? It has been suggested already that the Mahabharata is the great national poem of India. It is true the Ramayan also represents an Aryan civilisation idealised: Rama & Sita are more intimately characteristic types of the Hindu temperament as it finally shaped itself than are Arjouna & Draupadie; Srikrishna though his character is founded in the national type, yet rises... interests of others than with our own. Rama's duty as a son calls him to sacrifice himself, to leave the empire of the world and become a beggar & a hermit; he does it cheerfully and unflinchingly: but when Sita is taken from him, it is his duty as a husband to rescue her from her ravisher and as a Kshatriya to put Ravana to death if he persists in wrongdoing. This duty also he pursues with the same unflinching ...
... consistency of this champion of rationalism! Mark that at the same time one of his objections to the Ramayana, admitted to be one of the Bibles of the Hindu people, is that its ideal characters, Rama and Sita, the effective patterns of the highest Indian manhood and womanhood, are much too virtuous for his taste. Rama is too saintly for human nature. I do not know in fact that Rama is more saintly than Christ... scrupulous physical purity and personal cleanliness and the daily turning of the mind to God in worship and meditation,—"sufficient to place them beyond the pale of civilisation." For he tells us that Sita, the type of conjugal fidelity and chastity, is so excessive in her virtue "as to verge on immorality." Meaningless smart extravagance has reached its highest point when it can thus verge on the idiotic ...
... How vehement the stand can be against putting the Harrappā Culture posterior to the Rigveda may be judged from the reaction of a German Indologist to a preview leaflet sent by Mr. Sita Ram Goel, the publisher of my second book in the historical field, Karp ā sa in Prehistoric India: A Chronological and Cultural Clue. The scholar had already placed an order for the book, obviously... with a covering note that its author would be most interested to have his brief torn to pieces by an expert. There has been no response up till now. I have been asked by my patron - now Mr. Sita Ram Goel in place of Mr.Tarapada Majumdar of the first edition - to make whatever revision and enlargement of The Problem I thought fit. I cannot thank enough so generous and open-minded a helper ...
... plant कंदुः boiler, oven. कदुकः, कं ball mass कंदुकं pillow mass [3] The Vowel Group. कु (1) कुः earth. Inclusion (कुजः Mars, a tree कुजा Sita, Durga) Roundness *कु (vague कुतः whence.. where.. existence why .. how .. or direction) कुतस्त्य whence come; how happened कुत्र where. कुत्रत्य कोविदः ... Substance (rough, thick, hairy) +कोच drying, becoming dry कोचः drying, withering, aridity. कुजः a tree. Light (colour) Mars a name of Naraka कुजा Sita, Durga. Light? (colour) कुजंभलः, कुजंभिलः housebreaker. (जंभ?) cf कुंजः Cover, Contain. कुज्झटिः, कुज्झटिका, कुज्झटी mist, fog Substance (to be thick, hazy, confused) ...
... ideal presentments of character-types. This also arises from the tendency of the Hindu creative mind to look behind the actors at tendencies, inspirations, ideals. Yet are these great figures, are Rama, Sita, Savitrie, merely patterns of moral excellence? I who have read their tale in the swift and mighty language of Valmekie and Vyasa and thrilled with Page 131 their joys and their sorrows... so. Surely Savitrie that strong silent heart, with her powerful and subtly-indicated personality, has both life and charm; surely Rama puts too much divine fire into all he does to be a dead thing,—Sita is too gracious and sweet, too full of human lovingness and lovableness, of womanly weakness and womanly strength! Ruaru and Priyumvada are also types and ideals; love in them, such is the idea, finds ...
... fallacy, not from the standpoint of the canons of poetic criticism, but of those of prosaic, objective, rational judgment, to call in question Rama's spiritual greatness, because he wept for the missing Sita in the forest, or killed (unjustly, as the Puritan would say) Vali, brother of the ape-king Sugriva, 165 or Sri Krishna's divine character, because he made love (so it appeared outwardly) to Radha... Presence of the Mother in the image. We reproduce below the poem which he wrote later on this experience: 165. Rama, who wanted the ape-king Sugriva to help him in his search for the missing Sita, killed Vali, who had dispossessed his brother, Sugriva, of his kingdom and wife. (Ref. the Ramayana) 166. In order to save the Pandavas from annihilation at the hands of the redoubtable Dronacharya ...
... Prince Yudhishtira, partly to instruct him and largely to console him. One of the tales so narrated covers the story of Rama, his exile, the abduction of his wife, Sita, by Ravana, the expedition against the demon-king, and the final rescue of Sita—all this is also Page 239 the subject of Valmiki's great epic, the Ramayana. Even as Rama had been able to triumph over his tribulations ...
... self-interest, there is the courage of gallantry in rushing to another's help, and there is the moral courage of standing up to arbitrary power, as Vibhishana reprimands Ravana for the evil done to Sita. There are times that ask for cool orderly courage, as when a ship is about to sink, but at other times what is needed may very well be intrepid or reckless courage, or even a stoic courage expressed... thirsting aged and blind parents? The curse provoked by the event was to unroll itself in the fullness of time as the tragedy of Rama's banishment on the day fixed for his coronation, the abduction of Sita, and all the tribulations that followed. As in the Japanese picture of the three monkeys, it is no more than prudence to look for no evil, nor to listen to it, nor yet to speak it. But right judgment ...
... diary, describing how the great, ancient Vedapurishwar temple was razed to the ground. "The first incident at the Veda Puri Temple took place Ananda Ranga Pillai on March 17, 1746," begins Sita Ram Goel, from whose book History of Hindu-Christian Encounters 1 we are quoting. " 'On Wednesday night at 11,' writes Pillai, 'two unknown persons entered the Ishwara temple carrying in a vessel... were translated into English in 1904 by the Madras Government's efforts. 8 (Published by Voice of India.) For the full report please read the book. A few other facts have also been taken from Sita Ram Goel's book, as well as Yvonne Gaebele's Histoire de Pondichery, and from Revue Historique de I'Etat de Pondichery (1955). Page 155 part of building which had been demolished ...
... the sign. Indra (Zeus, Odin) protects the Ram, Agni (Moloch, Thor) the Bull, the Aswins (Castor & Pollux) the Twins, Upendra (Baal) the Crab, Varuna (Poseidon) the Lion, Aditi, called also Savitri or Sita (Astarte, Aphrodite) the Girl, Yama (Hades) the Balance, Aryama (Ares) the Scorpion, Mitra or Bhava (Apollo Phoebus) the Archer, Saraswati called also Ganga (Nais) the Crocodile, Parjanya (Apis) the ...
... mad'st her godlike who was only fair. And yet my heart more perfectly ensnare Thy soft impassioned flutes and more thy Muse To wander in the honied months doth choose Than courts of kings, with Sita in the grove Of happy blossoms, (O musical voice of love Murmuring sweet words with sweeter sobs between!) With Shoorpa in the Vindhyan forests green Laying her wonderful heart upon the sod ...
... neither Swayamvara, nor fighting nor peacemaking in the story of Shacuntala? This is the first time, moreover, that a startled Indian public has been pointed to Shacuntala as the ideal Hindu woman. Sita, Draupadi, Savitri, Damayanti,—these are familiar to us as ideals, but Shacuntala is Mr. Risley's own addition. To us she is a beautiful poetic creation, not an exemplar of feminine conduct. We observe ...
... funeral pyre, which follows you into heaven or draws you out of hell? Say not that this love does not exist and that all here is based on appetite, vanity, interest or selfish pleasure, that Rama & Sita, Ruru & Savitri are but dreams & imaginations. Human nature conscious of its divinity throws back the libel in scorn, and poetry blesses & history confirms its verdict. That Love is nothing but the ...
... small dove from the pursuing falcon; Karna tear his own body with a smile for the joy of making a gift; Duryodhan refuse to yield one inch of earth without noble resistance & warlike struggle. He saw Sita face exile, hardship, privation & danger in the eagerness of wifely love & duty, Savitri rescue by her devotion her husband back from the visible grip of death. These were the classical Indian types ...
... defence of India's indigenous historical traditions. All of them recognize K.D. Sethna as the forerunner in the field. Future generations are bound to hail him as the harbinger of a new dawn. SITA RAM GOEL Page 400 ...
... put it to you briefly. “Is Sri Krishna’s conventional form the creation of a poet-bhakta made permanent and stable by the acceptance of subsequent bhaktas? I will take the case of Rama and Sita. It is not certain that the story is entirely historical. What is certain is that both these have a very real existence in the national consciousness of the nation. By a process of continual meditation ...
... the efficacy of the dharma in spite of these thousand evils which we have to encounter every day? Is the alleviation of grief and suffering the main intention behind the narration? Are the examples of Sita, Savitri, and Damayanti, proclaimed and upheld by Vivekananda even today, any more relevant, appropriate enough in the modern unavoidable circumstances? Are they secular in character? But if ...
... habit with him to always chant 'Hari Om'. Then too, watching the huge flames, he only uttered 'Hari Om'. I remember that vividly—it reminded me of Janak Videhi the legendary philosopher-king, father of Sita. There is a lot that can be written about Kashibhai's virtuous character. He helped many people in many ways. For instance, he willingly purchased the train tickets for those who wanted to come to ...
... he has made and he must sleep there I suppose?) poems for money—to keep body and soul together. He sees all yet does not come to pranam. Is retired, yet goes to theatres. Is in hush yet speaks with Sita three hours and a half daily (he himself told me—from 12.30 to 3.30 daily, good Lord.' even in my moony days I could hardly talk for more than an hour at a stretch on romance with qui que ce soit [ ...
... culminates in tyāga (detachment and self-sacrifice) at the end. Similarly, when Rāma, along with Sītā and Laksmana enter Page 33 into the Dandaka forest, the poet says: Sa Sita Laksmana sakhah satyādgurumalopayan Vivesha dandkāranyarh pratyekam cha satām manah Helping his father not to deviate from truth, Rāma along with Sītā and Laksmana entered into the Dandaka forest ...
... in both, felt attracted to the Savitri story and translated it into English verse. The daughter of a Christian convert, yet she felt drawn to this Hindu story (as also to another great Hindu heroine, Sita). "The chief thing in Savitri's life which attracted the vehement soul of Toru", writes S.V. Mukerjea, "was that she could not but have been the child of a society of freedom." 6 A society where purdah ...
... sense of irony and fun. Here are some stories about him. King Janaka was his contemporary. That would seem to place his story in the Upanishads about the time of the Ramayana although Rama or Sita does not figure anywhere there. King Janaka too was a man of Knowledge, a sage-king, rājarṣi. But he had not taken any disciples. The seekers would come to him for the solution of their problems ...
... the whole race took them into its consciousness, and assimilated them. Some even believe that there were Ramayanas before Valmiki's and that even in the Veda you find Rama symbolising the divine and Sita standing for the earth. It also may be that Valmiki-brought it over from some Daivic plane to this earth. Rama might have lived but one cannot say anytiling definite. Disciple : What about Krishna ...
... along with Guru-stotram. [16] The next time he came to their house, in 1922, he stayed for two months. The ideal of womanhood was then still exemplified by Tara, Savitri, Ahalya, Mandodari, Sita, Kunti, Draupadi — married women solemnly worshipped these seven Satees every morning. (No wonder then, that Amma could never understand the "love" which now forms the criteria par excellence of ...
... between "to know about Sri Aurobindo and the Mother," and "to know of them"? ANSWER: "About" means what a man does, what his profession is, his occupation ― kim ā sita vrajeta kim? ― and "of "means his personality, his character, nature. Page 39 ...
... of the past were all cast in the physical, vital and mental moulds of beauty and strength, valour and endurance, intellectual subtlety and moral grandeur. The avatars and prophets of old - Rama, Sita. Krishna, Moses, Mahavira, Siddhartha, Christ, Muhammad, Sankara, Ramanuja, Nanak - punctuated the march of the human consciousness by precept and example. There were also heroic figures like Arjuna ...
... inspected the great flying machine, and I wondered if this bird from the skies was a kinsman of Garuda, Lord Vishnu's mount? Or of Jatayu, who fought in vain the demon-king of Lanka to save Rama's queen, Sita? I had no knowledge of history or geography, but Father had told us stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Near me stood a knot of boys and girls of mixed ages talking about the pilot. "He ...
... Aurobindo's Siddhanta. It is not necessary to follow the debate all along the way, for even two or three citations would reveal the measure of Archer's critical ineptitude. For example. Archer's opinion of Sita that she is so excessive in her virtue "as to verge on immorality" elicits Sri Aurobindo's comment that "meaningless Page 493 smart extravagance has reached its highest point when ...
... book there is a hint of the divine presence which is suggested, and Indian richness, massiveness and dignity support this great suggestion. There is augustness and beauty in the picture of Rama and Sita about to enter Guhyaka's boat. Others of his pictures are less successful. Another intermediate worker in the field who is very largely represented, is Sj. Upendra Kishore Ray. This artist has an e ...
... Bharata Mata and his heroines in Anand Math and Debi Chaudhurani are idealised versions of Indian womanhood. The modulation from this conception of the Indian woman informed by the spirit of Sita, Tara, Savitri and Mandodari, to India herself as woman, and the further linking of India as Mother with the Mother Goddess, was natural and inevitable. Sri Aurobindo's Bhawani Mandir is an articulation ...
... piece. You have left behind a lot of warmth in my heart and a glow in my mind. Thanks to you a lot of things got done also. One of the results is the letter whose copy I am enclosing. The letter was Sita Ram Goel's enthusiastic response to the typescript of Cotton , stating that he started on it at 8 pm on 19th January and read up to page 138 "in one breath" when he had to stop at 2 am, and that he ...
... has been a favourite with the worshippers of the Mother Goddess in South India. Then the marriage, an auspicious moment is renacted annually even today in several temples as Meenakshi Kalyanam, Sita Kalyanam, or Andal Kalyanam. Significantly it is only the name of the goddess which is used to indicate the divine marriage. Even the lay man will speak of Rukmini Kalyanam or Radha Kalyanam but ...
... lightly to a child," nor "the divine life a prize without effort or the crown for a weakling." 7 The legend is an old one, even older in age than the Ramayana since in this first epic of India Sita makes mention of Savitri and says to Rama: "Know me as flawlessly faithful to you even as Savitri was to Satyavan, the son of Dyumatsen." 8 The famous legend as it has come down to us is as ...
... 90-91, 93 Gaul, 18 Geldner, 103 Geography, Strabo's, 86 German, 90 Ghirshman, R., 73 Ghosh, B.K., 11, 12, 13, 32fn., 90-94, 110 Goel, Sita Ram, iv Gomal, 14 Gomal Valley, 98 Gomatī, 14 Gordon, D.H., 61 Gothic, Gothic Bible, 90, 91 Grassmann, 115 Grave People, The, 99, 100 Griffith, Ralph T.H., 43 ...
... not one's own and not the Divine's. One feels full of the Divine, full of the Mother's force and presence so that nothing else can enter and misuse the mind, the vital or the body. 6 April 1931 Sita suffered without Rama, the Gopis without Krishna—how they longed for God! This will not happen to us because you and the Mother are here with us. If this is the Truth, why do we still feel dissatisfied ...
... admire themselves too much, but boast. No one likes a braggart; even braggarts despise braggarts. Page 256 We are not surprised to learn that Ravana the terrible foe of Rama, whose wife Sita he had stolen away, was a braggart; it was quite natural for such a monster. In the last great battle between Rama and the demons of Lanka, the glorious lord stood in his chariot face to face with ...
... how great have been man's conquests over Nature! We can see this power pictured in the tale of Rama's crossing over the sea. When he reached the shores of India, and learned that his dear wife Sita was a captive in the island of Ceylon, he prepared to cross the waters. Vast was his army, but it was made up of monkeys and bears. How could they cross the turbulent waters? Rama's intelligence ...
... brightly coloured robes. The monkeys and bears tumbled over one another as they rushed to seize the falling treasures. It was a merry scuffle. And Rama laughed heartily and his wife, the lady Sita, and his brother Lakshman laughed with him. For those who are courageous know how to laugh like this. There is nothing more cordial than a good and hearty cheerfulness. And the word 'cordial' has ...
... level, who is in a way our equal, or nearly our equal in age. And so brotherly affection adds a new gem to the wealth of the household. When Rama returned to the city of Ayodhya with his bride Sita of the lotus eyes, his brother Lakshman shared in the joy. Tents were set up for entertainments, the streets were planted with mango, betel-nut and banana-trees. The bazaars were bright with flowers ...
... "The one for whom you mourn day and night has returned safe and sound. He has conquered his enemy in battle and heard the gods singing hymns in his praise, and now the Lord is on his way home with Sita and his brother." Bharata thought no more of his past sorrow. "Who are you, who bring me such glad tidings?" "I am Hanuman, the son of the Wind, and though I am a monkey, I am a servant of ...
... deities to whom people are accustomed. The old Puranas, the Tulsi Ramayana, etc. are being expounded with a view to promote the ideal of Sri Aurobindo and Mother. Their view is that Sri Krishna, Rama, Sita—all can give the truth of the Supramental. Here is the letter from Y asking me to seek guidance from Mother. Those who still believe in gods can certainly continue to worship them if they feel ...
... respectively." In the light of it we cannot help noting Kangle's rendering 4 of the Arthaśāstra'?, sloka: "Salutation to Kaśyapa, the Lord of creation, and to the god (of rain) always. May the divine Sita prosper in my seeds and my grains." The last phrase justifies Kangle's explanatory "of rain" pointing to Indra. Bhattacharya's other observation 5 may also be attended to: "During the period of the ...
... numberless people participated in the huge procession, walking barefoot to the river, which was quite a distance away, clapping their hands and singing: Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram, Patita Pavana Sita Ram. I went along with my fellow-students. We had to pass through a long bazaar street to reach the river. We were very thirsty, and our bare feet were scorched in the heat. Every shopkeeper kept ...
... some God destroying all the dark Page 393 devils that kept arising out of the shadows, or Rama, hero prince of the epic Ramayana, wandering in forests accompanied by the beautiful Sita. Inevitably at two o'clock in the morning in the pitch black of our Indian night, I would feel the light touch of Kunju Kurup: "Son, get up, you've only half an hour to arise. Bathe yourself with ...
... Sri Rama (vi) Sita is exiled Canto XLIII (Uttarakanda) W ise and witty narrators used to sit around the king reciting various kinds of stories. (1) Vijaya, Madhumatta, Kāśyapa, Mangala, Kula, Surāji, Kāliya, Bhadra, Dantavaktra and Sumāgadha used to narrate with great delight various kinds of humorous stories to the high-souled Rāma. (2-3) After ...
... history of the Ramayana period—Itihasher Dhara. Tagore seems to hold that: (l) Rama, Vishwamitra and Janaka are the three forces combined into one that moulded the ancient social life; (2) the fact that Sita was found on cultivated ground indicates that she is a symbol of agriculture; (3) the Kshatriyas were really the ones responsible for the growth of culture and civilisation while the Brahmins were only ...
... assertion that she was said to have been Usha in one of her previous lives. In India, a woman's life is held to be not of bhoga, but of self-giving, renunciation, tyaga as typified in the lives of Sita and other women of holy birth. My contention therefore is that Mrinalini's soul chose this destiny to hold up an example of an ideal Hindu wife in this materialistic age. That example which had remained ...
... there was a rare instance of psychic love, which brought about this identity. There are similar stories of love between two souls in our ancient tradition: between Savitri and Satyavan, between Ram and Sita; this was the identity-experience all these fine, great, ideal women had in our stories. So this is what, I believe, happened in this way. I should not talk about love very much, because the ...
... experiences and realities that exceed the bounds of ordinary earthly life. Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear are the highlights of Shakespearae's creation. Valmiki's heroes and heroine are Rama, Ravana and Sita. The characters depicted by Shakespeare are men as men are or would be. But even the human characters of Valmiki contain something of the super-human, they overflow the bounds of humanity. It is not ...
... keen sense of irony and fun. Here are some stories about him. King Janaka was his contemporary. That would seem to place his story in the Upanishads about the time of the Ramayana although Rama or Sita does not figure anywhere there. King Janaka too was a man of Knowledge, a sage king, rajarsi. But he had not taken any disciples. The seekers would come to him for the solution of their problems, and ...
... exists, no doubt, in other parts of India; but the cult of looking upon God as the Lover of the beloved devotee has blossomed only in Bengal. The worship of Kartikeya prevails in some parts; Sri Rama or Sita and Rama are worshipped in some parts. But the full significance of Radha's pining for Krishna has been appreciated only by the Bengalis. Mahadeva (Siva) has taken his abode in many places, but it is ...
... lays down general lines – but in actual play (Lila) it consents to limitations that are self-imposed. It has also to pay the price in the play of forces. Otherwise you can argue that Rama willed that Sita may be taken away by Ravana! Christ knew that he had to be crucified for the work and yet something in him wished it may be otherwise. So, it is not all my "will"; it is the Karma of France and ...
... our midst. Her touch pushes all that is wrong in the lower nature to come out in the open at unstoppable speed. Like a dormant volcano that wakes up once again. Fire and smoke start belching out. Like Sita, the whole earth is going through a dreadfully frightening test of fire. All the filth that remained blocked up in the Inconscience stares at the whole earth and at humanity. The “churning of the ...
... Raymond 23.8.62 The Mother [ST] Udara Noble, generous, upright and sincere. 26 April 1938 Sri Aurobindo To Udar with blessings Sri Aurobindo The Mothert [ST] Ujjvala (Bright) Sita's son... 15.7.57 The Mother [ST] Utsuka (Curious) Son of Bijon's daughter The Mother [ST] Uttamā (The ultimate, the last, the best) Kishori's youngest daughter 28.5.60-61 The Mother ...
... foot can be arranged in different ways, like, four plus four: dharma-ksetre kuruksetre samaveta ¹ Another version in verse: On Rama's shady peak where hermits roam, Mid streams by Sita's bathing sanctified, An erring Yaksha made his hapless home, Doomed by his master humbly to abide, Arid spend a long-long year of absence from his bride. Some months were gone; the lonely ...
... theriolatry, that is to say, from a worship of wild beasts! I presume, on the same principle and with the same stupefying ingenuity he would find in Kamban's image of the sea for the colour and depth of Sita's eyes clear evidence of a still more primitive savagery and barbaric worship of inanimate Page 256 nature, or in Valmiki's description of his heroine's "eyes like wine", madirekṣaṇā , evidence ...
... theriolatry, that is to say, from a worship of wild beasts! I presume, on the same principle and with the same stupefying ingenuity he would find in Kamban's image of the sea for the colour and depth of Sita's eyes clear evidence of a still more primitive savagery and barbaric worship of inanimate nature, or in Valmiki's description of his heroine's 'eyes like wine', madireksana, evidence of a chronic ...
... of the village. Today you see only water everywhere, just water. I feel the village was unable to bear the pain of this partition and so drowned itself into the bottomless deeps of the Padma. Like Sita’s entry into the netherworld. We used to collect all sorts of flowers during the few days of the Durga-puja: Shiuli , land-lilies, clitoria (especially the white variety). The boys used to get white ...
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