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Rama is shy to speak before his mother, and judging the time in his mind, he speaks to Sita. He tells her to stay home, and describes the forest. When Sita speaks, she speaks first to her mother-in-law. Touching her feet, she asks forgiveness for her great impertinence.
In this episode of the Ramcharitmanas Sita entreats Rama to take her with him, and tells him how she will serve him on the road. Seeing her state, Rama tells her to come. He touches his mother’s feet and receives a blessing. Sita touches her mother-in-law’s feet, and Kausalya blesses her before she goes.
Rama, Sita, and his mother
The main figures in this episode
- Rama the son and husband, shy to speak before his mother. He gives Sita his counsel to stay home, and names the griefs of the forest. Seeing her state, he knows in his heart that if she were kept by force she would not keep her life. He tells her to come, and consoles her with dear words. He touches his mother’s feet, receives a blessing, and reassures his mother in many ways.
- Sita Rama’s wife, whose eyes fill with water at his soft words. Forcing back the water of her eyes, she touches her mother-in-law’s feet and asks forgiveness for her great impertinence. She asks Rama to take her with him, and describes the service she will do him on the road. She cannot bear the parting spoken in words. She touches her mother-in-law’s feet again, and says that fate gave her the forest at the time of service. Kausalya gives her blessings and counsel, and she goes.
- Kausalya Rama’s mother and Sita’s mother-in-law, before whom Rama is shy to speak. He tells Sita to serve her, and to console her when she remembers him. In the commentary’s reading, she asks Rama when she will look on his face. Overcome by love, she cannot speak, and Rama reassures her. Distressed at Sita’s words, she holds her to her breast again and again, and gives her counsel and a blessing.
Rama tells her to stay home for his mother’s sake
Rama was shy to speak to Sita before his mother. Judging the time in his mind, he spoke. “Princess, listen to the counsel. Do not take it in your heart in any other way.”
“If you want your good and mine, take my word and stay home. It is my order, and it is service to your mother-in-law. In every way, lady, there is good at home.”
“There is no other dharma higher than worship, with respect, of the feet of mother-in-law and father-in-law. Whenever mother remembers me, she will grow distraught with love, her wit simple.”
“Then, telling her old stories, beautiful one, console her in a soft voice. I say it by nature, with a hundred oaths on me. You who are fine of face, I keep you home for mother’s sake.”
“The fruit of a dharma approved by guru and Veda is had without affliction. In the power of obstinacy, Galava and King Nahusha bore every strait.”
“Moreover, making father’s word true, I will come back quickly. Listen, you who are fine of face and clever. The days will not be long in passing. Beautiful one, listen to my counsel.”
A road walked barefoot, and food that comes with the season
Rama went on. “If, in love’s power, you are obstinate, lady, then you will get grief in the end. The forest is hard and greatly frightful. The sun, cold, rain, and wind are terrible.”
“Kusha, thorns, and many pebbles are on the path. You will walk on foot, with nothing on your feet. Your feet are soft and charming, and the road is impassable, with great mountains.”
“Caves, clefts, rivers, great rivers, and streams are impassable and unfathomable. They cannot be looked at. Bears, tigers, wolves, lions, and elephants roar. At the sound, patience flees.”
“Sleeping on the ground, bark for clothing, and bulbs, fruit, and roots for food. Will those be had always, every day? All of it comes with its season.”
The salt sea for a swan
Rama went on. “Man-eating night-walkers roam there. They take on ten million kinds of false guises. The water of the hills strikes very hard. The forest’s troubles cannot be told.”
“There are fearful serpents, terrible birds of the forest, and hosts of night-walkers, thieves of women and men. The steady are afraid when the thick forest comes to mind. Doe-eyed one, you are timid by nature.”
“You who walk like a swan, you are not fit for the forest. Hearing of it, people will give me infamy. Can a swan reared on the nectar water of the Manasa lake live in the salt sea?”
“Does a cuckoo whose way is to roam the groves of young mango look well in a thicket of karil? Stay home, considering this in your heart. Moon-faced one, in the forest there is great grief.”
“One who does not take on his head the counsel of guru and master, well-wishers by nature, regrets it in his breast to the full. His good is surely lost.”
Eyes filled by cool counsel
At the soft, enchanting words of her beloved, Sita’s lovely eyes filled with water. The cool counsel burned her as the moonlit autumn night burns the chakravaki.
No answer came. Sita was distraught. Her pure and loving master wanted to leave her.
Forcing back the water of her eyes, holding patience in her breast, and touching her mother-in-law’s feet, Sita said with joined hands: “Forgive, goddess, my great impertinence. The lord of my life has given me that counsel by which my highest good comes. Moreover, I have considered and seen in my mind. There is no grief in the world like parting from the beloved.”
She spoke to Rama. “Master of my life, beautiful, giver of happiness, wise, moon to the night lotuses of Raghu’s line. Without you, heaven is like hell.”
“There are mother, father, sister, dear brother, dear family, the company of friends, mother-in-law, father-in-law, guru, relatives, helpers, and a beautiful, good-natured son who gives happiness. As far as love and bonds reach, master, without her beloved they burn a woman hotter than the sun. Body, wealth, home, land, city, and kingdom, without a husband, are all a gathering of sorrow.”
“Enjoyments are like disease. Ornaments are a burden. The world is like Yama’s torment. Master of my life, without you nothing anywhere in the world gives me happiness.”
“As a body without life, and a river without water, so, master, is a woman without a man. Master, with you is every happiness, gazing on your face, the clear moon of autumn.”
With him, the forest is a city
Sita went on. “Birds and beasts are kin, the forest is a city, and bark is clean fine cloth. With you, master, the leaf hut is the root of happiness, like the abode of the gods.”
“The generous forest goddesses and forest gods will care for me like mother-in-law and father-in-law. A handsome bed of kusha grass and young leaves is, with you, lord, a charming couch of Kama.”
“Bulbs, roots, and fruit are nectar food. The hills are like a hundred palaces of Ayodhya. Gazing moment by moment at your feet, lord, I shall stay glad, as the chakravaki is by day.”
“Master, you have named many griefs of the forest, and many fears, dejections, and torments. All of them together do not come to the smallest trace of parting from you, lord. Knowing this in your heart, crest-jewel of the wise, take me with you. Do not leave me. What more entreaty should I make, master? You are full of compassion, and you know what lies within the breast.”
“If you keep me in Ayodhya for the term, know that my life will not stay. Beautiful, giver of happiness, treasury of good conduct and love.” The commentary reads the term as the fourteen years.
Her service in the shade of a tree
Sita went on. “Walking the road, I shall not tire, gazing moment by moment at your feet. Beloved, I will serve you in every way, and take away all the weariness the road brings.”
“Washing your feet and sitting in the shade of a tree, I will fan you, glad in my mind. Seeing your dark body with its drops of sweat, and gazing on the lord of my life, where is there time for grief?”
“Spreading grass and tree leaves on level ground, your handmaid will press your feet all night. While I gaze again and again at your soft image, no hot wind will touch me.”
“With you, lord, who is there to look at me, as a hare or a jackal would look at a lioness? Am I delicate, and my master fit for the forest? Is tapas fitting for you, and enjoyment for me?”
“If at even such harsh words my heart did not break, then, lord, this wretched life will bear the dreadful grief of parting from you.”
Rama tells her to come, and his mother speaks
Saying this, Sita became greatly distraught. She could not bear the parting spoken in words. Seeing her state, Rama knew in his heart that if she were kept by force she would not keep her life.
Rama said: “Putting worry aside, come with me to the forest. Today is no occasion for dejection. Quickly make ready to go to the forest.”
Saying dear words, he consoled his beloved. He touched his mother’s feet, and received a blessing. In the commentary’s reading, the mother said: “Coming back quickly, wipe away the people’s grief. Let the cruel mother not be forgotten.”
“Creator, will my state turn again? Will I see the enchanting pair with my eyes? Son, when will the good day and the good hour come, when the mother, living, looks on your moon face?”
“Son, when will I again call you calf, and darling, and lord of Raghu’s line, and finest of the Raghus? When will I hold you to my heart and gladly gaze on your limbs?”
Seeing the mother overcome by love, with no word coming from her and with her greatly distraught, Rama reassured her in many ways. That time and that love cannot be told.
A service left undone, and a plea that affection stay
Then Sita touched her mother-in-law’s feet. “Listen, mother. I am most ill-fated. At the time of service, fate gave me the forest. It did not make my wish bear fruit.”
“Give up distress. Do not let go of affection. Karma is hard. Nor is any fault mine.” Hearing Sita’s words, the mother-in-law was distressed. How was her state to be described?
Again and again Kausalya took her to her breast. Holding patience, she gave her counsel and a blessing. “May your married state be unshaken as long as the streams of water flow in the Ganga and the Yamuna.”
Kausalya gave Sita blessings and counsel of many kinds. Sita went, bowing her head at her mother-in-law’s feet again and again with great love.
The course of the episode
Before his mother, Rama gave Sita his counsel. She was to stay home for his mother’s sake, and he said it with a hundred oaths on him. He told her of the forest’s sun, cold, rain, and wind, its paths, its beasts, its food, and its night-walkers. Sita’s eyes filled, and she could give no answer. She asked her mother-in-law’s forgiveness, and told her that there is no grief in the world like parting from the beloved. She told Rama that every grief of the forest together did not come to a trace of parting from him. She entreated him not to leave her, and said that her life would not stay if he kept her in Ayodhya for the term. Rama told her to come with him to the forest, and to make ready quickly. He consoled her with dear words, and touched his mother’s feet. Rama reassured his mother in many ways. Sita asked her mother-in-law not to give up affection. Kausalya held her to her breast again and again, gave her counsel, and blessed her married state. Sita went.
The same story, elsewhere: Valmiki’s Ramayana, chapter 8: The Exile of Rama, the City’s Lament, Guha, and Chitrakuta.
Source: the Gita Press edition of Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas, Ayodhyakand, doha 61 to 69, read with Hanuman Prasad Poddar’s Hindi commentary.