||om tat sat||

Sundarakanda
Sarga 25

Tattvadipika
न करिष्यामि वो वचः"
'I wont follow your words''

"...రురోద జనకాత్మజా |" (25.1)
" ... hearing those words Janaka's daughter cried."
That is how the Sarga starts.

In this Sarga Sita goes through a churning,
wondering why she is in this sorrowful condition.
Knowing Sita is none other than Lakshmi , consort of Visnu,
there will be others too wondering why she is in that sorrowful condition.

For them the Tilaka Tika in its commentary has the following notes.
"अयं सर्वः सीताप्रलापो
गृहीत मनुष्य शरीरतया
नटवदनुकरणरूप इति बोद्धव्यं"॥

"Having taken the form of a human being,
all these words of Sita are to be understood as words of an actor,
who has taken on the form of a human being."
Again Rama and Sita go through life as any common man would do.
There-in lies the richness of Ramayana.

Continuing the text of Valmiki,
hearing all those threats and entreaties from the Rakshasa women,
Vaidehi with her voice choking with tears speaks.

"न मानुषी राक्षसस्य भार्याभवितुमर्हति"
'A human being cannot be the wife of a Rakshasa.
You can all eat me as you like.
I will not do what you say'

Surrounded by the Rakshasa women,
threatened by Ravana,
Sita, who is like the daughter of Gods, could not get solace.
Like the deer separated from its herd and chased by the wolves in the forest,
Sita trembling excessively withdrew her limbs into herself.
With a broken heart and in sorrow,
she held on to the flowering branches of that Ashoka tree
and started thinking about her husband.
Then brooding Sita could not reach the other end of the sea of sorrow.

The distressed and afflicted,
Mythili with her consciousness drowned in tears,
cried breathing heavily and shedding tears.
The afflicted lady cried saying,
'Oh Rama, Oh Lakshmana, my mother in law Oh Kausalya Oh Sumitra !
As I am tormented by the cruel Rakshasis here and separated from Rama
I cannot live for a moment."

Remembering the adage ,'अकाले दुर्लभो मृत्युः',
that even death is difficult when it is not its time,
Sita says" tormented by the cruel Rakshasis here and separated from Rama,
that I am still alive even for a moment,
means that the often quoted saying of learned that untimely death is difficult is true".

She is certain that she will be destroyed,
like the full boat hit by stormy winds in the middle of the sea.

Unable to see her husband ,
she feels she is collapsing in sorrow,
like the bank of a river pushed by the water currents.

Though she is separated from Rama,
she envies those who can see Rama.
"Those who can see that husband of mine
who has eyes like that of a lotus petals,
who walks with the majesty of a lion,
who is ever grateful,
they are indeed blessed".

Thinking that she alone is responsible for her pitiable state,
Sita says " What kind of great sin I might have committed in my previous birth ?
Filled with this great sorrow I want to give up my life.
Rama cannot get me ,
while I am protected by these Rakshasis.
Fie upon human life.
Fie upon dependence.
Though I wish to give up life I am unable to".

When the Tamo and Rajo Gunas of Prakruti are in ascendancy ,
the one in distress blames everybody else for his misfortune.
Only when they are in control and in the ascendency of Sattva
one may look inwards to see why of the distress.
In Sita's distress that is what we learn .

Thus Sita was lamenting about her fate in the Ashoka grove.

|| om tat sat ||
|| This is what we understood from Tattva Dipika of Shri Bhashyam, Appalacharyulu garu"||
|| om tat sat||