Why did Lord Rama banish Sita?

Speak without it. So broadly, I have written a book on the Ramayan in which this is a elaborate essay on the last topic. So I will be using four points to try to explain this. And it’s not that what I’m going to say is necessarily a definitive explanation, but I have read, I have consulted with many Ramayan scholars. I have tried to read the Sanskrit Ramayan and try to understand the mood of what is going on over there.

I look at various Ramayana commentaries and I have come to a particular understanding which at least I find reasonable because this was one of the most difficult pastimes for me myself to accept. So I’ll be using four points. I said I’ll use the acronym sees. See means sees means Pashyati. So the Bhagavata often says Pashan Apina Pashyati or the Bhagavatam says, we see but we do not see.

So to see we don’t just see with our eyes we see with the eyes of knowledge. So somebody sees somebody who doesn’t know anything about market economics such a person comes to a stock market and sees on a big screen a line going down. And everybody catches their head, and they start getting heart attacks. What happened? This one one line went down.

But a lot is meant by that line going down. So we don’t just see with our eyes we see with the knowledge that helps us to make sense of what we see with our eyes. So if you see with our eyes this incident does seem to be unreasonable even outrageous we could say. But let’s try to see what the mood of the what the whole context is. So, SEEES, so first point I will talk about is SACRIFICE.

So now when we talk about Ra the whole idea is that if Ram abandoned Sita just because there is an acquisition because the acquisition was that she had stayed with Raunas so she was impure And because she was impure, she could not be with Ram. And if that was all that was there, if Ram was so reputation conscious, Ram was so suspicious that Sita was impure, then why did Ram never remarry? If a king is so reputation conscious and a king without a queen throughout his reign, there’s nothing particularly attractive about that. It’s not getting full screen, but this is better? It’s visible?

So these are four points: C is acronym, sacrifice, ethical dilemma, esoteric explanations and selflessness. So we are discussing right now about the sacrifice part. So first point is Ram did not remarry and replace Sita. If he was so reputation conscious then for a king he want a queen with him and because he was a king of a powerful kingdom he could easily have married anyone else but he did not do that and he did not do that for multiple reasons one reason of course was that he had given his word to Sita that I will be I will have only one wife, one queen so he stuck to that word Not only that, later on when Yajnas are to be performed, at that time especially somebody is a householder, the husband wife perform the Yajnas together, they are the Yajimaan. So the priest told that you need your queen with you.

Now the priest said you should remarry. He said no. And what did he do? He got a effigy of Sita, a golden effigy of Sita and he placed that with it and with that he performed the sacrifices. Now generally to perform any fire sacrifices, one has to be very pure.

Now we take a proper bath, we sanctify ourselves. In the in the Ramayana Mahabharata actually the sanctification that one does before doing the sacrifice, the purification that itself is sometimes called as Diksha. So Diksha is not just a lifelong relationship between the Guru and the disciple but it is also the priest who is going to initiate somebody into the sacrifice. So it requires a significant amount of purity. So Ram by having Sita’s effigy right next to him in that sacrifice indicated that not only did he consider her pure but he considered her so pure that she could be right next to him in her effigy form performing sacrifices.

Now if somebody is impure, somebody is considered to be contaminated, we don’t make effigies at all of contaminated people and certainly if we make a effigy also we don’t keep that in a secret place. So the whole idea that Ram considered SITA impure or Ram was reputation conscious, just look at the broad context that doesn’t have any weight to it. Now, if we consider what is going on over here. So Ram, he did send Sita away. But when he sent Sita away, why did he do that?

So if it is not just a reputation, what was going on? If you look at the next point, this ethical dilemma. Now what is the ethical dilemma? In a ethical dilemma, there are two options, both of them are right. But one has to consider which is the more right option.

If there is a moral dilemma in a moral dilemma one option is moral the other is immoral and then we have to choose which one to do in that situation But for choosing we just need inner strength. If somebody is tempted to do something wrong and somebody is offered some bribe for corruption, somebody is offered some tempted to solve the adulterous pleasure or whatever. At that time one option is moral, one is immoral, one needs ethical, one needs moral strength to choose the right option. Here the right option which is not difficult to know but to go towards that right option may be difficult. There is an ethical dilemma inside us there is a mind and there is intelligence.

So in moral dilemmas it is the mind that is going wild. The mind says I want to go here no no you should go here but I want to go here but in ethical dilemmas it is not just the mind it is intelligence itself that is confused. Intelligence is confused means that what is the right thing to do that itself is not clear. Now why may it not be clear? Because it may not be clear because we may have certain ideas of what is right.

Say for example, riot is going on and the rioters who are chasing a friend of ours and that friend comes running and knocks on our door. They open the door and please hide me, please save me And then we take that person and hide him in a closet in our house. And then the rioters come running and they bang on the door. Is this person here? Now we think I should speak the truth.

Should I speak the truth? Should I not speak the truth? Now speaking the truth is good but in this situation speaking the truth will lead to a disaster. So what is happening? Speaking truth is a good thing, saying to somebody life is a good thing.

Here both are good things but which is going to lead to the greater good. That that this is an ethical dilemma. In an ethical dilemma we have to consider not only that this is right or this is right because both are right but which will lead to a greater good that is what has to be considered. So it’s why ethical dilemmas are difficult to it’s difficult to decide what to do in that situation. And we may say in the Mahabharata they just said that broadly when we decide, what to do or what not to do, The broad ultimate guideline is scripture tells us it’s like a broad map for our life but beyond that there are three broad factors we can consider.

There is intent, there is content and there is consequence. So content means okay this is speaking truth is good speaking false is bad that’s content. So we could say that there are certain categories. This is the category of the right course of action. This is the category of the wrong course of action.

So this is the idea of categorical ethics. Categorical ethics means that right action is one category wrong action is another category but real life is never so black and white. Sometimes it is but frequently there are shades of grey. So speaking truth is good speaking false is bad but if speaking truth causes the somebody to get murdered and speaking a lie leads to somebody’s life being saved Then what has happened over here? We can’t just put truth and false in two distinct categories over here.

So there is categorical ethics and what is called as contextual ethics. Contextual ethics means that depending on context. Depending on context they have to decide this is what is right this is what is not right. Say child doesn’t want to take any medicines and there’s a medicine pill and I’m not going to take it. The mother might get a chocolate and put that medicine inside the chocolate and squeeze it inside make it round ball again and give it.

The child asks, is the medicine in this? Now the medicine is essential for the child to take and the child is not going to tell it take it if the medicine is there in it. Then what should the mother do at that time? What do you think? Yeah.

There is no medicine over there. This is just chocolate. Isn’t it? So here what are we looking at? We are looking at not just the content of what is right or what is wrong but we are looking at the intent as well as the consequence.

The consequence here is that for the child if the medicine is taken the health will be good and for the child if the medicine is not taken the result will be bad. So you look at the consequence and you also look at the intent. The mother’s intent is not to deceive the child. The mother’s intent is to benefit the child. So why am I talking about all this right now with respect to Sita’s Ram sending Sita away that is the question we are discussing.

So what was the dilemma that Ram was facing? He all of us have different duties. We all have different roles and different roles we have different responsibilities. So sometimes these different responsibilities pull us in different directions. Say if somebody has a high pressure, high demanding job and then they just come back home and they need to spend some time with their family but suddenly the boss calls, We want emergency at work, come back now.

So now we have a duty as a family member, we have a duty as a professional. So which duty do you do at that time? Sometimes in the office emergency is very much and we may say, no I have to go there right now and sometimes at home there is something very urgent and we say no I cannot come now. So sometimes two different roles may pull us in two different directions and then now to do our job is important, to do take care of a family also important But which do we choose at that time? Here, there’s not a question of right or wrong.

It is right and right, both are important, but which is more important right now? So in the case of Ram, it’s important to understand the cultural context in which this whole incident happened. The cultural context is that Ram is a king and now today there is a lot of, opposition to the idea of monarchy or dictatorship because people have had many bad experiences with kings. If a king is dictatorial, a king who is just does whatever they want to do arbitrarily and abuses power then people become very averse to such a king. The story of Akbar and Birbal.

So Akbar was once going to going from his palace to his, to his court and he saw a barber he saw a washerman along the way. And then as he was looking at the washerman and he he was on his horse moving along somehow the horse stumbled and he fell and then he fell, he got annoyed, he got up and he went inside and then he came into his palace and as soon as he came into his palace, he slipped and again he fell. So first when he had fallen he got injured, now he slipped again he got injured and then he just entered into the palace and then he put his hand somewhere and there was a candle lit over there and the hand got burnt. I said, what is happening? He says, why are so many things going wrong?

And then he thought, you know, something inauspicious is there. He thought, what happened today? Every day I come in this routine, but nothing happens like this. So he said, today, what was special? Today I saw that washer man and he said washer man is very inauspicious for me.

So he says because of him I fell down, because of him I got injured, because of him I got burnt. So we called Birbal and he said that this washer man is very inauspicious. He spoils the day of everyone. He says punish him and he says punish him. He says what?

He said you know he will ruin the day of everyone. He has ruined my day. He says punish him. What punishment? He says hang him.

Okay. He says whatever you decide, that is fine. But at the same time, you know, when you saw the saw the washerman, did the washerman also see you? He said, yeah. He saw me.

Then Birbal said that, see, for you, you when you saw him, you you got you got you fell down, you got a scratch, you got a bruise, you got a burn, but he saw you and because of that he’s going to die. So who is more inauspicious? Okay. Okay. Don’t punish him anymore.

So the point here is that, you know, kings can arbitrarily use or abuse their powers and unless there’s somebody intelligent who will direct their power properly, they can abuse the power. So because of this the idea of kingship has got a lot of negative press in today’s world. But in the past when there were kings they were extremely responsible, extremely sacrificing, extremely giving. We have in the Bhagavatam the stories of two kings who were ready to sacrifice not only their comforts but even their own necessities for the sake of others. Does anyone know those two kings?

Yes, Ranthidev was one. Another? Maharash Shibi. Ranthidev was led to give his own food although he had been fasting for a long time and Shibi was led to give his own flesh because that’s what was asked for. So the kings in those times were very different from the kings in our recent experience.

Even in those times Rama is considered to be his kingdom is considered exemplary. So he was an exemplary king that’s why we call it Rama Rajya. So So then what is going on over here? So now, Rama, what one of the duties of a king is to although the king has the more opulence, the most opulence in the kingdom, but the king is expected to exemplify detachment. One way the king exemplifies detachment is that once the king retires the king hands over the kingdom to someone else and then takes the retired order of life.

That’s one way the king exemplifies detachment. Another way the king exemplifies detachment is that the king may be the ruler of the whole kingdom but if the sages come the king gets off the throne offers obeysences, serves the sages and by this detachment what is the King showing? That yes I have all this power, I have all this position but there is something more to be achieved. We have even this five hundred years of the example of Maharaj Patap Rudra although he was the king in front of the world he was the king but in front of the supreme king, in front of Jagannath he was just a servant and he would sweep the streets in front of Jagannath. So the kings where they are not just living in luxury and royalty but the kings were conscious of their responsibility.

And what was his responsibility? One aspect of his responsibility as a king is to exemplify detachment. That although I have so much but it required I am not I am ready to give it up when I have to retire although I have so much prestige I am ready to bow down before the sages. So similarly one aspect of detachment was what Ram had to exemplify over here. So when people started accusing that Sita is impure, so at that time, now this accusation was spreading like wildfire.

And, you know, when doubts come or when rumors come, rumors are like fire. And how to deal with a rumor is very difficult to decide. I was in California a few couple of months ago but there is a place called Paradise. Now Paradise has turned into hell right now. What has happened is that place is called Paradise but there is a terrible fire over there.

California there were wild brushes, wild forests and huge fires come up over there. So one of my friends over there is a firefighter and he was telling that actually with America with all advanced technology can’t extinguish some fires. So it’s not like that. In the forest the fire can come anytime and sometimes if the fire comes by its own accord and sometimes the fire extinguishes also of its own accord and sometimes if you try to extinguish it, say the fire is like this and you try to pour water from this side and sometimes the attempt to extinguish the fire causes the fire to escalate. The extinguishing this side and the fire starts going on that side.

So it’s very dicey when to let the fire be as it is and when to put all the endeavor to extinguish and how to extinguish it also. And when rumors or accusations start coming up, they are like fire. So generally, when an accusation comes up, the more we counter the accusation, quite often it happens that brings more attention to the acquisition. Oh, this person accuse you of this and you say no I didn’t do this then it gives more attention, it gives more attention. So sometimes just neglect the acquisition, neglect the rumor it will go away, but sometimes you neglect it people start thinking that oh you know there is no counter to the acquisition and it starts growing, growing, growing, growing and then we may have to respond to it.

So it’s very difficult to decide when an accusation or a rumor comes up when to neglect to it or when to respond to it, how to respond to it. So in this case, the accusation had become quite strong and widespread. So now Ram, he could have used his power to crush the accusers, crush the rumor mongers. But that would have made people think that just see, first he’s so attached, and now when we point out what is wrong, he’s using his power to crush the opposite crush the accusation. So that would have only perpetuated the conception that he was so attached.

Now he could have neglected it, but it is growing so much that it has gone beyond the phase of neglect. Now personally, Radha said, Ram did not consider Sita impure in any way. But in that situation he had to take some action. So as a husband he had a duty to protect his wife. As a king he has a duty, he has to take care of his citizens.

He has to set the right example for his citizens and one aspect of the example is detachment. So now among these two duties which one to follow? What to do? So then, now sometimes it is said that Ram exiled Sita or Ram banished Sita. Well, it is not exactly that because if we consider there is another exile that happened in the Ramayana which is that exile Ram himself was exiled.

Isn’t it? Now when Ram was exiled he was sent right into the forest out of the kingdom of Ayodhya and he had to go out and live in the wilderness, create on his own cottage and fend off the wild beasts and the demons and live over there. With respect to Sita, it was not like that. Ram asked Lakshman to take Sita to the nearby hermitage of Valmiki Muni and Valmiki Muni’s ashram was still in the broad kingdom of Ram. So in that sense, Sita was still within the broad protection of Ram.

If anybody attacks any demon attacks Valmiki’s ashram, Ram would go there to protect. So if any danger comes to Sita, Ram would be there to protect. So Ram did not exactly exile Sita in the same sense in which he himself had been exiled. So what he did was, she was no longer in the palace with him. So he did prioritize over here his duty as a king and for that duty he sacrificed to some extent his duty as a husband, but it was not just that much.

He did not simply abandon Sita. He had her entrusted in the care of all Miki Rishi, and there in that ashram, she lived. So Ram addressed the allegation that he was attached by creating a distance between him and Sita. But still, she was under his protection indirectly. So the important point over here is that among the two options Ram chose the option of serving his state, serving his nation.

And in this, in today’s world, especially among political leaders there is so much nepotism. Nepotism is corruption where people use their contacts to get their family members to get everything. One person becomes a minister and then in that ministry 25 other relatives get all the top posts and they take over the ministries. It becomes like their own home party. You know?

So in for such a culture, you know, Ram sets an extraordinary example of detachment, that he places as a higher duty above his duty to the family. Now for him also it was painful. It was so certainly Sita was deprived but Ram himself was deprived. So it was a painful choice for both of them. It is not just something which Sita had to suffer, Ram also had to suffer over there.

I’ll come back to this point a little later. Now of course you could say that they don’t suffer they are the divine couple and we will come to this. So I was talking about the acronym SEEES, SEEES. So third E is Esoteric Explanations. Now Esoteric Explanations means that everything that happens there are multiple levels of causation for that.

Say, if you say that somebody gets malaria, Now we may say what is the cause of malaria? What do you think mosquitoes? Mosquitoes infected with a germ that bites us and that gives malaria, but sometimes it may happen that in a house there may be five people and only one person gets malaria. Now is it that the mosquito bites only that one person? Maybe that mosquito might have bitten the other people also but you could say there are other factors that one person’s immunity might be better, other person’s immunity might not be so good but sometimes if you test everybody may have the same level of immunity but still one person gets infected.

So there are multiple levels of causation. So there is a immediate cause, there is a remote cause, there is a ultimate cause. So the immediate cause for the malaria is that that person was that person had a person was bitten by a mosquito. Once I had some fever and the fever was not going for quite some time so I went to hospital and in hospital I was admitted for a few days I recorded the fever and I came back and then I started getting even higher degree fever and then we went and diagnosed and we found that while I was in the hospital somehow something happened and I got infected it was ordinary fever I had but in the hospital I got TB. So now normally people go to the hospital to get cured but what happened in the hospital I got infected.

Sometimes it happens unfortunately like that. So we may say there is immediate cause but beyond the immediate cause there are other levels of causes also. So the immediate cause is one cause so we could say that somebody who gets malaria the mosquito biting is one cause but another cause is, another level of cause is the remote cause is that we all have particular karma and because of that karma we sometimes get some diseases. Just like say normally if somebody we eat food we get strength. If we eat too much food then we gain weight.

Now we may say that yes this is the linear thing. If you eat too much food you gain weight but it’s not always like that. Some people they may eat very little food but still sometimes some people are genetically predisposed towards obesity. They just have a big body. Or some people they may have some other issues, sometimes some thyroid issues or whatever, just the weight may go up.

For some other people, they treat their tongue like a conveyor belt. Just take it, anything and everything, and still they stay slim. So what is happening here? There is a immediate cause. The immediate cause is you eat and your weight increases.

But sometimes the immediate cause may not be the complete cause and sometimes despite the immediate cause not being there also the result may come and sometimes in spite of the immediate cause being there the result may not come. So there are multiple levels of causation because of which certain things happen. So similarly when we are talking about esoteric explanations over here we are looking at another level of causation. So from the context of the Mahabharata we look at we look at what happened okay this is the incident There’s acquisition and Rams and Sita. That seems outrageous.

Why would somebody do like that? But we look at the bigger context. And we look at the bigger context and then we understand. Okay. It’s like this.

So intelligence means to understand the right level of causation to explain something. To understand the right level of causation. So right now, if some of us start feeling very hot, now we may say why am I feeling hot over here? Hey, this fan is not on fully. That could be one reason.

Other reason could be, oh, you know, it’s India, in the daytime noon it becomes hot. You could see that’s one reason. You could see another reason is actually there is climate change because of which the temperature all over the world is going up because of that it is so hot. Other reason could be oh because there is so much crowd over here that’s why we are feeling congested, we are feeling hot. So now the same action, there could be different levels of explanation and if we don’t get to the right level of the explanation, then we misunderstand things and we make a mess of things.

Sometimes we may need to escalate the explosion to a higher level. Say if somebody comes from a cold country like UK or America, Northern Part of America, Canada then they may feel India is very hot. And yes, it is hot. Then, okay, even if you have AC, even if you have fans, the country itself hot. That is the level of explanation we need to look at.

But if the fan is not working and somebody I’m feeling very hot. Can you turn on the fan? No. Actually India is hot. No.

But turn on the fan. No. No. No. India is hot.

No. That’s that’s a valid reason but here just turn on the fan. The heat will go down. So intelligence means that we have to find out the right level of causation. So often we get misled when we don’t find the right level of causation.

Sometimes a small issue we may escalate to a very big level. So when people get depression, what happens in depression, it is a small incident and people extrapolate it to the biggest possible level. So I was talking at a mental health care center in Connecticut in America and then I was talking with the mental health care providers as well as the mental health care patients about how they got depressed or why they came there, what are the experience. So there was one girl, one woman. So she was saying that what happened, she was serving at her home.

She’s just bringing a glass of water to get for some guest to welcome. And while she was getting the glass of water, somehow the glass slipped from her hands. And the glass slipped and fell down. The glass broke. The water spilled over there.

And she said, from that, I felt I am worthless. I am useless. I can’t even carry a glass of water. What can I do with my life? And that one incident of the glass of water falling out of her hand triggered her depression.

And eventually, she ended up in a mental health care center. Okay. Okay. The water fell down. Pick it up and pick up get another glass of water, wipe it, remove the gas, move on with life.

But what happens when the intelligence doesn’t function properly then we go to the wrong level of causation. So okay if a glass slipped from the hand maybe my hand was wet, maybe the floor was wet, maybe the glass itself was slippery, maybe I was just in a tent somewhere, there could be so many explanations for that but when we escalate the issue to the wrong level then we misunderstand. So intelligence means to understand the right level of causation. So here I look at one level of causation for understanding things is that the context. It is an ethical dilemma for Rama but we can go beyond this.

So esoteric explanations means we go further beyond this life to another life, beyond this level to another level. So, in the Ramayana itself there is an explanation of why did Ram abandon Sita and described that there was a demon who was terrorizing the devtas. And when this demon was terrorizing the devtas, at that time, this demon, he finally Vishnu came to the aid of the devtas and Vishnu came and started attacking this demon and the demon realized that Oh my God! I cannot fight with Vishnu and he fled from there but because this demon had been terrorizing the Devdas for so long Vishnu gave chase and when Vishnu gave chase at that time this Devdas, this demon ran, ran, ran and he came back, he came to the hermitage of Brugurushi. Now Brugurushi is one of the celestial sages and when he came there, Gurgurushi was not there, at that time, Bhrigu’s wife Khyati was there and he fell at her feet and says, please save me, please save me and now she was a motherly figure and she said, Yes, I’ll save you.

Now she was she was motherly, she was compassionate. Now she didn’t consider what is the why is he in danger, what wrong has he done. She just said, Okay, I’ll protect you. You stay over here. You stay in my hermitage And then Vishnu came over there and Vishnu told her that, now hand hand him over to us.

He said, No. I have given him protection. I cannot hand him over. Then he said, no he is a terrible demon. If he escapes now, again he will break havoc in the universe.

He says he has killed so many people. He has murdered and consumed so many sages. He has violated so many women. He has created so much terror and even the Gods are not able to curb him. He says, Now he has become weak, he has been overpowered, there is a long, long fight that is going on, it is the last stage, don’t come in the way.

Said no, I will not let him go. Says no, we have to protect the universe, we have to stop. So then Kathy somehow she got the idea, she said that the only way you will get to him is over my dead body. You will not get to him. So now Brugurushi was not there at that time.

So now Vishnu realized that there is no way ahead for him. Now Lord Vishnu is transcendental and we know from scripture that actually everybody has to die sometime or the other. But somebody dies at the hands of Vishnu, they become liberated. So then Lord Vishnu did the needful, and Khyati’s soul became liberated. And then he got to this demon, and he del delivered the demon also.

But when Guruji came back and he saw what had happened, momentarily he became very angry. He became very angry and he said, Vishnu, the way you have caused me to be separated from my wife, I curse you that you will be separated from your wife. Now Lord Vishnu does not have to accept anyone’s curse, but he respects the Brahmanas and he said, whatever curse you give, I will accept it. And he accepts that curse and that resulted in Ram and Sita getting separated. So it was not just Sita’s particular action.

We see that sometimes we do an action a and we get a reaction b. That’s broadly speaking the law of karma. But the law of karma is not that simple. Action A does not necessarily lead to reaction B because we all have our karma. Say three people are walking along a road and they are walking and chatting with each other and below there is some water just spilled and none of them notices the water is spilled so all of them slip over there.

Now the first person that was near the near a tree, so they slip but there is a branch over there, catches the branch and steadies himself. The second person slips and there is a puddle of water nearby and the person falls over there. Their whole cloth gets dirty and nothing gets injured except their pride. But third person falls and there is a sharp stone cropping out from the ground below and the person’s head hits that stone. Head person falls unconscious and gets brain hemorrhage.

Now we may say all three of them slipped, all three of them were inattentive and because of that they slipped. But what happened, the action which they did, it’s all the same. But the the reaction they got is different. So why is that? It’s not just action A leads to reaction B.

It is true but all of us have our past Karma and sometimes action A may lead to a big reaction B and sometimes action A might be very big but there might be no reaction to it or there might be very minor reaction to it. So sometimes if our karma is good, as one devotee in America was telling me that. Now India when we drive, people just drive in such unpredictable ways. So driving can be an adventure or it can be a nightmare depending on our perspective. And in America there is another kind of danger you drive on the road it’s so straight and so clear that there’s nothing much happening this is going along the road so while driving people fall asleep so now what happened this devotee was telling me he was driving he got from his he woke up early in the morning he wanted to go to temple for Mangalarti and from his home the temple was like a straight line and he got up and he was very tired and while driving, he went to sleep.

And there were several intersections, but the road was all straight. And finally, he he just heard the sound of Keerutan and he got up and he saw his car was just near in the temple. So throughout he was sleeping. So he was sleeping but nothing happened to him. Now sometimes what may happen is that now sleeping while driving is dangerous but sometimes so sometimes you may do a small thing wrong and a big consequence may come up.

Sometimes you may do a big mistake but no consequence may come up or very little consequence may come up. That’s how what happens is although the law of karma is there it’s not just action A leads to action B but action A may not be the sole cause of action B. If somebody’s karma is bad, action A might be a small trigger and the reaction B might be very bad. Somebody’s karma is good, action a might be bad but the reaction b might not be very much. Like earlier I talked about obesity.

Say somebody who has by their karma they’ve got they’re meant to have a healthy fit slim body. So now even if they eat a lot that action a does not lead to result b but somebody is meant to have a sickly body and there’s a little imbalance in their eating and they fall sick their body blows out like a balloon whatever happens. So what happens is action A and reaction B are not necessarily equivalent immediately. Every action will have a proportional reaction, but the reaction we get at that time may not be exactly proportional to the action at that time. That’s how Gajana Karma Novati.

So the point I am making over here is when Ram and Sita are separated it is not just because Sita stayed with Raunna or Sita was accused, There is much more going on over there. Madhvacharya has written a book called the Mahabharata Tapparinirlnai where he addresses controversies in the Mahabharata and there also he addresses some of the controversies in the Ramayana and there he quotes from the scripture to talk about a demon, a very cunning demon. Demons, they all want to be immortal and in one sense all of us want, none of us want to die But they try to not spiritualize their consciousness, but at the material level they try to become immortal. And they try to ask for different conditions. So like we have Hiranyakashibu saying that no human being, no animal, not morning, not night, not inside the house, not outside the house.

So they all try to ask different cunning ways to get their way to immortality. So there was this demon, he propitiated the Gods, he pleased the performed a state to the Gods and he asked for a benediction. He said, let me never die as long as Lakshmi and Narayan are united. Now he thought Lakshmi and Narayan will never be separated and therefore I will never die. So then what happened Lord Rama raised this Leela by which Lakshmi and Narayan got separated and when they got separated that was the time Indra attacked that demon and still that demon was not very easy to defeat.

So Indra was fighting that demon for year after year after year after year and finally Indra killed that demon and the moment Indra killed that demon that was the time Ram called Sita back. You know later in the Rama hai eventually Ram says enough is enough. Sita has suffered enough I am going to call Sita back And he calls Sita back but at that time Sita says, Sita says enough is enough now and she says, I don’t want to live anymore. I will enter into the earth. The earth opens and she enters into the earth.

So the point is that there is much more that is happening over there. You just look at one frame and I think this is outrageous but if you look at a bigger frame, intelligence means to see the event in the right context, in the right frame. So when our frame expands and something which seems outrageous in this frame, okay, it starts making sense when I put it in the right frame. Now the Gaudiya Vaishnav tradition of which we are a part, it also explains that there is another aspect to this that Krishna and relationship with Krishna, relationship with the Lord, Lirama or Krishna Vishnu is not like any ordinary relationship. Because at one level when we love someone and we are separated from that person we are separated from that person.

That person is somewhere, we are somewhere else But the Lord is not like that. The Lord is omnipresent. He is present everywhere and that’s why even when somebody is separated from Him, actually they are not necessarily separated from him. So when Krishna left Vrindavan and went away from the gopis, at one level Krishna was separated from the gopis, but at another level actually in their memory Krishna, they remembered him even more. And in that sense, they actually experienced greater union with Krishna than they experienced him when he was with he was with them.

So separation intensifies devotion, separation intensifies love. So the example given for this is that separation does to love what wind does to fire. If there is a big forest fire going on and the worst thing that can happen in the forest fire for firefighters nightmare is if a big wind comes over there. The wind will cause the fire to spread. Similarly for Ram and for Sita, their love was so great that when they reunited, when now they they Sita was going to have a child, their love had attained its zenith and then the separation that was created between them whatever be the external context of that separation that separation intensified their love intensified their love.

So that separation was like wind which increased the fire. So both of them actually became more and more devoted to each other. And that’s why we see that Sita never poisoned the minds of Love and Kush against Ram. Sita said, your father is so bad that he abandoned me like this. Later on when there was this fight between Love and Kush and Ram’s soldiers and eventually when he was about to fight Ram, Sita came and stopped him.

What are you doing? He is your father. He is respectable, he is worshipable for you. How can you fight against him? So the love of Sita for Ram or Ram for Sita did not turn into bitterness or resentment or anger it actually deepened.

Now they deepened because already their love was very deep. Here I said separation does to love what wind does to fire. Now we should misapply this principle if you think I will get separated from Krishna, I will get separated from devotees and my devotion will increase. No, for that the love has to be like a forest fire Our devotion is like a candle fire. When wind comes and there is a candle fire what happens?

The candle gets extinguished. So if we go away from Devotee Association, if we deliberately get separated from Devotee Association, we get separated from Krishna, our devotion will get extinguished. But when there is great devotion, separation intensifies that devotion. So these are esoteric explanations when we further expand the scale of reference. The first expansion is beyond this life to another level of reality that is the celestial level, the heavenly level and second level of expansion is to the spiritual level where we see that actually this is not an ordinary person this is God and love for him is such that even in remembering him one can experience him.

So that is esoteric explanation. The last part now we talk about is selflessness. So, if we consider that same Lord, Supreme Lord, He comes as Ram and He also comes as Krishna. If that Lord is so reputation conscious, so honor conscious that because Sita was considered impure, Ram abandoned her. But then that same Ram comes as Krishna and what does he do as Krishna?

There is this demon, Bahamasa, he has is very demonic and he has abducted many many princesses and he is planning to do a sacrifice and that sacrifice he wants to appropriate all these princesses for himself and Krishna goes over there and then he fights and he freeze, he kills the demon and he frees all the princesses and then the princesses tell Krishna that people will consider us contaminated because we have stayed with the demon’s palace. Although that demon had not touched, Naramuni was very expert. Naramuni comes and tells him that actually you first perform the sacrifice and then if you perform austerity till you do the sacrifice and then you do whatever you want you will gain military might, you will become more poor. So although there was no contact but this reputation would be there that oh they stayed in somebody else’s house they will become contaminated. So then, Krishna said, we will be con we consider con contaminate in the world’s eyes.

So Krishna said, what do you want? He says, they said, please accept us as your maid servants. They are Krishna asked them they they asked Krishna to accept us as their maid servants. But Krishna said, why maid servants? I’ll make you my queens.

And that’s how Krishna had it. Now this demon was so demoniac, it actually terrorized many many other kingdoms and he had got 16,000 princes over there and they all became Krishna’s queens. Now if you consider Krishna had no relationship with these princesses before. He not only had no relationship with his princesses, they were also, you could say from the worldly point of view, they were of a solid reputation. But still Krishna accepted them.

Now with respect to Sita, she was already married to him. She was already bearing his child. Why would just because of consideration of reputation that lord ever abandoned his own consort? So we are to see that something else is going on. Now that same Lord when he designs as Krishna, he is demonstrating the principle of compassion.

Whereas, when he is when he is there is Rama, he is demonstrating the mood of selflessness, selflessness. The whole mood of the Ramayana is the mood of selflessness. Put the other person before yourself and rather than thinking of Ram as unjust, unfair, irresponsible, abandoning Sita, we can see that the mood of the whole epic of selflessness is demonstrated by Ram also. We see everybody puts their, puts their interests lower and some higher cause above. Dashrath loves Ram more than his own life and yet because for Kshatriya word of honor is very important for the sake of that word of honor.

What does Dashrath do? When Kaike tells him, send Ram away to the forest, he does that. Then when Ram has to go to the forest, Ram does not fight. This is my right. What wrong have I done?

Why should I go to the forest? He okay. Honoring my father’s word is my responsibility. So Ram also is selfless. He goes there.

When he is going, now Lakshman is not obliged to go. Lakshman says, I will go with you. I will serve you. Sita is not obliged to go. Sita goes with Ram.

He says, it’s my duty. Now Ram says, no, you stay over here. You stay here in Royal Comfort, the forest is no place for you to come. Sita could have said, oh, wife’s duty is to obey my husband and my husband says stay over here so I’ll stay over here. She doesn’t say that.

He says whatever discomfort you are going to face, I will face the discomfort. Even when she is abducted by Rawan and Rawan first thing that he does is he takes her to his palace and he takes her around all his palace and shows how much wealth he has. He thinks by that she will get attracted to him but she doesn’t even look at him, she doesn’t even look at his wife and then he takes her to a royal chamber to keep her over there and she says, as long as my Lord is staying in the forest, I will not stay in a palace and that’s why she is so insistent about it that Ravan takes her to Ashokwathika and that’s why she stays also in a forest like place in the garden, the park over there. So similarly Bharat, what does he do? He is also selfless.

When he hears that Ram is living in the forest, he says to he goes and begs to Ram, please come back. When Ram says, no, our father has given the word. Then Bharat says, okay. So if our father has given the word, it all happened because of me, because of my mother’s desire that I get the kingdom all this wrong happened. So he said, Do you honor the word of my father?

I will stay in the forest and you go back to the kingdom. So Ram says, we cannot interchange karma like this. The universe will fall in disorder. Then what does he say? Okay, then you will be the king and I will be the I will be your servant.

So the disposition of my heart should be reflected in the position in the court and that’s why in my heart you are my lord, I am your servant and I want that disposition of my heart to be reflected in the position in the court. That’s why it says you give me your paduka, you give me your footwear and I will carry it on my head and I will put it on the throne and I will sit on a mat below that. Today, if there were two brothers who are having a conflict over a succession or getting some death by father’s estate or something like that. In fact there is a book written called the Modern Ramayana or something like that which is all which is all discussed as conflict between the prominent family in India between two brothers after the father passes away. So anyway, so if today one brother gave his footwear to another brother, the other brother will take it and beat his head with it.

So what do we have is there’s a mood of selflessness throughout. All the characters exhibit that selflessness and that selflessness attains its zenith, attains its climax in Ram and Sita’s separation. So, it is not that Ram has passed the judgment and punished Sita. If at all you want to compare Ram’s situation, you can compare it to Dashwat’s situation. Dashrut had no desire to send Ram to the forest.

He had no desire to send Ram away. In fact, his heart broke to have to send Ram, Sita, Ram away. But still Dashrut did that and Ram also accepted that. So similarly, what was Dashrut’s situation in the initial part of the Ramayana, that was Ram’s situation in the later part of the Ramayana. Ram had no desire to send Sita away.

Ram Dashrath knew that there was no fault in Ram at all. Similarly, Ram knew there was no fault in Sita at all. But the situation was such that that for some higher purpose, Dashrath had to send Rama away, and similarly, Rama had to send Sita away. And in this context, if we see Rama when he went to the forest, that is also Ram’s glory. That he did not complain, he did not protest, he did not rebel.

Ram also exhibits great strength of character in going to the forest and living in exile. So similarly, Sita is not a weak character. Sita is not a victim. Sita also has great strength. When Lakshman tells her that Ram has sent her away, she is heartbroken but even in that heartbreak when she is lamenting bitterly, she understands why Ram has done it and her heart although it is broken, she accepts it.

They said she is never filled with resentment or bitterness towards Ram. So actually the selflessness that is the thread underlying the whole Ramayana, the selflessness that is exhibited by Dasharat, by Ram, by Sita, by Lakshman, by Bharat that same selflessness attains its climax in the final separation between Ram and Sita and both of them are exhibiting selflessness and both of them are united in selflessness. Both of them are actually doing something which is very, very difficult to do. And we will see that the Ramayana has inspired millions and millions of people throughout history, not just in India. I was in Singapore.

Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, they all have their Ramayana retellings and Ramayan is so much a part of their culture over there. All over the world millions of people, in fact some historians of literature they say that no other book in world history has inspired as many people as Ramayana. Now, if you see what is the inspiration that people have got. The inspiration is the inspiration of selfless service. The inspiration India has one of the stablest, family structures in the world.

If we go to America, in America families are so much broken apart. In many cities, I had once gone for a walk in LA, Los Angeles and it’s a big park and that whole park, normally if you see a park, there will be children playing in the park, there will be mothers and fathers, they are just sitting and chatting. This whole park, there were no children. There are only dogs. In fact, in the Caucasian, that means the white American population, in the in their families, statistics say that actually there are in those families there are more dogs than children.

There are more dogs than children. So what has happened? Families are breaking apart and people just people just don’t want to have families. Like, there’s a I was just I was traveling for a program and a person people put various slogans on their cars. So one slogan was that the more I get to know people, the more I love my dog.

So people are just family people is breaking apart. Now to some extent like this is very sad. In the past we had joint families and we had nuclear families. Now even the nucleus is split and there are electrons and protons orbiting around in the concrete jungles lost and lonely. It’s very sad but the point I am making is that India in general in the immigrant families in America immigrant families are little stabler.

There is instability there also. So India has a very stable family structure. So now if Indians have been inspired by the Ramayana and India has a family structure, so if this whole pastime was about, about somebody who is irresponsible and somebody who is just abandoning somebody else just on base of a rumor, then is that the inspiration that people have got from the Rama? No. That is not the inspiration.

What has inspired millions for millennia is the principle of selfless service. The way we put something bigger, higher than our own immediate interests. And it is that of the model that the Ramayana has given to us. So actually when Ram sends Sita away, it’s a extraordinary act of selflessness in which both of them are participating. And it is that selflessness that is the enduring inspiration from the Ramayana.

There is a selflessness that strengthens and stabilizes relationships and that is what we learn from the Ramayana. So this is a pastime which can be very easily misunderstood if we see it in the wrong context. If you just see okay this accusation and this rejection but that’s not what is happening there is much bigger things happening over there. When we see it in the right context then we see that it embodies the same mood of selflessness that the whole Ramayana embodies and it provides the same inspiration for selflessness that the Ramayana provides in general. So I will summarize, I spoke today on this topic of why did Ram abandon SITA.

I talked about it using an acronym. Does anyone remember the acronym? Sees. Sees. S e e s.

What is the first s? Sacrifice. Sacrifice. So the sacrifice is that Ram, if it had been simply because of accusation he abandoned her then why did not Ram not remarry. So Ram did not replace Sita ever.

Not only that Ram considers Sita pure enough that he had her effigy with him when he performed the Yugnyans. So it is a sacrifice for him. Not that Sita was deprived but even Rama was deprived and for both of them it was sacrifice. And the question is what why sacrifice like this? When we talk about E was ethical dilemma so the ethical dilemma was that moral dilemma is one right one wrong which to choose that just requires strength of character but then two rights which to choose then it becomes difficult like a speak the truth but protect somebody’s life.

So here the ethical dilemma was Ram had two roles his role as a husband and role as a king and a king is meant to exemplify detachment And in this case, when the rumors are spreading, if he had tried to counter the rumor or still stay on his Sita, that he would not have been able to exemplify detachment. So he chose to subordinate his duty to the kingdom chose to subordinate his duty to his family to his subordinate duty to the kingdom which is exactly opposite to which, the way politicians are today, nepotistic, using the state for gratifying that for pandering to the family’s whims and needs and desires. So Rama, he did not exactly exile Sita because Sita was still in his kingdom in Valmiki’s ashram. She was indirectly in the protection. So he did do his duty as his king but he did not entirely abandon his duty as a husband, indirectly did the duty.

He could counter that accusation of attachment by that. And then second E was Exotic. Exotic explanations. Talk about intelligence means to frame a particular event in the right context. So I talked elaborately about how karma works that sometimes a small problem small wrong doing may lead to a big problem and sometimes a big mistake may also lead to a small problem.

Somebody driving while sleeping and no accident. Somebody is walking and sleeping and getting a brain mortgage. So whenever a particular thing is happening it’s not just action A leading to action B. Action A may lead to action B but B is not simply because of A. There might be many other things which are leading to B happening.

So when Sita is sent away by Ram it’s not just because of that acquisition or because she was abducted. Discussed multiple levels one level is Kathy had because after Kathy’s death Grugamuni had cursed Ram that you will be separated from your wife from and that’s how it happened and there was this demon as Madhav Chari explains who who had who had got the benediction only when Sita and Vakshmi Narayan separated that I will be killed and ultimately because God is omnipresent so separation from Him intensifies devotion Just like what wind does to fire, separation does to love. So in being separated their love attains its zenith and last ‘S’ was selflessness where everybody in the Ramayana is demonstrating selflessness Dasharat, Ram, Bharat, Lakshman, Sita that same mood of selflessness is demonstrating this climax by Ram and Sita when both of them get separated. So it is not that Ram is the victimizer and Sita is the victim both of them are gloriously strong characters and just says Dasharat and Dasharat knew that Ram had done no wrong but still Dasharat and Ram both of them cooperated in that separation similarly Ram knew Sita had done no wrong but Ram and Sita separated in a mood of selflessness.

So the lesson of the Ramayan which has inspired millions for millennia is not very judgmental or responsible or abandon someone. The lesson is that we be selfless and is that selflessness that has inspired millions for millennia and that is the lesson that very much is relevant even in today’s world where families are breaking apart, where relationships are short lived. So the Ramayana, through this extraordinary, extraordinary, extraordinary complex incident, ultimately embodies this virtue of selflessness. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.

Are there any questions or comments? And that’s why she opted for the going to the fire entering the fire. So can you just explain that? It’s just Of that part. When are you talking about?

In the Agni Pariksha or later? Before Agni Pariksha also. Okay. Because when she doesn’t retaliate and then she opts for getting entering the fire. Okay.

So is it that because women are meant to be subordinate to men or why is meant to subordinate to husband that’s why Sita did not retaliate? That could be one contextual explanation. But then we can say that the whole culture of the Ramayana is the culture of obedience, of subordination. Even Ram did not retaliate when Dashwood sent him to the forest. Now to exile someone is actually a very very serious punishment.

Exile is just one level below execution. If somebody has done such a terrible crime that you killed that person, one level below punishment is you send them away from everything that is dear to them. It’s a very grievous punishment and when Bharat hears from Kaithi that Rama has been exiled, she’s shocked. She says, Rama cannot do even the smallest of wrong. And what wrong could he have done is that he has been exiled.

So the whole culture of the Ramayana is the culture of submission, of subordination. So if if we see it in the broader context, just as the Ram does not retaliate against Ashwat, similarly, Sitar doesn’t retaliate against Ram. Okay? Thank you. Any other questions?

Yes, please. Yeah. Here. Here. Hi, Krishna, Roji.

Roji, in exotic explanation, you gave an example of Kayathe and Brillo, for Ram to for that past year. So is there any explanation for why Sita did Sita didn’t accept the proposal of Ram for reunite and she left. Okay. So why did Sita not accept the proposal of Ram for being reunited? Yeah, ultimately that mood of love and separation that was there, that was where the that was where the love had attained its climax and even if there had been union after that, that love had attained such intensification that the perfection was there actually.

Just like we see, Krishna tells the gopis that I will come back to Rindavan, But apparently he doesn’t come back, isn’t it? And why doesn’t he come back? There are many different lessons for that. One way one explanation of course is that he never leaves. He’s always there in the gopis’ heart.

Another explanation is that, when Uddhava is going as a messenger and Uddhava comes back, Gopa says, Krishna, why are you not going? They are separate from Uddhava says, Krishna does Uddhava that, actually they have attained the highest love. And ultimately of course Krishna and Gopis both go back to spiritual world and they are eternally united. So in this world love and separation is the zenith, is the climax And because that separation has already been attained, so then Sita just leaves the world at that time. K?

Any other questions? Yeah. Okay. Okay. You finish?

Okay. Okay. Sure. So those who want, they can meet you in, person and they can meet. So I’ll be available downstairs.

As I mentioned, I’ve written this book wisdom from Ramayan and there are about 20 incidents from the Ramayan and, incidents have been narrated and their practical life applications have been given. So this whatever I spoke is from the is the last article in this book but apart from that there are many practical life lessons say if a good person suddenly does some terrible thing. So how do we respond to that? When Kaikai send Ram away. How do we respond to that?

When something bad happens in our life do we accept it as destiny or do we try to change it? When Ram was exiled, he accepted destiny, but when Sita was abducted, Ram did not accept destiny. So when to change things, when to accept things, how to understand what is destiny, all that is explained. There are two close friends and some misunderstandings happen between them. Why do they happen?

How to resolve them? That’s also explained through the story of Vali and Sugriva. So and if you want, this book is available downstairs. Thank you very much.