​Rama disregarded Ayodhya citizens when going to exile himself, but not when exiling Sita – Why?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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not at all. So, when the citizens of Ayodhya told Ram to stay on in the kingdom, he followed his putra dharma and went to the forest. But when those citizens, they accused Sita, at that time, he took their word seriously and he abandoned his pati dharma and he followed his raja dharma at that time.
So, what was the basis for his decision making? Yes, the… when we are having different roles, at that time, there will be different priorities at different times. So, for example, when Ram is still a son, he is a prince. He is not yet the king.
So, his primary duty at that time is not to the citizens. His primary duty is to his father at that particular time. And so, he at that time focused on that duty.
So, all of us, we have various roles and various relationships, various activities in those relationships, but there is a hierarchy within that. And in his case, he felt that his father’s duty, his father’s instruction is the most important. That way, even his father was torn.
His father did not want him, Vashat Maharaj did not want Ram to go. But he was obliged because of the desire to honour the world. And actually, that is the more important thing.
It was not just his father’s will or his citizens’ will. What was the honourable course of action in that situation? Kshatriyas have enormous power. And that power, because often in a kingdom, when a Kshatriya is there, there is no one to counter that king.
The Kshatriya is the king. No one has that much power. And such concentration of power in one person is in many ways a recipe for abuse of power.
So one of the important check and balance for Kshatriyas in preventing them from abusing their power is they are ingrained with a very deep sense of honour. That means once you give a word, you have to keep it. Because otherwise, they may give a word and they may not keep it.
Who is going to haul them over the poles? Who is going to actually challenge them or counter them? Because often there will be no one for that. So in Kshatriyas, their word of honour, choosing the honourable course of action is considered extremely important. And he considered here that Dashrath Maharaj had given a word to KK.
I will give you two words. And therefore, that was his primary consideration. Obedience to his father and more than obedience to his father.
Because his father’s, Dashrath Maharaj actually never told Ram to go to the forest. It was KK who told on behalf of Dashrath. And Dashrath actually tried to stop him in various ways.
But it was honouring his father’s word that was important. And that’s why he chose to at that time go to the forest. Now, in the second case, when the citizens came back.
Now the question may come here. First of all, those same citizens, when Ram is going out to the forest, they appear to be such great devotees. They are crying in separation.
Often the song of the agony of the Ayodhya Vasis and how they follow Ram deep into the forest. How in the separation of Ram, the whole city of Ayodhya becomes like a ghost town. Completely inactive.
Completely desolate. The whole seems to say that Ram is a very great devotee. The Ayodhya Vasis are very great devotees of Ram.
Then how would they become so judgmental towards Sita later on? So actually, this is ultimately the arrangement of the Lord. He arranged for the citizens to act in particular. It was not the majority of the citizens.
There were a few citizens who said like that. And that word was spreading among the citizens. Every manifestation of the Lord descends for a particular purpose.
And Lord Ram’s manifestation is to demonstrate the principle of sacrifice. The Valmiki Ramayana starts with saying that it will describe the characteristics of an ideal human being. And one characteristic the Ramayana consistently depicts is sacrifice.
Sacrifice means giving up one’s own comfort and pleasure for some higher cause. And all the characters in the Ramayana assist in this mood of sacrifice. So, that means why does Lakshman come with Ram? That is a mood of sacrifice.
Why does Sita come with Ram? That is a mood of sacrifice. Why does Bharat stay on Bharat not accept the kingdom but live in austerity similar to what Ram is doing in the moderns. That’s the mood of sacrifice.
So, the whole Ramayana’s mood is to illustrate Ramayana’s focus is to illustrate the mood of sacrifice. And these citizens when they start accusing Mother Sita that is also to illustrate another mood of sacrifice. So, otherwise they will say that Ram he fought such a big war, he defeated Ravana he got Sita back and he abandoned her.
Why did he have to fight the whole war if that was there? He could just have let Sita stay with Ravana. The point was Ram always acted honorably. And honorably acting means obeying his father.
Honorably acting means making sure that he protected his wife and rescued her when she was abducted. Acting honorably at this particular time meant that he had to send his wife away from him to Valmiki Kundashyam. Sometimes people say that Ram exiled Sita.
Exile is not really appropriate word for this. Exile means normally in those times when Bharat comes back, Bharat says that how could Ram have been exiled? He says exile is the second worst punishment. The worst punishment for a criminal is execution.
And one level below that is exile. Exile means basically everything that you have is taken away. Execution means everything including your life is taken away.
Exile means everything is taken away except your life. A person is sent out to the forest, into the jungle out of one’s own freedom with nothing for oneself. But that was not what happened to Sita.
With Sita she was taken to Valmiki Kundashyam and she was kept over there. Valmiki Kundashyam also took care of her among the female hermits that were there in Valmiki Kundashyam. They took up a motherly role towards Sita.
And that Valmiki Kundashyam was still in Ram’s care. So indirectly Sita was still under Ram’s care. So at that particular time Ram felt that his duty as a king required him to demonstrate detachment.
And this was not simply reputation. There is a difference between honour and reputation. Reputation is what the world thinks about me.
Honour is whether I act in the right way, in the honourable way. So Ram, if he had been simply concerned about his reputation then actually for a king the most in that culture the most reputation enhancing thing to do was to perform sacrifices. Like the Ashwamedha Yajna or Rajasuya Yajna which Maharaj performed.
And whenever Ashwamedha Yajna is to be performed at that time it has to be performed as a couple. The husband and wife have to perform it together. And for Ram to perform it without his wife now that was actually a dent on his reputation.
So it was but he did care for that effect. He did not abandon Sita. He actually entrusted her safely to another place.
And more importantly, he never tried to replace Sita with anyone. Simply got a effigy of Sita made and that was next to him when the sacrifice was being performed. So Ram is by no means rejecting his responsibility towards Sita.
Nor is he rejecting Sita. He is actually demonstrating the whole Ramayana’s mood of sacrifice. And that sacrifice is that Sita sacrifices to assist in Ram’s mission.
And the significant thing is that Sita doesn’t challenge Ram’s judgment. Sita doesn’t protest. You don’t know and I was so chased.
Why are you rejecting me? She understands what Ram is doing. And Sita, she challenges Ram earlier when Ram tells Sita to stay at home and not go with him to the forest. At that time, he challenges.
I must come with you. So the problem often comes when we take the current cultural standards and try to evaluate scripture and scriptural decisions from those cultural standards. So, yes in today’s society, for a man to turn away his pregnant wife, that is scandalous.
And outrightly that should not be done. But in the context of Ramayana, there is a whole different dynamic going on over there. And no Acharya has ever told that this particular action of Ram is what everyone has to follow in life.
No one has told like that. No Acharya and all those who have worshipped Ramayana, they have talked about this. Those who have worshipped Ram and those who have taught the Ramayana, they have taught this simply as an example of how sacrificing Ram was.
So he chose that Dharma that was not just the he rejected his Patidharma. But rather, he focused on his Rajadharma and he did the Patidharma in that context by indirectly keeping Sita in his protection by keeping her in Balmiki Das. Sounds sufficient? Yeah.