“It wasn’t even my fault”, sighed Sita with her head falling
to her hands.
“I know my dear child, but you have to try and see things from
his point of view”, replied a stoic Valmiki.
“And just what point of view is that? A coward’s?! Someone
who cannot listen to his heart for fear of ruining his reputation?”
Sita is shaking with thoughts of the wrong that has been
done to her.
“I proved myself to have remained faithful to Rama already.
I allowed a fire to engulf my body to show my devotion to him. Agni did not
allow the fires to harm me, because even he agreed that I had unwaveringly remained
true.”
Source: Sita
protected by Agni
Sita was now pacing back and forth, tears beginning to well
in her eyes. Valmiki slowly rises to his feet and embraces the distraught girl
in his long, wiry arms.
“Calm down Sita. Rama must provide leadership for the
kingdom above all else. If his people do not respect him, then he cannot be an
effective leader and the kingdom would surely fall into chaos.”
“Wouldn’t you say that all the lives in Ayodhya outweigh the
hopes and wishes of one individual?”
Source: Ayodhya
Sita wipes away a few tears that have made their way down
her cheek.
“I suppose you are right, wise one. But why did he even come
to save me from the evil Ravana if he was just going to treat me this way? It
seems like he went through all of this trouble and sacrificed so many lives to
retrieve me from my captor, and yet he cast me aside like I willingly betrayed
him!”
Sita is sobbing uncontrollably now. Nothing Valmiki says or
does has any effect on the hysteric girl.
Finally, Valmiki shakes Sita with a
quick jolt and shares with her a secret.
“Have you ever wondered why the gods look so favorably upon
Rama?”
Sita is puzzled by this question. She had often wondered why
Rama always seemed to have the grace of the gods. She gave the only answer that
she could think of:
“It is because he has led such a virtuous life, and the gods
respect a man that can put others before himself.”
“This is partly true, but the real reason the gods love Rama
is because he is a god himself. Rama is actually a reincarnation of Vishnu!”
Sita dropped to the ground in disbelief, but it all seemed
to be so clear to her now.
“Yes, your dear Rama is actually the supreme being in human
form. He came to Earth to guide us mortals to a more prosperous future. Who are
you to question the actions of Vishnu? Are you so certain that you know better
than the god of gods?”
The shock always remained with Sita, but she had finally
found solace.
Bibliography:
Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley (2008)
Author's Note:
Something that really bothered me about the Ramayana was how cold Rama was towards Sita in the end. He went through so much trouble to get Sita back from Ravana, only to doubt her purity. Sita even goes through a trial by fire to show that she was devoted to Rama. Agni does not allow the flames to harm Sita, because she was indeed always faithful to Rama. Even after this, Rama's subjects do not believe Sita and say that she is tarnished by living in another man's house. Rama banishes Sita to the forest to save face with his subjects where Sita meets up with Valmiki. Apparently Valmiki writes the Ramayana based off of the stories that Sita tells him.
In this story, I wanted to show my frustrations with how Sita was treated by Rama by having her question his ethics. Valmiki plays the role of mediator and tells Sita the truth about Rama's origins. This was the only logical explanation I could come up with about why Sita would ever be ok with how she was treated. After all, who can question the supreme god?
Will, thank you for this story! I definitely agree with you that Sita was treated unfairly by Rama in the end of the Ramayana. I totally agree that Rama was too cold to her. I like how you made Valmiki into the mediator. You did a great job of explaining your reasoning behind the story. I also like that you put more than one picture. This really adds to your story. Great job!
ReplyDeleteWill,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, well done. I have seen very little people in this class use the present tense, and none use it as successfully as you do here. Your writing style is very immersive, and the way you punctuated the dialogue with action to show character emotions was very masterfully done.
I think your author's note should be at the beginning, though. THe way your story starts off is very disorienting, and having the author's note up front would help assuage that.
Also, just a quick note: Sita is also the reincarnation of a god, Vishnu's wife. So that kind of undercuts your conclusion a bit.
Hi Will,
ReplyDeleteSince there is no story telling post for Week 13, I decided to read your Week 12 storytelling post. I also think starting off with dialogue creates for any interesting start. I thought it really set up the story and you did a good job explaining the dialogue was the story went on. Great job and really liked the dialogue in your story.
Hello William, I see that you spent a lot of time focusing on the Ramayana to be writing a story about it for week 12. I think that a lot of people agree with your frustration with how Sita was treated. When we read this part of the text we should maybe consider that the societal role of women during the time that this text was written may have affected the writer's decision to conclude the story in such a manner. I think that we can agree that cultural norms can greatly influence the nature of a story. That is my opinion as a pretty new reader to the Indian Epics.
ReplyDeleteWilliam, this was such a creative way to take the story of Rama banishing Sita from the kingdom. I can only imagine how shocked she mush have been finding out that he beloved was actually a god! The fact that a supreme being was making such decisions would actually offend me if I were in her position, but due to her commitment to the gods and her beliefs, it made sense that this brought her some closure. The fact that it was out of her hands and not her choice does take some pressure away I assume. Even though Rama was wrong in his decision and he shouldn't have shunned her.
ReplyDelete