The Liberation of Sita

by Volga

‘Don’t look at how I am today and imagine that all this happened easily, Sita. I have become tough by facing upto the challenges life threw at me. I have been able to find happiness in trying to understand the very meaning of beauty.

‘I struggled a lot to grasp that there is no difference between beauty and ugliness in nature. I observed many living creatures and understood that movement and stillness are one and the same. I discovered the secrets of colours. I had no guru in this matter. I pursued it on my own. I searched every particle in nature, and in the course of that search, my own vision has changed. Everything began to look beautiful to my eyes. I, who hated everything including myself, began to love everything including myself.

‘I’ve realized that the meaning of success for a woman does not lie in her relationship with a man. Only after that realization, did I find this man’s companionship.

The joy you get from wandering in a forest, you don’t get anywhere else.’

Love this so much.

But to my husband, the question was irrelevant. It was the same to him either way. His property, even if temporarily, had fallen into the hands of another. It was polluted. Pollution, cleanliness, purity, impurity, honour, dishonour—Brahmin men have invested these words with such power that there is no scope in them for truth and untruth. No distinction.’

‘It is difficult to bear with women who talk like me, Sita. It becomes easier if I accept that I have made a mistake. Then there is atonement for every sin. If I argue that I have not made any mistake, they will take pity on me. They will take my side, seeing me as the victim of an unjust allegation. But if I say, “Right or wrong, it’s my business, what has it to do with you? Who gave you the right or authority to judge”, then nobody will be able to tolerate it.’

trial, Sita. Don’t bow down to authority.’

‘There is no better path to wisdom than experience, my child.’

The children were pining for their father. They were dreaming about him. Though she had brought them up like they were her very life, though they knew nothing about their father, though their father did not even know about their birth or growing up—they wanted him. Sons needed to grow up inheriting their father’s name.

As a mother she had no power over them. Power never fascinated her anyway. She only had love—she loved her father; she loved Rama; she loved her children. There was no desire for power in any of those relationships. She did not want it.

Knowing Sita’s love for nature, Ravana confined her in Ashoka Vanam. The beauty of that garden was indescribable. She had not seen anything like it in Mithila or Ayodhya. Ravana bragged a lot but never had the courage to even stare at Sita. And Sita treated him like a blade of grass.

‘Jealousy, hatred, love, respect—what’s the real difference between these feelings? Is there any difference at all or are they merely shades of the same feeling? How does light barge into shadow, and shadow encroach on light? Which is light and which is shadow?

‘We are going to see each other after fourteen years. I have changed a lot. Change is the sign of life. The course of our future depends on the value he attaches to that change.

Do not allow the situation to force you into mundaneness, into nastiness. Do not let it burn you up in anger, hatred. Save yourself. Assert your right over yourself. Give up your power over others. Then you will belong to yourself. You will be yourself. It’s not easy to remain ourselves—trust me, Akka!’

The laws of nature do not change. If they do, it will be calamitous for the world. Human laws change. Human beings change them. Unable to cope with the change, they get perturbed. Slowly they get used to the change. Once the change stabilizes, they desire change again. Human law becomes the law of the time, and the law of the moment becomes the law of human beings. During the period of transition, the lives of the people who are key to the change go haywire.