Sita: Warrior of Mithila (Ram Chandra #2)

by Amish Tripathi

Not everyone has the spirit to keep their character strong when their stomachs are empty.’

Empty stomach

‘You will need to be mature and pragmatic. You must use your heart to decide the destination, but use your head to plot the journey. People who only listen to their hearts usually fail. On the other hand, people who only use their heads tend to be selfish. Only the heart can make you think of others before yourself. For the sake of dharma, you must aim for equality and balance in society. Perfect equality can never be achieved but we must try to reduce inequality as much as we can.

Heart and head

Too much of anything creates an imbalance in life. This is true even of virtues such as nonviolence. You never know when the winds of change strike; when violence may be required to protect your society, or to even survive.’

Excess

A society must always aim for balance. It needs intellectuals, it needs warriors, it needs traders, it needs artists, and it needs skilled workers. If it empowers one group too much or another too little, it is headed for chaos.’

Balance

‘So, why is it that society always moves towards imbalance? That’s what I was thinking. It gets unbalanced when people are not free to live a life that is in alignment with their innate guna, their attributes.

Ability caste

Most people surrender to the pressure of society and family. But it builds terrible frustration within. These are unhappy and angry people, living unbalanced, dissatisfied lives. Furthermore, society itself suffers. It may get stuck with Kshatriyas who do not possess valour, and cannot protect their society. It may get stuck with Brahmins who prefer to be skilled Shudras like medical surgeons or sculptors, and therefore will be terrible teachers. And ultimately, society will decline.’

Society

Rishi Shvetaketu had had another explanation: the sages preferred that scriptures were not written down and remained oral so that as times changed, they could change easily as well. Writing things down brought rigidity into the scriptures.

Writing

‘Clinging to painful memories is pointless, Sita,’ said Sunaina. ‘You must move on. You must live …’

Death

Reverse-bias is also bias. Reverse-racism is also racism. Reverse-sexism is also sexism.’

Reverse bias

He believed that rather than trying to force-fit an artificial equality, one must remove the curse of birth determining one’s life prospects. Societies would always have hierarchies. They existed even in nature. But they could be fluid. There would be times when Kshatriya soldiers comprised the elite, and then, there would be times when skilful Shudra creators would be the elite. The differences in society should be determined by merit. That’s all. Not birth.

Equality

‘Happiness is not an accident. It is a choice. It is in our hands to be happy. Always in our hands. Who says that we can have only one soulmate? Sometimes, soulmates want such radically different things that they end up being the cause of unhappiness for each other.

Soulmates

‘Birth is completely unimportant. It is just a means of entry into this world of action, into this karmabhoomi. Karma is all that matters. And your karma is divine.’

Birth and Karma

people have their limitations. A leader should not expect more from them than what they are capable of. If you stretch them beyond their capacity, they will break.’

Limitations

people to rise above their limitations and better themselves; for only then was an ideal society possible.

Above Limitations

‘Life is not only about what we want, but also about what we must do. We don’t just have rights. We also have duties.’

Duties And Rights