Sri Ram’s Love for Sita

Let’s start with a few questions:

For whom did Maryada Purshottam Bhagwan Sri Ram roam in the forests barefooted?
After whose abduction did Sri Ram cry and went on to ask mute objects about his beloved?
For whom did Sri Ram form an army of Vanaras?
In whose search did Sri Ram go through an immense number of hardships?
For whom did Sri Ram build a bridge called Ram Setu to reach Lanka?
For whom did Sri Ram fight an epic battle with the demon king Ravana?

The answer to all the above questions is “Devi Seetha”. Yet, let’s go into detail with some references.

Some are deluded by modern TV serials or a few fantasy books or online articles that claim that Sri Ram fought a war with Ravana for the pride of his clan! This is not true.

First of all, let’s make it clear that no mortal on this earth can describe the divine relationship between Bhagwan Sri Ram and Mata Sita, but this answer is for those who didn’t get a chance read Valmiki Ramayana and question the Pati Dharma (or the role as a husband) of Bhagwan Sri Ram (who is the embodiment of Dharma itself).

When Sri Ram decided to leave for Vanvas (life in a forest) for 14 years to keep his father Dashrat Ji’s promise to Mata Kaikeyi, Mata Sita requested Sri Ram to allow her to accompany him in the forest. Sri Ram loved her so much that he did not want her to accompany him and suffer the hardships of living in a forest. He said:

“Oh Sita, the delicate! Do whatever I tell you. There are many inconveniences in the forest. Know them from me.”
“Oh, Sita! Let your thought made about forests be given up. It is indeed said that forest with its wilderness is fraught with many dangers.”
This advice is given by me, keeping your welfare in view. I do not ever consider a forest as comfortable. It is always uncomfortable.”

Valmiki Ramayana

He explained to her the difficulties of living in a forest, and he requested her multiple times to give up the idea of accompanying him in the forest.

Is this not enough to show how much he was concerned for his consort?

Due to her immense love and devotion towards Prabhu Ram, Mata Sita did not agree and with tears in her eyes requested him to take her to the forest along with him. Even though she requested him in many ways about setting out to the forest, he did not agree. This is what Sri Ram said-

“Oh, queen! I do not relish even heaven while you are in grief. There is indeed no fear whatsoever to me, like the god of Brahma. Oh, Seetha! Even heaven is not a liking to me without your presence.”
“Appropriate and seemly is your word of caution to your bloodline, oh, graceful Seetha, you are the co-pursuer in dharma with me (SahaDharmini), hence you are loftier to me than my own lives…”

Valmiki Ramayana [4-10-21b, c]

Surpnakha, the demon sister of demon king Ravana in the form of a damsel appeared in front of Sri Ram and requested him to marry her but since Sri Ram was fully devoted to his one and only love of life Seetha, he rejected her.

Now, let’s see how Sri Ram reacted after the wicked demon Ravana abducted Maa Sita.

“Without whom I am disinclined to live even for a moment, oh, valiant one, such a Seetha who in simile is like the daughter of deities and who is my life-force, where is she? “I am unambitious for the rulership either on heavens or on the earth, oh, Lakshmana, without the daughter of Janaka whose aspect glisters like gold

Valmiki Ramayana [3-58-4]

Here, Prabhu Ram says that Seetha is his “life-force” and he cannot even live a second without her, isn’t it enough to show how much he loved her?

The man who did not even desire to relish the comforts of heaven or the rulership of the earth without his beloved wife Seetha is being called a “misogynist” by pseudo-feminists and pseudo-intellectuals, but in Kaliyuga people can stoop to any level to suit their agendas !!

“Vaidehi who is dearer to me than my lives, will she be alive somehow! Oh, valiant Lakshmana, this peregrination of mine, will it not become futile, someway!
“If Seetha, the princess from Videha, does not chat with me as before smiling gleefully on my arrival at the hermitage, oh, Lakshmana, I really breathe my last.

Valmiki Ramayana [3-58-6/10]

Rama ran speedily from tree to shrub, from hill to hillock, from river to rivulet, and revolving around them he wailed for Seetha, as he is inundated in a sludgy ocean of woes.

So, you see he was literally crying like a madman when he could not find Seetha anywhere.

“Oh, Kadamba tree, seest thou someone a lady who is a lover of Kadamba flowers, one with a lovable face and a love of mine, thou tellest me if thou knowest.
“Oh, Bilva tree, if thou seest someone who is dressed in yellowy-ochry silks, whose skin likens to the silkiness of thine leaflets, breasts to thine rotund and silky Bilva fruits, thou tellest me.
“Otherwise, thou Arjuna tree, if thou knowest her who is a lover of thine Arjuna flowers and the ladylove of mine, thou telleth whether that slender-waisted daughter of Janaka liveth or otherwise.”
Rama has gone on asking trees like mango, niipa, massive saala, jack-fruit, kuruva, dhava, and even around daaDima, bakula, punnaaga, sandalwood, ketaka trees, and when he is running around them that highly glorious Rama appeared like a madman.
On bewailing in this way and on overly rushing from wood to wood, somewhere Rama has become highly delusional by the forcefulness of delusion and spots forest stuff as Seetha, though none of them have any resemblance to Seetha, and somewhere else, marking creepers, plants or slender shrubs and suchlike delicacies as Seetha he has become really alluded by the powerfulness of allusion, and elsewhere, he is not discriminating paths or pathless routes for his trekking as an impassioned one in the search of his ladylove, and thus he is nitid like a madman.

Valmiki Ramayana [3-60-12/13/21/22/36/37]

I really wonder which man in this world will feel so distraught in the absence of his beloved that he would go on asking mute objects like trees, and flowers about his wife !! Yet today Taj Mahal became the Icon of love but not Ramasetu!!!

Now, tell me is this not sufficient to show how much he was devoted to her?

Any sane person will get tears in their eyes on reading the above verses which show how every forest stuff appeared to him as Seetha (though those objects did not resemble Seetha in any way).

If he really did not love her, why would he behave like a madman when he was unable to find her?

If this is not love and devotion to one’s wife, then one has to wonder what is love, it is what is shown in some Bollywood movies !!

Sri Ram even said that he will not be able to live long without his beloved consort Seetha. If he (Sri Ram) does not deserve to be called a perfect husband (fully devoted to his wife), then who else in the three worlds deserves to be? Tell me?

“Really Lakshmana, I will not live long without Seetha, indeed I am enveloped in high anguish caused by the abduction of Seetha, and this alone will become a murderer, and on my going to another world when murdered by my own agony my father and that great king Dasharatha will definitely observe me in the other world… [3-61-6, 7a]

Though Seetha was not present in the cottage, still Sri Ram behaved as if she is there. This is what he said.

“I am aware of your humor, lady, and I know that you are jocose, but in a place like a hermitage unmerited is this sort of raillery, even if it is good-natured. Hence, you come back, oh, wide-eyed one, your cottage is empty. [3-62-6, 7a]

In the next verses, Sri Ram even went on to the extent of saying that even heaven will be void for him without his dearest wife Seetha.

“Instead, I prefer not to go to the city Ayodhya that is ruled by Bharata, because it must be comforting to one and all under his rulership, but not to me as Seetha will not be with me… else if, that end of my life occurs now and if I were to go to heaven, even that heaven will be a void to me without her… I believe so… [3-62-13b, 14a]

Now, to all the pseudo-feminists out there, my question to you is what kind of “misogynist” says that he has no existence without his beloved??

“Hence, Lakshmana, you go back to that auspicious city Ayodhya forsaking me in forests, because I have no existence without Seetha, isn’t it! [3-62-14b, 15a]

Prabhu Sri Ram said these lines out of wrath to a mountain when he was unable to find Maa Sita when she was abducted by the wicked asur Ravana.

“My fiery arrows shall reduce you to ashes, you shalt be stripped of your verdure, your trees, and your creepers, and none shall inhabit you. O Lakshmana, this river too shall be dried up by me if it does not reveal where Sita may be found, whose radiance resembles the full moon in her course.”

Nowadays, you will see many people questioning his love for his beloved consort Devi Sita, this is what he said while remembering her.

“When I remember my gentle love, this caressing breeze, so fresh and cool, earning the fragrance of flowers, is like a burning fire to me. The God of the Wind, who was ever welcome when Sita was present, is today a source of pain to me. In her absence, that bird flying through the air emitting cries, the crow now perching on a tree, makes a delightful sound. This winged creature will prove a messenger and bring my remembrance to the mind of the large-eyed Vaidehi”

This was his intensity of divine love for his dear consort Sita. In her absence, even the beautiful spring season became so painful for him. Looking at the various features of the forest which were loved by Maa Sita (like the birds, flowers like water-lilies, lotus, Lakes, peacocks, the sound of the cuckoo, etc), Sri Ram was constantly reminded about Devi Sita and he used to start lamenting for her.

For whatever senseless reasons hyper-intellectuals nowadays question his role as a husband, but do you know what after Devi Sita was kidnapped by the demon Ravana, Sri Ram was so upset to the core that he even said he will give up his life if he is unable to rescue his beloved Sita.

Also, many people think that their love was one-sided.

Here I am quoting a verse that shows his immense love and devotion toward his wife Sita (Vaidehi).

Devotion to Vaidehi invades my entire being and my love is wholly centered on her.

This shows that not only Devi Sita was wholly devoted to her Lord, but also Prabhu Sri Ram loved and revered her immensely and was wholly devoted to her.

Another quote from Yuddha Kanda-

“O Breeze, speed to that place where my beloved is and, having caressed her, touch me, thus causing me the same delight that a weary traveler experiences when gazing on the moon! That which consumes my limbs as though I had swallowed poison, is the cry of my dear one while being borne away, ‘Help, O You who art my defender!’ With my separation from her as the coals and my thoughts of her as the shimmering flames, the fire of my love consumes my body day and night!”

The only and only reason he fought with the demon king Ravana was to rescue his beloved wife Sita.

Even before the war he was lamenting while remembering Sita, he was extremely desperate to get his beloved wife back from Lanka.

“O Lakshmana, remain here while I plunge into the sea ere I sleep so that the fire of my distress shall cease from tormenting me. It is enough that she and I sleep on the same earth. As dry land draws nourishment for its vegetation from marshy ground, so do I exist in the knowledge that Sita still lives! O When shall I, have overcome mine enemies, behold her of graceful limbs, whose eyes resemble lotus petals, the equal of Shri herself? When gently raising her lotus-like face with its ravishing lips and teeth, shall I drink in her glances, as a sick man the nectar of immortality?

I am sure the above lines said by Prabhu Sri Ram are enough to bring tears in anyone’s eyes, he calls himself a sick man in the absence of his beloved Sita and compares “seeing her face” with that of “drinking the nectar of immortality.”

This is what Sri Ram said about Devi Sita after he was reunited with his beloved-

That virtuous woman could never belong to any other than me for she is to me what the light is to the sun.

It becomes clear from the above quotes how Devi Sita is the soul of Sri Ram.

They both were inseparable from each other like the rays of the Sun are inseparable from the Sun.

Now tell me have you ever seen a man having such a level of divine love and respect for his beloved !!

Sita is the vital breath of Sri Ram. Also, do remember that Mata Sita is none other than Goddess Mahalaxmi herself and Sri Ram is Sriman Narayana himself so they both are inseparable and will be inseparable till eternity.

While Bhagwan Ram stands for the eternal Purusha (as described in the Bhagwat Geeta), Mata Sita is Prakriti (and Shakti of Prabhu Ram) in the same way Mata Parvati is Shakti of Bhagwan Shiv.

Hope you got your answer now!

Jai JanakiVallabh

SiyaVar Ramchandra Bhagwan Ki Jai

Jai Hanuman

Jai BhavaniShankar

Har Har Mahadev

Images : are from Google

Author: Undisclosed but permission granted for posting.