{"id":22,"date":"2009-11-20T14:27:21","date_gmt":"2009-11-20T14:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omsweetom\/2009\/11\/sitas-separation.html"},"modified":"2009-11-20T14:27:21","modified_gmt":"2009-11-20T14:27:21","slug":"sitas-separation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2009\/11\/sitas-separation.html","title":{"rendered":"Sita’s Separation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"janaka_sita.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>Many Hindus consider Lord Rama and his wife Sita Devi to be incarnations of the Divine in
\npersonal form, the God and Goddess that together constitute the
\nSupreme. In my blog post<\/a> yesterday — based  on a reflection that I shared at Princeton University’s Diwali celebration<\/a> a few days ago — I described how the Ramayana is largely the story of reuniting Rama and Sita.<\/p>\n

And that is precisely why the end of the Ramayana is so difficult to swallow. <\/p>\n

Diwali celebrates the part of the story where Rama defeats Ravana, rescues his beloved Sita, and returns to rule over Ayodhya. Basically, the rest of the story goes like this: One day, years after Rama and Sita are happily living in Ayodhya, Rama hears a washerman doubting Sita’s faithfulness to Rama during her captivity in Lanka. Ostensibly to uphold dharma at any personal cost, Rama banishes Sita from the kingdom. <\/p>\n

Say what? After pining for her, practically going mad missing her, and waging a war to free her, Rama sends Sita away? Why would Rama, glorified as the very personification of righteousness, behave so apparently cruelly and unreasonably?  
 <\/p>\n


\nHindu scholars and practitioners have struggled with this. Some have
\ntried to present it in entirely metaphoric terms. Some have argued that
\nRama’s banishing Sita was a mistake, proof of his own fallibility as a
\nhuman rather than a God. And still others maintain that Sita’s
\nbanishment isn’t a legitimate part of the Ramayana at all. <\/p>\n

\"sita-blues-blogpic.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>Another
\nresponse has been to re-cast the Ramayana with focus on Sita as tragic
\nheroine. Examples of this include Nina Paley’s acclaimed (and cheeky)
\nanimated short “Sita Sings the Blues<\/a>“, and Hindu community leader Anju
\nBhargava’s Sitayanam<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_6189.JPG\"<\/a><\/span>Thanks to my friends at The Bhakti Collective<\/a>, I came across this
\nexplanation of Sita’s banishment<\/a>, from the Bhakti perspective, given by
\nRadhanath Swami<\/a> (who readers may also remember from this recent quote<\/a>
\nfeatured on Chetan Bhagat’s blog). I find Radhanath Swami’s explanation
\nto be sensitive, deep, and spiritually insightful. Its esoteric to be sure,
\nand I’m not sure that everyone will be satisfied interpreting the
\nproblematic ending to the Ramayana in this way, but I do think that it
\ngives us new appreciation for exploring the inner dimension of sacred
\ntexts. <\/p>\n

Here’s an excerpt:<\/p>\n

“Vipralambha<\/em> means separation, and separation intensifies
\nthe experience of love. Just like in music, compare how many songs
\nthere are about being happy together to the number of songs about
\nhaving a broken heart. Which are there more of?  Why is it that there
\nare so many songs about the pain of separation?  Because music is an
\nart, and art is an expression, and the expression of love in separation
\nis a very deep absorption.  When somebody is with us we are absorbed in
\na certain way, but when our loved one is away it increases our
\nremembrance, thoughts and absorption in that person. It is true that
\nwhen ones beloved is away one is always thinking of their beloved and
\nsearching for them. When Rama was with Sita he was seeing her in one
\nplace. But when Rama was away from Sita and Sita was away from Rama he
\nwould see Sita in the trees and she would see Rama in the clouds,
\neverywhere. When we are together the love of our heart goes out towards
\nthe beloved. In separation that love goes deeper and deeper and deeper
\ninto the very core of our heart.  And it is intensified.  On the
\nspiritual platform love is not determined by our physical proximity. 
\nOur connection to God or Rama is to the degree that we are internally
\nabsorbed in the thought of Rama.  And when our love is intense, the
\nLord accepts it from within our heart.  That love may be intense when
\nthe Lord stands before us, but it is even more intense when the Lord is
\nnot standing before us. When there is that longing, that deep deep
\nabsorption, then the Lord is embracing us and reciprocating with us
\nfrom within.<\/p>\n

“So Sita is God.  We have to understand the philosophical principle that according to Vedic sidhanta<\/em> (conclusion) God is both female and male equally.  There is the sakti<\/em> (energy) and the saktiman<\/em>
\n(energetic source). God’s female aspect as Laxmi, Sita, Radha, or
\nParvati is the compassionate side of God.  Krishna, Rama, Narayana, and
\nShiva are very powerful, lordly manifestations of God. The feminine
\naspect of God is the reservoir of love.  And the masculine side of God
\nis the ultimate object of love.  And those two aspects together are
\nGod.  Perhaps in western religion, because there is so much emphasis on
\nthe masculine side of God, religious people can sometimes become very
\negoistic and attached to power and control. They can lose their
\ncompassionate essence.<\/p>\n

“So this is the one God.  God is never separate. Sita and Rama can never be separate in essence.  In their lila <\/i>in this world they lived together and enjoyed love in union.  But Rama
\nwanted to experience for himself, as well as have Sita experience, that
\neven deeper,  intensified experience of love in separation.  In their
\nhearts of hearts they could never be separated.  So therefore Rama
\nbanished Sita, but really he was blessing her by giving her a higher
\nexperience of internal union and he also experienced that union. So the
\ngreat devotees of Rama, the great yogis, they understand it in this
\nway.<\/p>\n

“This banishment of Sita, amongst people who have gone deep into the
\nsubject, is a very profound meditation on the loving exchange between
\nher and Rama. This conclusion that I am speaking has been passed down
\nfor millennia.  And how God and Goddess, male and female aspects, how
\nthey shared the ecstasy of love for each other is not limited by our
\nability to comprehend it. This is what they choose to do and we
\nunderstand that is what they really want to do. They go through the
\nwhole lila<\/em> in such a way that is very traumatic and brings about such emotions in all of us.”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(source: The Bhakti Collective<\/a>. Read the whole essay here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

As one Bhakti Collective reader commented, it’s both “counter intuitive” and “lovely.”  For now, that will have to do.<\/p>\n

\"radhaalone.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“There is more love in separation than in union, for in
\nunion the beloved is found in one place only, while in separation the
\nbeloved is found everywhere.” <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

– Braja poet Nanda das <\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
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He is a Hindu Chaplain and the Coordinator for Hindu Life at Princeton University, and serves as the North American Director of Communications for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a worldwide organization representing the Vaishnava Hindu tradition. In previous incarnations, Vineet has been a New York City prosecutor, a cable TV show host, and a hospital chaplain. In his free time, he enjoys relaxing with his wife and his new baby, attending classes at The Bhakti Center, and teaching himself photography. As a second-generation, Indian-American, Vaishnava-Hindu, Vineet ponders new ways of further hyphenating his identity.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/author\/vchander"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}