Sai message for the day

[Guest guest]

The part played by women in the great epic, the Ramayana is very

prominent. They have been all ideals for womankind even to this day.

Swami! You are matchless in explaining subtle things like this. Would

you kindly tell us about the role of women in the Ramayana?

 

The welfare and the progress of mankind is the main objective of the

Ramayana. Every female role in the epic contributes to that

objective, though in varied ways.

 

King Dasaratha had three wives, Kausalya, Sumitra and Kaikeyi. They

moved very intimately with one another like sisters. They married

Dasaratha only to beget children and fulfil his wish. He performed

putrakamesti yaga as advised by his preceptor, Vasishtha and received

yajñapayasa, sacrificial `rice-pudding' from the presiding deity, and

handed over the prasadam to his three wives. He wanted them to

partake of the prasadam after their `head bath'. The second wife,

Sumitra, kept the gold cup with the prasadam by her side, and started

thinking like this to herself: " The son to be born to Kausalya would

be the future king as she is the eldest queen. The son to be born to

Kaikeyi also has a chance of becoming the king. According to

Dasaratha's promise, that was the condition of their union. In either

case, my son has no chance, but to serve one of the two brothers

whosoever becomes the king " . In the meantime, a kite dived from above

and snatched away the gold cup with the prasadam inside. Sumitra was

terrified. She knew the consequences of King Dasaratha's coming to

know of this incident. She also knew that the family preceptor

Vasishtha would be totally upset over this. She felt very sad over

losing her share of the yajnapayasam. Then the other two queens,

Kausalya and Kaikeyi, consoled her and gave her half of their own

shares of the prasadam. While Kausalya begot Rama, and Kaikeyi,

Bharata, Sumitra gave birth to the twins, Lakshmana and Satrughna.

Lakshmana followed Rama like his shadow, while Satrughna was always

in the company of Bharata. The three queens lived like sisters

without any differences among them. Sisterly love and affection is

the lesson for the world.

 

Besides these, we come across in the Ramayana, three more women who

also played their roles very well. They were Tataka, Ahalya and Sita.

They symbolise three attributes of beings. Tataka stands for

tamoguna, Ahalya represents rajoguna, while Sita is the very

embodiment of sattvaguna. Here, Rama's killing of Tataka means his

total uprooting of tamoguna, bestial temperament. Wickedness and

demonic qualities are tamasika in nature. Ahalya was the wife of sage

Gautama. Disobedience is rajoguna . Emotion, passion, etc are

rajasika in their expression. Ahalya disobeyed Gautama and so she was

cursed. Rama cleansed her of her rajoguna by making her free from the

curse. She lay stupefied as a boulder for years together, but a mere

touch of Rama's feet rejuvenated her. Rama accepted Sita who was the

very embodiment of sattvaguna (piety, softness, goodness, and

calmness). He married her. It means he accepted sattvika qualities.

 

The very word `stri,' woman has three elements: `sa',

`ta', 'ra'. 'Sa' indicates sattvaguna, `ta' reflects tamoguna

and 'ra' denotes rajoguna. Every woman has all these three qualities.

The sattvika qualities in a woman are peace, forbearance, compassion,

charity, kindness, composure, and so on. The rajasika qualities in

women are her sentiments and passions, readiness to sacrifice life

for the family, etc, while the tamasika qualities are her shyness,

reserve, humility, etc. The Ramayana, thus, conveys a message through

the role of every character.