The Search For Sita

24 May 1996, Summer Course 1996, Brindavan

Published English.

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Those who want to harvest Atmic Bliss should follow the example of . Those people who want to find fulfilment in life must live by the ideals set by . This is the message of the story of and , as depicted in the . , who could not conquer his weakness for women, was the cause for the death of his sons, brothers and relatives. He was the cause for the destruction of . How did it all end? It ended in the destruction of and brought him disrepute that outlived his death. It was the evil desire of that brought his end. If only he had controlled his desire, his sons, brothers, and relatives would have survived and prospered. The selfishness of and his uncontrollable desire brought endless sorrow to his people.

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Arrives One day, while and were entering their hut in , guarded by , a lady was seen walking toward them. Though and did not see her, the ever-watchful spotted her and asked, “Who are you?” The lady ignored him and went straight to . too asked the same question. The lady countered by asking a question herself, “What does it matter to you as to who I am? By the way, who are you?” then introduced Himself as the son of . The lady responded by introducing herself, “I am the sister of the brave . I am the sister of and , , and . My name is .” When asked her to explain the purpose of her visit, she replied without a trace of modesty that she wanted to marry Him!

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and could not help smiling at the behaviour of and decided to have some fun at her expense. said to her, “Oh lady! You are the very embodiment of beauty. It is not possible for Me to marry you since I have a wife of My own. See there! That young man will be a fitting husband for you, since he is not accompanied by his wife.” Taking seriously, she went to and said, “, are you ready to marry me?” To this replied, “Yes, I am ready. But I do not wish to reduce you to the lowly status of a servant. Since I am the servant of , you too will become the servant of if you marry me. You are the sister of who is of a great royal lineage. It is not proper on your part to become a servant by marrying me. Hence, marry my Master , instead of wishing to marry me.” In this way, the two brothers had fun teasing . In the end, came to and said, “If You permit me, I will kill and so that both of us can live happily in this forest.” Saying this she rushed toward in order to swallow her. sent a signal to by looking at the sky. The intelligent , who had a thorough understanding of the signs and gestures of , concluded that was asking him to cut off her nose and ears, since the sky signifies sound and sound in turn signifies ears.

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was now devoid of her ears and nose. She screamed furiously, calling her brothers and to her rescue. In a trice wiped out , , and a host of terrible demons who accompanied them. then rushed to her brother and related her pitiful story. burned with fury when he heard her and at once dispatched a force of forty thousand demons to destroy . Meanwhile, thought that it was not wise to keep there, since there would be an encounter between and the demons. He took to a cave and stood guard at its entrance, while fearlessly faced the forty thousand demons. He discharged an arrow, which multiplied itself into forty thousand arrows and attacked the demons, annihilating them all in no time.

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The Cause for the ’s anger and frustration increased on seeing the death of the vast army of demons at the hand of , and she now resolved to bring about the death of and at any cost. She said to , “Brother, , the wife of , is the most beautiful lady I have ever seen. She is a lady worthy to be your wife. Somehow or other, bring her to your palace. This would be the greatest achievement in your life.”

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Evil people easily succumb to evil words. The words of created a storm in the mind of . He worked hard at hatching a plot to abduct and make her his wife. He summoned to help in the abduction of . He asked him to don the guise of a golden deer and draw away from , so that he could abduct .

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, who had earlier witnessed the prowess and sanctity of , tried to reason with , saying, “, you do not know the matchless strength and prowess of . There is none equal to Him in the world. Your power and prowess are infinitesimally small when compared with the infinite power of . You will only bring about the destruction of your life and kingdom!” The Golden Deer Inflamed by the words of , roared, “O ! You are giving too much credit to the hapless and helpless humans who are roaming in the forest. is fit to be with me for I am omnipotent and omniscient.” then sternly warned that he would kill him if he did not obey him. thought to himself: “If I do not obey I will definitely die at his hands. On the other hand, if I come to You, , as a golden deer, You will chase me and I will certainly die at Your hands. Either way, death is inevitable. It is better to die by Your hands than by those of wicked .” So praying, he agreed to carry out the wish of . then turned himself into an enchanting golden deer and played about in the vicinity of ’s hut in . was fascinated by the deer. She told ,

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Hear my prayer, O my Lord! I love this golden deer. Fetch it for me, O , and fulfil my desire thereby. I will play with this golden deer, In this lovely hut that my brother-in-law has built for me.

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had never before asked for the fulfilment of any wish. went after the golden deer to capture it for her.

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In the meantime, abducted . He then mortally wounded , when the bird obstructed him in the sky to prevent the abduction of . and returned to find the empty cottage. They searched the forest thoroughly. Every bush and corner, every valley and every dale was searched for . , the all-knowing One, knew the whereabouts of but pretended as though He did not. While searching for , and entered a forest. There they saw a strange monster, with its head in the place of its stomach.

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Suddenly, , the strange monster, caught both of them in his hands. Both the brothers struggled to free themselves from the iron grip of but they failed. , who thought that death was inevitable at the hands of , said to that he would become the food of so that would release . He said, “, allow me this favour of helping You in this way.” But refused to listen to the words of . He said, “O , you are the most virtuous one in this world. One can never get a brother like you. Let Me become the food for . You go and find and protect her.” In this way, each brother vied with the other to sacrifice himself for the sake of the other. One can never find such ideal love between brothers anywhere in the world. While there was hatred between brothers like and , and , there was only pure love between and . In the end, the brothers decided to destroy and axed both his hands.

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An angel immediately emerged from the body of and said, “, today I am freed from my curse by the touch of Your Divine body! Once upon a time, I was the son of a Sage. But I was turned into a monster by a curse that I earned due to my evil deeds. You have now freed me from my curse, and I am eternally grateful to You. Not far from this place is the hermitage of Sage . There, an old devoted lady is eagerly awaiting Your arrival.” The two brothers then traveled north and sighted the hermitage of Sage . There they saw , a great devotee of . Her master, Sage , at the time of casting away his body, had told her that and would come there, and that she should wait for their arrival. Though extremely old, she held on to life in order to obey the command of Sage and to receive and in the hermitage. She offered them her humble hospitality, washed their feet with water, and sprinkled the water on her head. Satisfied, she then cast off her body. However, while dying, she directed to move in the northern direction, to meet at the mountain . From the mountain top observed them approaching and wondered whether they were sent by , his enemy. He then sent , his minister, to discover the identity of the two visitors.

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Befriending was the embodiment of peace, virtue, strength and wisdom. He had mastered the four and was well versed in the scriptures. was a past master in etiquette and courtesy and went as an emissary to meet the brothers. Assuming the guise of a , he began talking to them. He heard their story from the beginning to the end, and decided to take them to , who lived on the mountain top. volunteered to carry and to the mountain top on his shoulders. There, related to the story of the two brothers.

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When heard about the abduction of , he summoned a soldier to bring a bundle of ornaments that some monkeys had found in the forest. asked to find out if the ornaments in the bundle belonged to or not. opened the bundle and started shedding tears. He said, “O brother! I can identify only the toe rings that sister-in-law wore, since I always noticed them when I used to prostrate before her feet every day in the morning.” was the embodiment of purity and virtue. He is a worthy ideal to be emulated by students. Though he lived for thirteen years in the company of and , he had never looked at the face of .

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would always praise for his great virtues, but would modestly say “! I am Your servant. You are Lord Himself. This is the effect of Your company.” Virtuous people are always modest and humble.

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On the mountain, and set the seal of friendship. promised to help in exchange for the help he would render to Him in searching for . decided to test the strength of , to find out whether He was stronger than his brother . Once, shot an arrow that pierced through five trees, one after the other. asked whether He would be able to emulate this feat. felt pity for , since he could not recognise ’s Divinity. Only equals can judge equals; small ones can never grasp the powers of the great. Since needed for His mission, and since belonged to the clan of , He agreed to face the trial of strength set by .

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discharged His arrow. It not only pierced through five trees but even crossed the mountains beyond. immediately felt repentant for doubting the strength of and sealed his friendship with , with fire as the witness. assured him that He would stand by him and crown him as king. felt that was punished by , for no fault of his. had committed the most heinous act of appropriating the wife of , when one should actually consider the wife of one’s younger brother as one’s own daughter. Hence, decided to punish for his unrighteousness. On the strength of the promise given by , dashed to the mansion of and challenged him to a fight. But poor had to flee, severely battered by the blows of .

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persuaded to challenge once again, assuring him that He would definitely kill this time. While the two brothers were locked in mortal combat, , hiding behind a tree, discharged an arrow at and killed him. Many denounce this act of , asserting that it was not proper on His part to have killed while hiding behind a tree. All said and done, ’s act can be justified on three counts: Firstly, hunters shoot an animal by hiding themselves. Secondly, no one could defeat face to face, since he had earned a boon by which half of the strength of his opponent would flow into him in a face-to-face fight. Thirdly, if were to fall at ’s feet when appeared in front of him, would be forced to give him shelter and consequently break the promise given to . The justification for the act of lies in these three reasons. himself, while dying, caught hold of the hands of , admitted his mistake, and said that what did was justified. He prayed to to crown his brother as the King of and to make his son the Crown Prince. Later, fulfilled the promise given to .

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After ’s death, two months passed, but no action was taken by to help . then sent to warn . told , “You have forgotten to honour your word after receiving help from .” humbly said to , “It is the rainy season now. The climate is not conducive for the monkeys to move about searching for . I can never forget the help rendered to me by . Very soon my emissaries will comb every forest and valley for .” in sent the soldiers of his army in the four directions, in search of . He selected , who merited the titles (the powerful one) and (the intellectual one), for the task of searching for in . had all the qualifications to be ’s emissary to since he was strong, steady and intelligent. He firmly resolved that he would find at any cost and work on the task with one-pointed attention, devotion, and dedication. Nothing would deter the iron resolve of to trace ’s whereabouts. He even looked into the bed chamber of , to find if was held a prisoner there. Though, he moved in the bedrooms of the people in , his mind never wavered. He found women sleeping in all sorts of postures and positions, but never once did an evil thought enter the mind of .

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At one place, he found an extremely beautiful woman, sleeping in the bedchamber of . For a moment he thought that she might be , for she was extremely beautiful. Immediately he regretted having had such a thought. He knew for certain that would never agree to occupy the bedchamber of the evil . then made a thorough search of to trace out , but he failed. Deeply frustrated, he climbed to the top of a tree on the sea shore and he desired to commit suicide by plunging into the sea. The very thought that he was not able to perform the task assigned by gnawed deeply at his heart. Then all of a sudden, he realised that he had not searched for in the grove, which he spotted from his vantage point. He leapt toward the grove.

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While was trying to enter the garden, he was captured by the eldest son of and brought to the court of , who sat on a high throne. Finding , who was full of evil, seated so high, thought that being a devotee of he should not be at a lower level. He increased the length of his tail, coiled it like a seat, sat on it, and rose much higher than ’s throne. then felt satisfied that he had occupied a pedestal higher than that of .

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There then ensued a furious exchange of words between and .

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: O monkey! Who are you? You have spoilt my grove. Who sent you to ?

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: The great , the King of kings, who had cut off the nose of your sister, has sent me.

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: Why do you address me so disrespectfully?

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: I am the servant of Lord . I am at liberty to address you, a sinner, thus.

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felt frightened, looking at the power and prowess of . He thought that when a mere monkey had so much courage and strength, the followers of must be much greater than him. decided to humble by setting fire to his tail, for the tail is very dear to a monkey. Yards of cloth were brought to wrap around the monkey’s tail, and it was set on fire. leapt from mansion to mansion, setting fire to every house with his burning tail. After causing incalculable damage to , plunged into the ocean to extinguish the flames on his tail.

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When he surveyed burning furiously, regretted his action. He thought that might be burnt in the flames. rushed to the grove to find out if was safe. Since he had never seen before, he found it difficult to identify her amongst the numerous ladies in the grove. At last, he noticed a lean lady with downcast eyes under a tree. He wondered whether she was . He then started reciting the story of to check if the lady under the tree was or not. While he was reciting the story, the lady under the tree looked up with tears streaming down her face.

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sees At that time, was in the company of , the wife of , and her two daughters, and . found that these three ladies were the only friends of in . It was due to the solace and assurance provided by them that survived. then dropped ’s ring in front of the lady under the tree, to further confirm whether she was . The lady grasped the ring with great ecstasy and showered a volley of questions at . She asked him, “Are you the messenger of , or are you a trickster sent by to deceive me? The demons here assume strange forms and indulge in strange deeds.” To impress upon that he was indeed the messenger of , then ripped open his heart to show installed there. Looking at the image of imprinted on the heart of , fainted. then became completely certain that the lady was indeed .

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Without wasting any time, instantaneously leapt across the ocean to convey the message of ’s whereabouts, to . While the monkeys were busy eating fruits in , , forsaking food and sleep, hurried to to convey the good news. He said, “ ! is verily a jewel amongst women, chaste and virtuous. Her plight is like that of a parrot confined in a cage of arrows. She was surrounded by many demons, who were brandishing their swords to kill her. I found trembling at the sight of these terrible women.” Hearing these words of , , overcome with emotion, wanted to rush to to fight at once. and restrained and told Him that it would take some time to make arrangements for the battle against . All the great warriors then rallied together to hold deliberations and devise strategies to defeat .

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The battle between and is the battle between righteousness and unrighteousness, truth and untruth. It is an eternal battle, which wages in the human heart. , which represents , , which signifies , , which stands for , are seated in the same human heart.

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We should not confine the scope and significance of the only to the physical plane. The inner is most beneficent, for it is full of lessons for mankind.

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displayed great intellectual acumen and alertness in drawing up plans for defeating the enemy. The is a manual of military strategies and astuteness. , as the Leader, knew who should be given what responsibility and how it should be discharged. He had the ability to appoint the right person to the right position. While fighting the battle against , observed the principles of . He never took advantage of the weakness of his adversary, but gave ample opportunity for the enemy to prove his strength. The example of shines as an eternal star, even in the realms of the battlefield.

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Hence, the story of is sacred, ideal, nectarine and blissful. Love , and through Love, realise Him. Be one with Him. That is true Liberation.