Respond to Bernadine,
Ramayana is an epic that tells the story of Rama, the seve
Respond to Bernadine,
Ramayana is an epic that tells the story of Rama, the seventh incarnation of the god Vishnu. The story is about Rama’s life, including his birth, youth, exile, and eventual restoration to the throne of Ayodhya. The story teaches a lot of life lessons still valid today. The character I found the most interesting was Rama’s wife Sita. She undergoes a lot of stress in this epic with being kidnapped and held captive; yet she has an unwavering quality of strength and loyalty throughout her trial. I believe that Sita has a good grip on mortality. Two passages stuck out to me while reading which really demonstrated Sita’s character:
“Hear, Sita, and our words obey, Or perish by our hands to-day. Thy love for Raghu’s son forsake, And Ravan for thy husband take, Or we will rend thy limbs apart And banquet on thy quivering heart.”
“Alive unharmed the Maithil dame, The Lord of Fire embodied came…In word or deed, in look or mind Her heart from thee has ne’er declined…With soft temptation, bribe and threat, He bade the dame her love forget: But, nobly faithful to her lord, Her soul the giant’s suit abhorred”.
Sita was taken from Rama and held captive for many years in the epic. Ravana tries everything from threats to seduction to get Sita to forget about Rama- he puts forth his best effort to steal the wife of another but it does not work. The first excerpt I chose portrays Sita’s strength throughout her captivity. She is being blatantly threatened with death in a very gruesome way, with her only way out being to marry and be with Ravana. Even so, Sita does not budge. She stays true to Rama and is rescued in her loyalty. Ramayana teaches a good lesson about being true to marriage. It is normalized in modern media for spouses to split up no matter how long the marriage period. Here, we see that Sita was not willing to break her vow to Rama even if it meant she would die. Sita must have had a good sense of mortality to know that what she did while she was alive would affect her afterwards. The readings/video that went along with Ramayana dove into Hindu culture and their beliefs; two important ones being dharma and reincarnation. Dharma encompasses ideas such as duty, rights, character, religion, customs and all behavior considered appropriate, correct or morally upright. Perhaps coupled with the fact that she loved Rama, Sita knew that if she betrayed him her next life would be an unfavorable one. Reading through both passages helped me understand what type of person Sita truly is. The way she carried herself with a clear conscience really caught my attention while reading, and I think sets a standard for those in the Hindu culture. It is prominent in Hindu culture that what you do while you’re alive determines what happens to you when you die, and Sita is a great example of how to act. She was quite literally willing to walk through fire to clear her name, which was both admirable and virtuous.
Respond to Aiden,
R.K. Narayan’s translation of “The Ramayana” page 36, par. 1, broadens the reader’s understanding of Dasaratha by revealing his commitment to the fulfillment of his Dharma. Moreover, Dasaratha’s acknowledgment of its completion and of his own aging illustrates a conclusion about mortality in line with one’s Dharma that is a significant cornerstone of the Hindu culture. In the epic, Dasaratha explains how, in one’s life, it is their duty to fulfill the three debts: pay debt to immortal sages, gods, and ancestors. He goes on to state how he has completed these debts, and he has ‘nothing left to do’ (Narayan 36). This statement reveals to the reader that Dasaratha leads his life with spiritual conviction. As such, one can infer that Dasaratha’s rule was similar to that of other strong spiritual Hindu rulers like Ashoka. His ability to recognize his limits in the context of age and abdicate his throne within his own lifetime not only demonstrates a sense of wisdom to the reader but also modules the expectations and qualities of an ideal king in India. This connection between the completion of one’s Dharma in the sense of one’s own mortality and Ramayana is not isolated and is in fact a driving force in the epic. For example, in the story, when Dasaratha exiles Rama, Rama goes willingly so that he not only follows his word but allows his father to keep his” (R.K. Narayan 55). On a broader scale, this view is held by followers of Hindu. In the Hindu religion, they believe that their salvation is attained through reincarnation and through a life fulfilling one’s Dharma (purpose), they can get closer to obtaining this. Consequently, followers of Hindu are completely aware of their morality and, especially those that are lower caste, welcome death for it brings new beginning. Overall, Dasaratha and the Ramayana, as a whole, demonstrate an idealized example of Hindu ideals specifically, one’s morality.