Sita enters the fire - Chapter 40

In the previous chapter, we saw Rama addresses Sita in anger. , Now we'll see Sita enters the fire.

Sita became angry and felt miserable at the way Rama treated her. She hung her head in shame at those harsh accusations. She told Rama that he spoke like an ordinary man to an ordinary woman and using very harsh words. She pleaded Rama to have faith in her good conduct. She said, “You are suspecting the whole women race based of the conduct of some mean woman. My heart belongs entirely to you. If at all I had any body contact with anyone it was not done consciously. If I have not been understood by you in spite of being together for such a long time then my life has been destroyed. When you learnt from Hanuman that I was in Lanka why did you not sacrifice me? I would have ended my life in front of Hanuman. All these efforts and dangers that you have faced would not have been necessary”. Sita went on lamenting her fate and said that Rama did not care or value his taking her hands when she was a small girl. Sita said “I will enter the fire as a remedy”.

Sita told Lakshmana that she did not want to live any more after hearing such accusations and asked him to light a pyre for her. Lakshmana was angry and unwillingly obeyed her orders because Rama accepted Sita’s action. Sita went round the fire, paid her respects to all Gods and Brahmins and said that if she were to be really a faithful wife to Rama then the fire would not burn her. She said “If it is true that I have not erred in any way and all the Gods, Sun, Moon, Mother Earth and others know I am chaste then let the fire God Agni protect me”. Sita entered the fire while everyone watched with consternation. All the ladies cried loud. All the Vanaras and Rakshasas assembled there raised a loud wailing sound.

In the next chapter, We'll see In praise of Rama

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