Why The Agnipariksha?

Very true! We need to start looking at those instances and learn from them as to how to be and how not to be!

No other culture celebrates women the way we celebrate and pray to our 'Shakti ma'.

However, sadly the end is there.....the transition is not brought into the daily lives. Its the people who get the wrong gist from the epics. The fault lies with us - not the epics!

 

Hi OP,

I am not comparing our legends with ourselves now. We are what our society has made us to be!

We should not be maligning the past just because they don't match the present times. Times change and people are changing! Change is imminent.
However, that imminent change should be in the right path!

 

Hi Vaidehi, am glad you liked it!

 

Hi kcb, thankyou!

Yeah sadly negative is what gets our attention these days! Hope to see a positive change soon!

 

Times change! so does our perception of things. What seems to be right at one point of time would not be right at a later time.

My point is not to ignore the negatives. My point is to concentrate on the positives.

Being critical is important, being over-critical just leads you nowhere. People don't wish for a husband like Rama but still Ramanavami is celebrated throughout the country in a grand manner. Why is he still revered as God?

If his actions were questionable, we wouldn't have been praying to him still and his legacy wouldn't be alive till today.

Please don't compare Rama with common men of today! In today's culture, we mostly see corrupt people ruling over us and holding the position though they don't deserve!

It’s very difficult for us to comprehend this level of morality from Rama since we have absolutely no experience of such exemplary personalities.

At that time, it was a culture that woman should not spend a night out of the house and this rule had no exceptions, and woman in Ayodhya started doing this with the excuse and reference of mother Sita. In order to protect dharma Lord Ram has to take this step and show an example of detachment to protect dharma.

When Lord Rama heard the accusations being leveled against his consort, this situation constituted an ethical crisis. In an ethical crisis, one has two choices, both moral, unlike in a moral crisis, when one has two choices, one moral and the other, immoral. To resolve an ethical crisis, one needs profound wisdom to recognize the higher moral principle and adjust the lower moral principle accordingly. So, through this incident, Lord Rama, who was God incarnate playing the role of an ideal human being, taught us how to wisely resolve ethical crises. As an ideal husband, the Lord was duty-bound to protect his wife. But as the ideal king, he was also duty-bound to exemplify and teach his citizens, whom he loved like his own children, the path to spiritual advancement.

Ordinarily, people are much attached materially to a spouse, children, house, wealth, etc. So, the king is duty-bound to demonstrate to his citizens the principle of detachment so that they become inspired towards detachment and thus make spiritual advancement. That’s why Lord Rama considered his duty as an ideal king more important than as the ideal husband and so sacrificed his love for his wife for the sake of his love for his children (citizens).

In today's context, the concept of Dharma isn't appreciated. People are more focused on themselves and their immediate families. More than that, it is becoming increasingly 'I' or 'me'. So the talk of Dharma and detachment really holds no true meaning for people. Just for the simple reason that it is not really relevant in our lives today.

However, these did exist at a point of time in our society. They were traits worth acquiring and worth following.

You cant condemn an entire society just because you don't agree with a few practices. That would be wrong!

My point: concentrate on the strong points of the epic. Not everybody has the mind to separate the positive from the negative. People tend to grasp the negative a lot faster than they imbibe the positives. If you recognize something to be wrong, talk about what should be done than talking about how much wrong was done and how sad it is!