Why The Agnipariksha?

My bad! I should have explained it in a better way!

My point was your cup is already filled with your own thoughts of right and wrong and you are not in a state to accept anything other than your thoughts....atleast that's what I could understand from the way your posts were! Trying to give examples from your life and mixing it up with history is more like a mocking statement than making a statement!

I am just asking you to keep your reasoning aside for a few minutes and look at it from a clear unbiased view. You might at the end arrive at your own conclusion but this time you would have full reason behind it.

I respect your views....I am not forcing mine on anybody. Mine is more of a general plea to talk about things that you fully understand not just read the edited versions of books and come to conclusions and argue on that.

 

Yes, great people also have shortcmings.

My question is we are not taught Dharma in our class. More of right and wrong in relation to the current society. At this age, we still feel it was wrong of Rama to send Sita away or make her undergo agnipariksha.

So, wouldn't Rama - who is claimed to have read all the Shastras and Vedas - know that it is wrong. Even in that age, it would have been the biggest wrong thing. Not just sending away a pregnant woman into the city but leave her off in a forest where there are no comforts for a pregnant woman.

So why did he still choose to do it? My question has led me to search various arenas for answers. I still have not found a convincing answer. After I have found it, I might still hold to my own views of his actions being wrong. Why Rama's own sons could not agree with his decision for sending their mom away.

My point is - don't take epics and bash them up and say big things like we need to clean our epics and culture. Every culture has its limitations. To understand the limitations and why it occurs, you need to know the starting point. Just knowing that it is a limitation will not take you anywhere.

 

Yes, rightly said. Epics are for the purpose of showing how our forefathers lived, to read about them, analyse their reasoning, and then take the best to follow - that which is relevant.

Somehow I find people just not analyzing. A mistake is a mistake. But why was it done? What prompted Rama to take such an action that which even after so many thousands of years people still feel that his decision could have been a better one.

You will not be able to take anything forward until you know the cause of it. You cant uproot that evil away without knowing the roots. Find the root.

One example: Do you know that Ganga drowned her own 7 babies as soon as they were born? Have you ever heard of any mother doing that to her own children. If you did come across a lady who did that, what would be your reaction? you would avoid her like plague. Still people revere Ganga. So should I have stopped at a point where Ganga drowned her babies and left off the epic there?

I found the reason for it, once I found the reason, my understanding of it was better. Not that I would still agree with her decision but I now know what prompted her to do it.

Story can be read here - Shantanu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Another example is of Shakuni. Do you know that the entire dynasty of Kaurava was destroyed due to the tireless efforts of one person - Shakuni. Shakuni was a brother to Gandhari. He never married. He dedicated his entire life to the destruction of the his sister's line.
Shouldn't a person who doesn't have any kids love his sister's children as his own? Shouldn't he take them in the right path? But Shakuni did the wrong thing here. His justification is that Bhishma destroyed the entire line of Gandhara. So to avenge his kingdom, he swore to destroy the entire line of Kauravas. It is said in one story that the dice used to incite and that which led to Pandavas exile was made from his father's bone so it could roll to which ever number Shakuni wanted.

Again, if we met a person like Shakuni in today's world, we would surely I advise him to drop his anger and resentment and strive to forgive people who hurt him. However, the society earlier didn't work on compassion and forgiveness. It was based more on honor, revenge, vows etc.

So now that you know Shakuni's story, we still find his actions unpardonable but atleast you are in a position to know what led him to do such acts.

My point is just that...put your sense of right and wrong aside and look at the things from the other person's view. You might still not take their decision but atleast you would know what prompted them to take those decisions.
You will get to know the workings of the society during those times.

 

Indian mythology always talks about Karma and re-incarnation.

Sita was cursed to be away from her husband during pregnancy. The story of why and how...I have pasted it below for your reference:

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Once Sita with her friends went for a bird watch. She heard the birds say, “There will be a king named Ram on this earth. His wife’s name will be Sita. He will rule for 11,000 years along with Sita.
Hearing her name Sita got curious and wanted to ask more questions about her future.
She asked them where have they come from? Who is this Ram and who is this Sita? How do they know about Ram?

From the birds she came to know that there is a Rishi named Valmeeki who lives in Aashram. He has written a big book named “Ramayan” which seems very dear to him.They explained about Ram, Sita and the events about their lives. By the help of Rishyashring Muni’s Putreshti Yagya, Vishnu will appear in four forms – Ram, Lakshman, Bharat and Shatrughn.

Sita said telling them about Her birth – “Whoever Sita you are talking about, She is me. When Ram will come here and accept me, then only I will free you. Now you live in my house and eat sweet things.”
Hearing this the she-parrot said – “Janaki, We are the birds of forests, we live on trees and wander around. How we will be happy in your house? I am pregnant. Let me go and deliver my babies, then I will come back to you.”

But Sita didn’t free her. The male parrot requested Her to free his wife but Sita told him to go leaving his wife there only. Hearing this the male parrot got sad and “Whatever Yogee say, that is correct, that one should be silent and should not say anything to anybody, otherwise he is bound to his words. If we did not talk like this here, then why we should have been caught here. It would have been better if we were quiet.”

He again requested Sita to free his wife but She didn’t free her. Then the she-parrot cursed Sita and said – “As you are separating me from my husband at the time of my pregnancy, in the same way you will also be separated from Ram at the time of your pregnancy.” And she died with sorrow of the separation of her husband. Since she died talking about Ram, a Divine Vimaan came to take her. After the death of his wife, the male parrot said “I will take birth in Ayodhya and Ram will separate you by my words only.” And off he flew.
Because he insulted Sita in sorrow and anger, he was born as a washer man.

Whoever dies saying bad words about great people, even if he is the highest Brahman, he is born in lower class beings, that is why he was born as a washerman.

Because of that washer man(Parrot’s Curse), Sita got separated from Ram at the time of Her pregnancy.

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There you see, Karma comes back to haunt you no matter who you are. What the epic teaches us is - you can be a GOD but your actions are accountable. The good or the bad you do will come back to you and you alone!

Having read this story now tell me, do you stand a better chance to understand and co-relate. You might still be saying Sita should not have been sent away. However, now you know why she was sent away.

What she did to those parrots was as wrong as what happened to her.

You will now no longer have that misguided notion that its wrong. That's it.

 

For a culture to improve, people need to look at their past history and discuss and analyse.

But you are stuck at a point where you just claim things are wrong, wrong and keep chanting it, there will come a time where you will no longer have a culture to talk about. You will be left at a state where you will end up borrowing or following other's culture.

We are blessed to have been born in this great land where the culture is rich and has so many interesting things to learn from.

I for one refuse to believe Ramayana was an epic. Those people lived so many years ago maybe not creating so many miracles but they did live.

At a time when cars and buses were not invented people talked about flights.....pushpaka vimanam. Maybe not as scientifically explainable as how to build aeroplanes.

But where is that technology gone now? We have not given importance to those so they are no lost to us forever. Reason: people are focused on just two points and refuse to look above or beyond it.

Did you know that many ancient Shiva temples from KEdarnath to Chidambaram are aligned in a straight li around 79 E 41'54"?

Can you imagine the kind of knowledge our ancestors should have had to have built it in such a way?

Did you know that a Vishnu temple built between roughly A.D. 1113 and 1150, in Cambodia, is located at 13.41 degrees north in latitude and that the north-south axis of the central tower’s chamber is 13.43 cubits long. In the central sanctuary, Vishnu is not only placed at the latitude of Angkor Wat, he is also placed along the axis of the earth.

Imagine that! Imagine the knowledge that our ancestors had. So lets not waste time talking about women's plight and digress our own epics and take away the true meaning or the purpose of it.

Women's plight was, is and will always be the same - under the mercy of men until we women stand up to do something about it.

 

Yes Ragini very true. That's my point...criticize yes but know your context before you criticize!

I don't really have high hopes on future generation though...why this generation is ready to bash our epics I wonder if in future we would have a culture to talk about at all

 

Just because you don't believe in Karma doesn't mean it didn't play a major role in the society at a time.

Rather than understanding the reason for it, you are just trying to push it away as another 'wrong thing' in the list that you have.

Btw...I have no wish to keep dragging you...hence no mention of your name but I cant keep quiet when I see my posts being misunderstood.