It was the beginning of the season for planting crops in Mithila. King Janaka, the ruler of Mithila was invited to be the first to plough the land with a golden hoe. There were musical sounds of bells, drums and conch shells’ trumpets, and the king plunged the hoe into the ground.

The earth was rich, soft and fertile and it was pushed into a furrow. The furrow increased in length and the king and his subjects were pleased. The king stopped using the hoe as in the furrow, he saw a little hand with tiny fingers. The hand was golden as if it had been dipped in sunlight. Janaka moved the soil and hidden in the earth, he saw a beautiful little girl laughing and dressed in anklets and bangles.

The farmers knew that this was the gift of Prithvi, the Mother Earth, as Janaka was childless. Janaka picked up the child and said that fatherhood arose from the heart and not from the seed. He placed her close to his heart. He was childless and he declared that she would be called Sita, as she was found in the furrow and chose Janaka as her father. All the subjects of Mithila were ecstatic as the Janaka now had a child.

Sita was an incarnation of Laksmi; Ram was an incarnation of Vishnu. She was Ram’s wife. Sita represents Prakriti (nature). Sita was a truly liberated woman. She attended all the discussions with her father and heard the lectures given by the sages. Next Sita was startled to see how many thousands of sages came to her father’s palace and were given gifts, fed and offered shelter.

Extraordinary talents of Sita

She wanted to understand how this task of feeding so many was conducted. She went to her mother’s kitchen and saw her mother surrounded by food to be cooked. She told Sita to fetch different things and she did as she was told. Soon Sita was as comfortable in the kitchen as she was in congresses. She was at home with the different herbs, spices, cereals, fruits and vegetables.

What was extraordinary was that Sita’s father was not aware of the role of the kitchen and his wife was not aware of his intellectual discussions. Sita understood both. There is also a story about her cooking. In one story, when Sita and Rama were in exile, a crow stole a piece of the food that she had cooked. The crow carried the food to Sri Lanka and Ravana ate it. He was so enchanted with the taste that he decided that he would try to abduct Sita at any cost.

Sita, after being abducted by Ravana, wore the same clothes and the female guards who guarded her, became her disciples. She was held captive for almost twelve months. She was fearless and Ravana dared not touch her.

Sita’s strength and resilience teach us about the powers of perseverance and inner faith. She insisted on accompanying Rama in vanvaas (forest dwelling), which was fourteen years.

Reference: Sita by Devdutt Patnaik.

Aim Hrim Klim

Photo by Rahul Mishra on Unsplash