When
I entered that room, I never expected to hear what he said. His face was turned away, but I could see the
tension in body. His hands never relaxed
their nervous grasp from the window’s ledge.
There was no color in face. There
was no life within his eyes. He looked
as if he just heard that he would die a painful death in a few days and instead
of living it to the fullest, he collapsed emotionally. Finally after a few moments of him trying to
speak through quivering lips, he spoke.
“Lakshmana, will you do something
for me. Before you say anything, I need
you to promise me that you will do whatever I say,” he begged.
“Rama, you know that I will always
do whatever you ask of me. You are my
brother…you are my closest friend. I
would never imagine disobeying you. The
loyalty we share is worth more than…than anything. Why do you think that I would betray you in
such a way?”
“I need you to do something that is
very difficult for me to ask of you,” he struggled as he desperately tried to
fight the sting of tears.
“What?” I asked softly as I reached
out to place a hand on his forearm.
“Tomorrow, Sita expects to go to the
forest. I need you to take Sita to the
Ganga River tomorrow, and desert her,” he said harshly.
“What? How can you ask me to do something
like that? She’s pregnant with your
child. What do you expect to become of
her? She may die. She may kill herself.”
“The people of Ayodhya speak harshly
of her. They wonder why any man, any
king would embrace a woman who was touched by another man.”
“You mean Ravana? But her innocence was proven through the
fire. Surely, you won’t let ignorant men
determine your life.”
He again turned his back to me. “One crack in the foundation leads to the
destruction of a house. As a king, I
cannot let there be one fault in my kingdom.”
“Don’t talk to me in metaphors,” I snapped. “This is your life. She is your wife…the mother of your unborn
child.”
“Are you going to do this or not?”
he coldly asked.
“You just want me to…to leave
her? That’s it, right?”
“Yes,” he muttered.
“Rama, I would never want to disobey
you, but this…this is something that I never thought I would have to do. I don’t know what’s right or what’s
wrong. Hopefully, you do,” I said as I
walked away.
Author’s Note
For
this storytelling blog, I wanted to Rama discussing Sita’s abandonment with
Lakshmana through Lakshmana’s perspective.
Within the Ramayana, Rama
decides that it is best for the kingdom of Ayodhya to abandon Sita. Within the original, Lakshmana is hurt by
Rama’s decision, but I was a bit upset that Lakshmana argue that much Rama’s decision
to abandon his pregnant wife. Through my
story, I wanted to capture this dialogue between Rama and Lakshmana. However, I wanted to stretch Lakshmana’s resentment
towards such an idea. Other than this
obvious stretching of Lakshmana’s thoughts, the story is true to the original
plot.
Bibliography
Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way.
