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The War to Free Sita Lord Rama was an incarnation of Vishnu who ruled India a million years ago. His story is a tragedy that is told in the epic "Ramayana," by Valmiki. By an elaborate twist of fate, Rama's stepmother (an example an evil woman) acquired the power to banish Rama to the forest and install her own son on the throne. Rama went into exile along with his wife, Sita, and brother, Laksman, and established a hermitage in the Dandaka Forest. While living there, a witch named Surpanakha became angry with Sita and Rama. She wanted to marry Rama and felt that Sita was in the way, so she asked her brother, the Sri Lankan King Ravana, to kidnap Sita. Ravana sent Marici, a mystic yogi in the form of spotted dear, to distract Rama and Lakshman. Then while the men were gone, Ravana disguised himself as a sannyasi and came into the encampment on the pretense of begging alms. When Rama found out that Ravana had kidnapped Sita, He enlisted Hanuman (an incarnation of Shiva) and an army of monkeys to build a bridge from India to Sri Lanka. In Lanka, Rama fought a fierce battle and severed all ten of Ravana's heads with a single arrow. He rescued Sita and returned to Ayodhya, His capitol city in the north, to assume his rightful position as king. When Sita and Rama returned to Ayodhya, Sita successfully proved her purity by passing unharmed through a ring of fire. In this symbolic act, the fire god returned the real Sita to Rama. Still, certain citizens in the kingdom began to gossip about her, saying that Rama had broken the religious principles by accepting his wife, after she had been touched by another man. Swayed by the gossip about her, Rama sent Sita back into exile. Sita, who was pregnant, wandered in the forest until she reached the hermitage of the sage Valmiki (author of the Ramayana), who gave her shelter. The other sages criticized Valmiki, saying that if Sita was pure, her husband Rama wouldn't have cast her out. Thus Sita had to pass another test of purity to satisfy the sages. Purport Incest in the Story of Sita Parallels between Ravana and Oedipus The Fire God and Sita Ravana Cursed Eighteen Times Incest in the Story of Sita The fact that Sita could never regain her chastity and that she was eventually cast out of Lord Rama's palace is perhaps the most paradoxical ending of any story in Vedic literature. Clues to the meaning of this story can be found in the literature. A closer examination of the scriptures reveals that Ravana was actually Sita's father. Here is one version of the story: Ravana's mother-in-law advised him to kill his first child because according to her daughter's horoscope, her first-born would destroy his clan. Instead of killing the baby, he buried her in India. This story reflects the ancient practice of killing female babies. In the case of Sita, a farmer found the box and gave it to King Janaka, thus Sita was known as the daughter of Janaka. Through the act of kidnapping Sita, Ravana started the chain of events that would fulfill the astrological prophecy. Just as Oedipus was unaware that the king he killed was his father and the queen he married was his mother, Ravana was unaware that the woman he kidnapped was his daughter. Another version of the story casts Ravana in an even worse role. It was said that Ravana would terrorize the local forests and shoot arrows at sages who were sitting in meditation. He would take their blood from the arrow tip and save it in a pot. One time he stole some sacred milk from a sage who was doing penance to have a daughter like Lakshmi (Vishnu's consort). Ravana mixed the milk with the blood and gave the pot to his wife. She hated him for this, and growing discouraged with his behavior, tried to kill herself by drinking the mixture. Instead of dying she became pregnant with Sita and buried the fetus on King Janaka's land in India. In this version, Ravana is not the true father, but Sita was the child of Ravana's wife. This relationship describes the situation in ISKCON, in which the perpetrators were most often variations of father figures to their victims, rather than their actual biological fathers. Ravana's obsession with Sita was still a form of incest, since it was his wife's child. Parallels between Ravana and Oedipus Throughout the epic story, Ravana never learned that Sita was his daughter. Thus, his conscience is never stirred to face the sin of incest, as Oedipus faced his sins in the tragic drama Oedipus Rex. In that story, King Oedipus eventually learned that his father had sent him away to die as an infant, when an old shepherd who had rescued him recounts the circumstances that led up to his killing his father (the king) at a crossroads and marrying his mother (the queen). Shocked and guilty over the revelation of his true identity, Oedipus blinds himself and goes into a self-imposed exile. The second part of the drama, Oedipus in Colonus, portrays Oedipus living under a state-imposed exile, attempting to find meaning from the horrible experiences of his life. Rollo May, in his book, Cry for Myth, points out, "So far as I know, [Oedipus in Colonus] is never mentioned in psychoanalytic literature in America. . . . One reason for its neglect is that discussion of the integrative functions of myths in general tend to be omitted in psychoanalytic discussions." (p. 82) May also explains that Freud's interest in the first part of the drama, to the neglect of the second, is due to the cut and dry nature of the first story: "a consequence of . . . killing the father requires that we stop when these things are worked through, punishment meted out, and the situation accepted, as at the end of Oedipus Rex." (p. 82) However, ignoring the second part of the drama ignores the process that Oedipus went through in order to feel whole again. In Oedipus in Colonus, unlike Ravana, Oedipus learns to accept and bear responsibility for his life, and comes to terms with his identity as the perpetrator of incest and patricide. May explains that Oedipus' final conclusion is a reconciliation within himself, with the people he loves (especially his daughters from the incestuous marriage with his mother) and with the transcendent meaning of his life. It is doubtful that Sita every found out that Ravana was her father. Perhaps the sages informed her after she moved to the forest, but this is left unclear. Nevertheless, Sita's purity was forever tainted by Ravana's touch, and in a similar way, ISKCON's illicit, incestuous arranged marriages created many Sitas who may suffer to the ends of their lives for the sins of their fathers. The metaphor holds true for women outside of ISKCON, because abuse survivors of any religion undoubtedly had Ravanas in their families or extended families, that made their childhoods a frightening hell. Sita and the Fire God The scriptures say that a few days before Ravana kidnapped Sita, the fire god Agni appeared before Rama to inform him of all that would take place, including his destiny and duty to kill Ravana. In order to protect Sita through this ordeal, the fire god took her away and replaced her with the maya (illusory) Sita. Thus, because of the fire god's intervention, any abuse or molestation would be perpetrated upon maya-Sita. This serves as a good analogy for disassociated identity disorder, common to most abuse sufferers. While abuse is occurring, the victim may leave their body and feel that the molester was attacking someone else. Some victims become fixated at the moment of abuse and experience recurring feelings of disassociation. They may look back on the abuse and actually believe that it happened to someone else. This is a function of denial, which protects victims from facing events that were too traumatic to bare. The recovery process involves accepting what happened, often through a series of horrifying "flashbacks" as the truth sinks in. After recovery, the abuse survivor can live with what happened, but the process often takes years of hard work with a therapist. Ravana Cursed Eighteen Times King Ravana was an incarnation of one of the fallen gatekeepers of Vishnu, the same soul that abused Prahlada in the story of Lord Nrsimha. In ISKCON, the abusers who sanctioned arranged incestuous marriages were the same men who tolerated child abuse in the boys' boarding schools. Ravana was a foul character who had offended many women. The perpetrators and conspirators in ISKCON were also despised for acts that were similar to Ravana's. During his career as a tyrant, eighteen sages and gods cursed Ravana for his crude behavior. Here are seven of the curses (they all came true during the war of Sri Lanka): Ravana raped a woman who was meditating in the wilderness and she cursed him, "You and your family will be ruined by Lord Narayana [a form of Vishnu] on account of me." Ravana once called Lord Shiva a monkey and Shiva cursed him that monkeys would destroy his kingdom. The sage Dattatreya kept a pot of water, purified with mantras, for washing the head of his guru. Ravana used the water to wash his own head and the sage cursed him that monkeys would walk on his head. Ravana once lifted the wife of Atri by the hair, so Atri cursed that Ravana would have to witness monkeys dragging his wife by the hair. Ravana humiliated some daughters from a brahmana family who were bathing in the sea. Their mothers cursed Ravana's wife to be insulted by monkeys. Ravana tried to humiliate Lord Brahma's daughter so Brahma cursed him that all ten of his heads would be broken if he ever again touched an unwilling woman. One time Narada Muni refused to explain the meaning of "Om" to Ravana and Ravana threatened to cut out Narada's tongue. Narada then cursed him that a man would cut off all ten of his heads. The other incidents also involved rape, humiliating a woman, or harming peaceful brahmanas. ISKCON's toxic sannyasis and their codependents also did many abusive things If they believe in their own scriptures, the should be aware that the story of Ravana shows that ultimately perpetrators must atone for every single offense. Click here for Story Matters index. Click here for more ISKCON gurukula information. Click here for an index of all child abuse information available through this site. 
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