Page 94 - EJO0055

(1) For a noble queen like me, the sorrow of being left alone
in the forest is huge but compared to the endless sorrows
of roaming in the birth cycle, this sorrow is very less. Isn’t
it foolish to forget those great sorrows of many births and
weep over this sorrow of just 1 birth ? Great kings and
also Indras who enjoy unlimited luxuries and comforts
here are also afflicted with pain and troubles after death.
After leaving their present birth, they are imprisoned in
a mother’s womb where there is only suffocation and
darkness.

I am left alone in the jungle and it seems as if I am completely
unhappy and have no ray of hope. But compared to those great
Indras I am happier because I have a healthy environment to
live in, enough place to sleep and sit, ripe fruits to eat and
no pains of being hit or tortured. Thinking on these lines, she
must have minimized her current unhappiness.
(2) Or else she must have contemplated that, ‘Why to cry over
the loss of material happiness and comforts ? Compared
to that, the loss of spiritual wealth of non-violence,
penance, religious learning, resistance over temptations,
non-attachment, etc. that my soul is facing is far more.
The sorrow of being trapped in this vicious cycle of birth
and death is terrible. This external sorrow has proved to be
an eye-opener. Now, I will strive to eliminate the sorrows
of the soul which are worse. It is quite possible that Sita
must have thought on this basis.
(3) Or else, the sorrows of lower births like hell are so dreadful
that these sorrows seem nothing in front of them. She may
have consoled her mind thinking that at this very moment
innumerable souls are bearing unbearable pain in hell.
They are screaming and yelling for help. Compared to
them, my sorrow is nothing. This, she must have nullified
the intensity of her present sorrow.
84 Purity Purified