Week 7: Reading Diary B - The Exile Comes to an End

Reading Diary Pg. 374-432
The Ramayana by William Buck

• Vibhishana offers Rama to use a Pushpaka for his journey to return back home. A pushpaka is a flying chariot. Vibhishana offered this to Rama in order to help him return home in time for Bharata to see that he has come back, and does not kill himself as he had vowed to if Rama had not come back at the end of his exile. 
• On their way back home on the pushpaka, Rama stops to show where they buried Jatayu. Rama sends Hanuman home to Ayodhya ahead of them to tell his brother, Bharata, the news that they are on their way to returning from exile. Bharata cries tears of joy!!
• The time has come where Rama finally returns home to Ayodhya. Presents and gifts are being thrown at Rama, as the town is so excited to have him and to have him serve as their king.
• As time goes by, thousands and thousands of years actually. Sita becomes pregnant. 
• This creates gossip among the people that Rama serves. They are appalled that he has allowed Sita back into his home after being with another man, Ravana, even though she has proven her innocence.
• Thinking of this, I feel like it represents the thoughts and actions of a much earlier time period than today's modern views. Even though she had proven her innocence, just the fact that she was in the presence of another man is enough to send her into exile. 
• Rama demands that his brother, Lakshmana, take Sita down the Ganges river and abandon her, leaving her in alone and in exile. She is still pregnant.
• Vibhishana is aware that Sita is in danger and is in need of help, so he ensures that Valmiki will rescue her in her time of need.
• This goes back to the beginning of the book, where it first started telling the story of Sita being dropped off along the river and wandering herself. Valmiki comes to her rescue (causing him to finally come out from under his anthill) and invites her into his hermitage with welcome arms. 
• Not too long after, she gives birth to two sons, Kusha and Lava.
• Kush and Lava grow up being told of the story of Rama, their dad, from Valmiki, without knowing that Rama is in fact their dad. They learn the story backwards and forwards, and grow up really looking up to Rama as a role model figure. 
• I find this ironic because they almost look up to Rama in place of a father figure, when he is in fact their father.
• Kush and Lava eventually are told that Rama is their dad. Sita feared that they would resent him, but they actually took it really well and continue to look up to him.
• Rama held a big festival in the forest that lasts for a year. Kusha and Lava sing each day, and Rama eventually realizes they are his sons.
• Kala, Time, comes to Ayodhya in disguise as a hermit and demands a meeting with Rama. He announces that anyone who disturbs their meeting will have to die. In the midst of the meeting, Lakshmana walks in, and therefore must die. 
• The book ends with Lakshmana going to the Saraya River to die.