THE GRAND TORMENTOR (5)

Sita had no ear for any explanation and went on repeating, "Go, go and save him! How can you stay here talking! I'm surprised at your calmness." As Lakshmana kept on asking her to remain calm, she became more and more worked up and began to talk wildly. "You who have never left his side since your birth, who followed him into the forest at a moment like this, instead of rushing to his side, you stand there chattering away at me. This looks very very strange to me!" Once again Lakshmana tried to set her mind at rest. "You have apparently not understood the nature of Rama. There is no power which can reduce him to cry for help. If Rama was really threatened, the whole universe and all creation would have trembled and collapsed by now, for he is no ordinary mortal...." Sita's eyes flashed anger and sorrow. "It's improper for you to stay here with me and talk coldly this way. Strange! Strange! Anyone who has been close to my lord for even a brief moment ought to be prepared to lay down his life for him. Yet you, who were born and bred with him and attached yourself to him through everything-you stand here unmoved and unaffected by his cry for help. If you don't want to save him, there is nothing more I can do, nor anyone I could turn to for support. The only thing left will be for me to build a fire and throw myself into it...." Sita's insinuations and lack of trust in him pained Lakshmana deeply. He pondered over her words and said, "No need for you to harm yourself. Only I shudder at the import of your words. I'll obey you now. Do not be anxious. This very second I'll leave. I only hesitated because your order goes against the command of my brother. I'll go, and may the gods protect you from harm!" "If I don't go, she will kill herself," he reasoned. "If I go, she will be in danger. Id rather be dead than facing such a dilemma.... I'll go, and what is destined will happen. Dharma alone should protect her." He said to Sita, "Our elder Jatayu is there to watch us, and he will guard you." The moment Lakshmana left, Ravana, who had been watching, emerged from his hiding place. He stood at the gate of Panchvati cottage and called, "Who is there? Anyone inside to welcome a sanyasi?" He was in the garb of a hermit, lean, scraggy, and carrying a staff and a wooden begging bowl in his hand. His voice shook as if with old age, his legs trembled, as he called again, "Is there anyone living in this hut?" Sita opened the door and saw the old man and said, "You are welcome, sir. What do you want?" Ravana was overwhelmed by the vision before him. Sita invited him in and gave him a seat while his mind buzzed with a thousand thoughts. "She should be mine. I'll make her the queen of my empire and spend the rest of my days in obeying her command and pleasing her in a million ways. I'll do nothing else in life except enjoy her company....Ah! how perceptive and helpful my sister has been! Not a word of exaggeration in her description. Absolutely perfect. Perfection... How good of my darling sister to have thought of me when she saw this angel! I shall reward my sister by making her the queen of my empire. She shall rule in my place, while I live in the paradise of this woman's company." He had already forgotten that he had intended to make Sita the queen of his empire. While his mind was busy with these pleasant plans, Sita was inquiring, "How do you come to be found on this lonely forest path at your age? Where do you come from?" He woke up from his day-dreaming to answer, "Well, there is one..." and proceeded to give a detailed account of himself in the third person-as the mightiest in creation, favourite of the great Lord Shiva himself, powerful enough to order the sun and the moon to move in or out of their orbits as he pleased. "All the gods wait upon him to do his slightest bidding, all the divine damsels, Urvasi, Thilothama and the others, are ever ready to massage his feet and strap his sandals on. He is greater than Indra; his capital is unmatched, a magnificent city; he commands all the power, wealth, and glories of this world. Thousands of women wait anxiously for his favour, but he is waiting and looking for the most perfect beauty in creation. He is learned, just, handsome, in vigour and youthfulness unmatched. I have stayed in the glory of his presence for a long time and am now returning home this way." "Why should a saintly one like you have chosen to live in that rakshasa country, leaving cities where good men are to be found and the forest where sages live?" "They are good people, not harmful or cruel like the so- called gods. The rakshasa clan have been misrepresented and misunderstood. They are kind and enlightened and particularly good to sadhus like me." "Those who live amidst asuras could easily become asuras too," Sita remarked naively. Ravana said, "Asuras can be good to those who are good to them. Since they are the most powerful in all the worlds, what could be wiser than to live in harmony with them?" "But their days are numbered," said Sita. "My lord's copy in life is to rid this world of them and establish peace on earth." "No human being can ever dare try it. It's like a little rabbit hoping to destroy an elephant herd." "But have you not heard how my lord has vanquished Kara, Dushana, Virada, and the rest, single-handed?" "Kara, Virada, and the rest were weaklings possessing neither bows nor armour-not a great task conquering them. Wait until you see, as you soon will, what happens to him when he has to meet the mighty Ravana, who has twenty shoulders!" "What if he has twenty shoulders? Did not just a two- shouldered man like Parasurama once imprison Ravana till he cried for mercy?" This statement enraged Ravana; his eyes became bloodshot with anger and he ground his teeth. Gradually he was losing his saintly disguise. Noticing the transformation, Sita began to feel puzzled and presently he loomed over her fearsomely in his natural form. Sita had no courage to utter any word. Ravana said, "For your stupid statement, I would have crushed and eaten you, except for the fact you are a woman and I want you and will die if I don't have you. Oh, swanlike one, my ten heads have never bowed to any god in any world. But I will take off my crowns and touch your feet with my brow. Only be my queen and command me what to do." Sita covered her ears with her hands. "How dare you speak thus! I am not afraid to lose my life, but if you wish to save yours, run and hide before Rama sees you." "Rama's arrows cannot touch me; you could as well expect a mountain to split at the touch of a straw," Ravana said. "Be kind to me. I am dying for your love. I will give you a position greater than anything a goddess can have. Have consideration. Have mercy. I prostrate myself before you." When Ravana fell to the floor, Sita recoiled and started weeping aloud, "O my lord! O, brother Lakshmana, come and help me." At this Ravana, remembering an ancient curse that if he touched any woman without her consent, he would die that instant, dug the ground under Sita's feet, lifted it off with her, placed it in his chariot, and sped away. Sita fainted, revived, desperately tried to jump off the chariot, cried, lamented, called upon the trees, birds, and animals and the fairies of the woods to bear witness and report her plight to Rama, and finally cursed Ravana as a coward and a trickster, who had adopted treacherous coward and a trickster, who had adopted treacherous means only because he was afraid of Rama; otherwise would he not have faced Rama and fought him? Ravana only treated her words as a great joke and laughed at her. "You think too highly of Rama, but I don't. I do not care to fight him because it's beneath our dignity to confront a mere human being." "Ah, yes, your class are ashamed to contend with humans, but you may covet and treacherously attack a helpless woman. This is a noble achievement, I suppose! Stony-hearted rakshasas like you do not know what is wrong and what is right. If you have the courage to face my husband, stop your chariot immediately, don't drive it farther." All this only amused Ravana, who laughed and bantered and uttered reckless pleasantries. At this moment, he felt an obstruction in the course of his flight. Jatayu, the great eagle who had promised to guard the children of his old colleague and friend Dasaratha, noticing the danger that had befallen Sita, shouted a challenge and obstructed Ravana's passage, hurling himself on Ravana with all his might. It was as if a mountain were hitting the speeding chariot. Before starting the actual battle, Jatayu appealed to Ravana to retrace his steps and take Sita back to Panchvati. He said, "You don't even have to go back; just stop and put her down, and I'll lead her back safely to her husband and you may run away before Rama comes." Ravana laughed at this proposal. "Keep out of my way. you senile bird, go away." Jatayu advised him, "Don't seek your ow ruin of your whole clan, class, tribe, and all. 170/272 will end your career, have no doubt about it." "Stop chattering away like this," Ravana commanded. "Let all those heroes you talk about come, bring them all, and I will deal with them. Whatever may happen, I'll not yield this treasure that I have acquired.... She will go with me." Sita grew desperate and burst into tears. Jatayu said, "Don't fear. No harm will come to you. This demon will be destroyed by me. You don't have to worry about it at all"- and began his attack. The flapping of his enormous wings created the power of a storm, which shook and paralysed both Ravana and his chariot; then he hit and tore with his whole body, beak, and claws, with such force that Ravana's ensign with the symbol of a veena was tom and the flagstaff was in fragments, his crowns were knocked off and fell to the ground, his royal canopy was in tatters, and the chariot was smashed. Ravana parried and hit and used all the weapons in his command, but Jatayu kept up an unrelenting offensive.
Ravana tried to spare Jatayu up to a point. His anger finally rose and he took a special sword (an infallible one gifted to him by Shiva) called "Chandrahasa" and with a couple of flourishes and swings dealt a final blow to Jatayu, lopped off his gigantic wings, and pierced his throat. After Jatayu fell, Ravana picked himself up, abandoned his chariot, placed Sita on his shoulder with the piece of ground beneath her and, exercising his power to fly in the air, carried her off to Lanka. Meanwhile Jatayu, with an effort of will, kept himself alive until Rama and Lakshmana, searching for Sita, came that way. With his dying breath, Jatayu gave an account of what he had witnessed and said, "Do not despair. You will succeed in the end." Rama anxiously asked, "In which direction did they go?" But Jatayu was dead before he could answer.