Chapter Five: Avatāra Doctrine and Rama Worship
—O Sita, vigorous and moistened with clarified butter, remain near us with your milk.
The Rama narrative is present in the Mahābhārata. In the Droṇa-parva, Sita appears as the presiding goddess of agriculture and the producer of every seed.1 A hymn to Durga in the Harivaṃśa says, “For farmers you are Sita, and for living beings you are the sustaining Earth.”2
The Rama narrative also occurs in the Śrīmad Bhāgavata Purāṇa and Viṣṇu Purāṇa, but its complete and orderly form is found in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa. Even there, however, Sita is not born from a womb and finally disappears into the Earth—features influenced by the Vedic personality of Sita.
The historical development of Rama worship
We now wish to examine how Rama worship developed over time and which devotional disposition predominated in each period. When one relates to Bhagavan through servitude, friendship, parental affection, or sweetness, the aesthetic experience of that relationship is called devotion. In other words, devotion is supreme love and supreme attachment toward Bhagavan. It is the sweet play of līlā between devotee and Bhagavan.
The longing, love, or ache for Bhagavan in the devotee’s heart—and for the devotee in Bhagavan’s heart—is devotion. This ache, this longing for union, exists in both. When devotee and Bhagavan fondle one another in solitude, joining heart to heart and life to life, the two become one; then, for the joyous play of bliss, they become two again. In ordinary language, this is called devotion.
It is difficult to say which of them is lover and which beloved. Each is both lover and beloved of the other. Both hearts suffer separation and yearn intensely for union; one moment of separation seems as long as a thousand cosmic ages.
Creation unfolds from the Supreme Self. Originally he alone is One, and he wills, “May I become many.” From that longing, the whole phenomenal expanse arises. Thus the One becomes two—3