Anasuya Adorns Sita and Speaks the Severe Dharma of Fidelity
Aranya Kanda, Chaupai 4
Doha 6 · Movement 1 of 2
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Sita clasps Anasuya's feet and meets her with gentle humility. Joy fills the sage's wife. She blesses Sita, draws her close, and places upon her divine garments and ornaments that remain forever fresh, spotless, and beautiful. The forest hermitage briefly shines with a radiance no royal treasury supplied.
Then Anasuya speaks in soft and gracious tones of the demanding dharma she has received. Mother, father, and brother may give much, she says, but their giving has limits, while the husband is held to be the limitless giver. Patience, dharma, friendship, and a wife's fidelity reveal their truth when hardship arrives, especially when age, sickness, poverty, disability, anger, or helplessness make service difficult.
Her teaching distinguishes four degrees of fidelity, from the mind in which no other man appears even in dream, through the gaze that sees others as brother, father, or son, to restraint maintained by dharma, family honor, fear, or lack of opportunity. She warns with the text's full severity against deception and infidelity, setting their brief pleasure against long suffering and praising undivided love in body, speech, and mind.
Beneath the gleam of unfading ornaments, Anasuya places before Sita a vow meant to endure every trial.
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अनुसुइया के पद गहि सीता। मिली बहोरि सुसील बिनीता।। रिषिपतिनी मन सुख अधिकाई। आसिष देइ निकट बैठाई।। दिब्य बसन भूषन पहिराए। जे नित नूतन अमल सुहाए।। कह रिषिबधू सरस मृदु बानी। नारिधर्म कछु ब्याज बखानी।। मातु पिता भ्राता हितकारी। मितप्रद सब सुनु राजकुमारी।। अमित दानि भर्ता बयदेही। अधम सो नारि जो सेव न तेही।। धीरज धर्म मित्र अरु नारी। आपद काल परिखिअहिं चारी।। बृद्ध रोगबस जड़ धनहीना। अधं बधिर क्रोधी अति दीना।। ऐसेहु पति कर किएँ अपमाना। नारि पाव जमपुर दुख नाना।। एकइ धर्म एक ब्रत नेमा। कायँ बचन मन पति पद प्रेमा।। जग पति ब्रता चारि बिधि अहहिं। बेद पुरान संत सब कहहिं।। उत्तम के अस बस मन माहीं। सपनेहुँ आन पुरुष जग नाहीं।। मध्यम परपति देखइ कैसें। भ्राता पिता पुत्र निज जैंसें।। धर्म बिचारि समुझि कुल रहई। सो निकिष्ट त्रिय श्रुति अस कहई।। बिनु अवसर भय तें रह जोई। जानेहु अधम नारि जग सोई।। पति बंचक परपति रति करई। रौरव नरक कल्प सत परई।। छन सुख लागि जनम सत कोटि। दुख न समुझ तेहि सम को खोटी।। बिनु श्रम नारि परम गति लहई। पतिब्रत धर्म छाड़ि छल गहई।। पति प्रतिकुल जनम जहँ जाई। बिधवा होई पाई तरुनाई।।
Sita clasped the feet of Anasuya and greeted her again with gentle humility. The rishi's wife felt boundless joy. She blessed Sita and seated her close by. She adorned Sita with divine robes and ornaments, ever fresh, spotless, and beautiful. Then, in sweet and tender words, the rishi's wife spoke of a woman's dharma. Listen, O princess: mother, father, brothers, all are dear helpers, but the measure of their giving has a limit. The husband alone is the limitless giver, O daughter of Videha. Lowly is the woman who does not serve him. Patience, dharma, friendship, and womanhood: these four are tested only in times of trouble. Old, disease-ridden, dull, poor, blind, deaf, ill-tempered, destitute: even if the husband bears all these afflictions, a woman who dishonors him suffers many torments in Yama's city. There is one dharma, one vow, one sacred discipline: love for the husband's feet in body, speech, and mind. The Vedas, Puranas, and all the saints declare that devoted wives are of four kinds. For the highest, the mind is so absorbed that even in dreams no other man exists. The middling wife sees every other man as her own brother, father, or son. She who weighs dharma and guards her family's honor and so remains faithful: the scriptures call her the third. She who holds back only from fear or want of occasion: know her to be the lowest of all. She who deceives her husband and gives her heart to another falls into Raurava, the terrible hell, for a hundred kalpas. For a moment's pleasure, suffering through millions of births. Who is more foolish than one who does not grasp this? Without effort a woman can reach the highest state, yet she abandons the vow of faithfulness and takes up deceit instead. In every birth where she opposes her husband, she becomes a widow in her youth.