Week 7: Reading Diary B

Rama and Sita return to Ayodha for the first time in 14 years.  They are now able to return from exile and celebrate their victory over Ravana.  They make it back in time to prevent Bharata from committing suicide at the loss of his brother, as Rama came back as promised.  Rama is immediately crowned king.  After 10,000 years, Sita becomes pregnant.  People begin to mutter that Rama should never have taken her back into his home after she was captured by Ravana.  Even though she has proven her innocence, Rama listens to the gossip and decides that the only course of action available is to send her into exile alone, giving her no warning.  Instead, he chooses to have Lakshmana abandon her by the Ganges River.  At the time she is pregnant with his twin sons.  She is rescued by a hermit, Valmiki, who brings her to live with him and raise her children. 12 years after she gives birth, Rama decides to host a festival in the forest that she now resides in.  The people hear her sons singing the Ramayana.  Rama discovers that they are his children.  Sita decides to prove her innocence to him one last time. This time, however, she is not going to allow him to take her back.  She prays to the mother Earth to open and embrace her if she is innocent.  Mother Earth comes from the ground and takes Sita back with her.  Rama rules for 1000 years after her death.  Eventually, Lakshmana dies from a curse, as he opened a door and interrupted a conversation between Rama and Time to give Rama a warning.  Finally, Rama too comes to an end, jumping into the Sarayu River and dying.