goddess-sri-sita-devi-seeta-janaki-mata
Many of us are not aware about Sundari Kandam, which is one of the additional chapters in the great epic Ramayana. It was inserted in the Ramayana as an additional text during the Sangam period, though it was not found in the original text, Valmiki Ramayana. In Sundari Kandam, the great sacrifice performed by Ma Sita Devi was mentioned and also the various good qualities of Ma Sita like her chastity, purity, humanity, selflessness nature, obedience, confidence, great strength, and her staunch devotion on Lord Rama was mentioned.
She is the one who makes impossible things into possible. Since Ma Sita contains beautiful face as well as she contains very good nature, she was fondly called as “Sundari” by her devotees. In the Sundari Kandam, Sita Mata’s difficult journey to Lanka was mentioned clearly.
Ma Sita, the holy consort of Lord Rama, who is well known for her patience, chastity and Pati Bhakti, is the heroin of the entire epic Ramayana, and the Ramayana story revolves only around her. She is the incarnation of Ma Bhudevi, and similar to her mother, she maintained strict patience throughout her lifetime, and she contained very good qualities, which we cannot imagine in this present-day world. Though she was born as a princess, she happily joined with Lord Rama during his 14-year exile term in the forest, and during that period, she used to eat only fruits, greens and vegetables, and even then, she never showed her anger at any point of time to her loving consort Lord Rama.
The Sundari Kandam forms the sub portion of the holy text Ramayana and it tells about the greatness of Sita Mata, her involvement in Lord Rama, and the unexpected incidents happened during her travel to Lanka.
While she was in Lanka, she met the Mighty Hanuman, and blessed him. In the Ashok Vana, Sita was threatened by Ravana and she was guarded by various demons, and they insisted her to marry Ravana. When the demons were slept, Hanuman approached Mata Sita and narrated about the life history of Lord Rama to her, in order to bring confidence on him. Sita wept with tears, and gave one of her necklaces to Hanuman, and asked him to give it to Rama.
Hanuman then went inside the city of Lanka and fought with the demon soldiers and killed them. Finally, he met Ravana, and insisted him to set free Mata Sita from the Ashoka Vana. Due to that, Ravana had become very angry, and asked his soldiers to set fire on his tail. The soldiers tied clothes on his tail, and burnt the fire on his tail.
The angry Hanuman, with the fire on his tail, destroyed most of the houses of the demons and the buildings in Srilanka. And then he went to Kishkinta, and narrated the entire incidents happened in Srilanka to Lord Rama, Sugriva, Jambavan and to other Vanaras, and also he gave the necklace to Rama, which was given by Mata Sita to Hanuman in the Ashoka vana.
It is an ancient practice to recite the chapter of Sundari Kandam, similar to Sundara Kandam. Listening to divine discourses on Ramayana, and reciting Sundari Kandam during Fridays, would give us all kinds of prosperity in our life, and after our death, we would attain salvation.
In this present period, running our life is very difficult without the help of the almighty. We are suffering from lot of problems and from various kinds of diseases. Hence let us develop the reading habit of Ramayana, and especially the sub chapter Sundari Kandam, and let us be blessed.
“OM SRI SUNDARIYE SOUNDARIYE JANAKIYE SARANAM, SARANAM”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR