The words of Rama made Seetha terribly angry. She shouted at her dear husband (out of sheer love) "Oh, My Lord! What nonsense are you talking? I abhor to hear such ridiculous, absurd and meaningless words which certainly are to be miffed at. I totally deplore it. Father, mother, brother, son and daughter enjoy the fruits of their own merits and reap each his or her due. A wife gets fortune as well as misfortune of her husband only. In view of that, if you, my husband is exiled to the forest, I, your wife stand exiled, too. As such I too, am destined to dwell in the forest. To a woman, her father, son, mother or a female companion is not the recourse. Husband alone is forever the only and the best recourse in this world as well as the one where she goes after her death. If you set forth now itself to the forest, I shall walk ahead of you, warding off thorns and grass with long pointed stalks. There is no fault in me that would warrant you to leave me here. Protection under the feet of the husband is better than being on the top of a lofty building or in an aerial car moving through the sky. My mother and father have taught me very well as to how I should conduct myself in different circumstances. I need not, therefore be told as to what I have to do now. I shall accompany you to the forest. If I cannot follow the vow of serving my husband, I will not care even the sovereignty of the three worlds. Dwelling in the forest with my husband will make me feel as happy as staying in my father's house. Performing service to you regularly, having the necessary discipline, observing chastity, I would like to stay with you in the forest. I know very well that your are very capable of protecting any number of people anywhere. Why then talk about my protection? I AM coming to the forest along with you. I shall live on the roots and fruits only, always, no doubt. I assure you that I shall not create any unpleasantness to you in the forest. With you as my protector, I do not have to fear anywhere or about anything. I can enjoy by seeing rivers, mountains, small lakes and grooves. I shall be very comfortable and happy, by going together with you. I am very eager to see the excellently flowered lotus-ponds filled with swans and water-fowls. Remaining dedicated to you, I shall take bath regularly in those lakes and with full of joy, I shall sport with you. Thus spending even a hundred thousand years in your company I shall not have even an iota of weariness. I will spurn, without any second thought, living in heaven if I have to live there without you. I would totally despise heaven if we cannot live there in the same residence. Accompanying you I shall like very much the forest, even if it is not quite accessible. I will enjoy seeing there monkeys, elephants as well as other animals. Clinging to your feet alone, I shall enjoy dwelling in the forest as I would in my father's home. Therefore, grant well my prayer and usher me to the forest, without any other thought. I assure you that I will not be any burden to you in the forest."
Despite the earnest pleadings of Seetha, Rama was not quite inclined to take Seetha along with him to the forest. Rama looked kindly at Seetha whose eyes were blemished with tears. He then told her soothingly "Seetha! My darling! Your are grown up with a high lineage parents ever devoted to righteousness. Perform your that virtue, which is agreeable to my mind, to wit do whatever I tell you. I repeat that there are many inconveniences in the forest. You must have heard that a forest with its wilderness is fraught with many dangers. I cannot bear even the very thought of something bad or any inconvenience happening to you. I need not tell you that a life in a forest will be far from comfortable. The sounds created from the waterfalls in the hills and from the lions residing in the mountain caves are unpleasant to hear. Large wild animals which are fearless and intoxicated sporting in the desolate forest would come forward with fury on seeing me. Streams or rivers filled with crocodiles would be an horror to cross. Pathways covered with creepers and thorns, echoed with the noise of wild cocks, are very hard to pass through. One has to sleep in nights on a bed of fallen leaves. With mind disciplined day and night, one has to necessarily satisfy oneself with fruits fallen from trees. Fasting is forced to the point of utter exhaustion. Clothes of bark are to be clad and a mass of matted hair has to be worn on the head. The celestials, the ancestors and any other guests who may arrive are to be worshiped always according to the prescribed rites. One has to take bath three times a day at appropriate time by the one moving in the forest, with one's mind kept in restraint. Offering is to be done with flowers gathered by oneself at the altar, according to the rites prescribed by the sages. The dwellers of forest are to be satisfied with whatever food is available there. There would be great storms that would make the forest more dark and fearsome. Due to non availability of suitable food we may have to go on hungry for days. Various creeping animals of different forms roam about on the earth with pride. Snakes dwelling in rivers, moving crookedly like rivers, stay obstructing the pathways. Flying insects, scorpions, insects including mosquitoes and flies always annoy every one. Anyone living in a forest has to face various bodily troubles and panics. Anger and greed are to be abandoned by the dwellers of forest. Devotion is to be bestowed on asceticism. What needs to be feared, should not be feared. Hence, living in a forest is a synonym for suffering. Therefore, please drop the idea of your coming to the forest. Forest life is definitely not bearable or suitable for you."
The more Rama was trying to dissuade her from following him to the forest, Seetha became more determined and angry. In exasperation she screamed
Despite the earnest pleadings of Seetha, Rama was not quite inclined to take Seetha along with him to the forest. Rama looked kindly at Seetha whose eyes were blemished with tears. He then told her soothingly "Seetha! My darling! Your are grown up with a high lineage parents ever devoted to righteousness. Perform your that virtue, which is agreeable to my mind, to wit do whatever I tell you. I repeat that there are many inconveniences in the forest. You must have heard that a forest with its wilderness is fraught with many dangers. I cannot bear even the very thought of something bad or any inconvenience happening to you. I need not tell you that a life in a forest will be far from comfortable. The sounds created from the waterfalls in the hills and from the lions residing in the mountain caves are unpleasant to hear. Large wild animals which are fearless and intoxicated sporting in the desolate forest would come forward with fury on seeing me. Streams or rivers filled with crocodiles would be an horror to cross. Pathways covered with creepers and thorns, echoed with the noise of wild cocks, are very hard to pass through. One has to sleep in nights on a bed of fallen leaves. With mind disciplined day and night, one has to necessarily satisfy oneself with fruits fallen from trees. Fasting is forced to the point of utter exhaustion. Clothes of bark are to be clad and a mass of matted hair has to be worn on the head. The celestials, the ancestors and any other guests who may arrive are to be worshiped always according to the prescribed rites. One has to take bath three times a day at appropriate time by the one moving in the forest, with one's mind kept in restraint. Offering is to be done with flowers gathered by oneself at the altar, according to the rites prescribed by the sages. The dwellers of forest are to be satisfied with whatever food is available there. There would be great storms that would make the forest more dark and fearsome. Due to non availability of suitable food we may have to go on hungry for days. Various creeping animals of different forms roam about on the earth with pride. Snakes dwelling in rivers, moving crookedly like rivers, stay obstructing the pathways. Flying insects, scorpions, insects including mosquitoes and flies always annoy every one. Anyone living in a forest has to face various bodily troubles and panics. Anger and greed are to be abandoned by the dwellers of forest. Devotion is to be bestowed on asceticism. What needs to be feared, should not be feared. Hence, living in a forest is a synonym for suffering. Therefore, please drop the idea of your coming to the forest. Forest life is definitely not bearable or suitable for you."
The more Rama was trying to dissuade her from following him to the forest, Seetha became more determined and angry. In exasperation she screamed
with tears flowing from her eyes "Oh! My dear husband, the very wise one! Don't you know that all those so called disadvantages you were reeling off about dwelling in the forest will become advantages to me, if only your affection is placed before them. Antelopes, lions, elephants, tigers, sarabhas(legendary animal with eight legs), birds, yaks and all others which roam in the forest, will run away on seeing your form, since they would never have seen before such a majestic and awesome figure like you. When there is a cause for fear, who would not have fear? As per the command of the elders, I should also go along with you. My life will have to be abandoned here, if I am to be separated from you. Even Devendra, the Lord of celestials, by his strength, cannot over power me, when in your vicinity. Verily such a thing was taught to me by you, that a woman disunited from her husband should cease to survive. Besides, formerly in my father's house I happen to hear from the mouth of brahmanas that I was destined to stay really in a forest. Ever since I heard such a thing from brahmanas who can interpret the marks on the body, I was always eager to stay in a forest. That prediction of my dwelling in the forest is being realised now. It is, therefore destined that I accompany you to the forest; it cannot be otherwise. I shall be the one who has fulfilled the brahmana's words. I shall accompany you to the forest. The time has come for the brahmana's words to come true. I know that in the forest, sufferings indeed are many and are invariably obtained by men having unformed minds. When I was an unmarried girl, the prediction about my dwelling in the forest was heard by me in my father's house from also a very good mannered female mendicant having a very good knowledge in such matters, in the presence of my mother. In the past, you have been really promised for many a time to take me along with you indeed for a tour of a forest, as longed by me. May all be well with you! I am waiting for a journey to the forest. A work-out of adventurist would really be delightful to me. Following my husband with loving devotion, I shall become sinless; for husband is the supreme deity for me. Even after my death, I shall stay united with you. On this subject, the meritorious words of brahmanas are 'In this world, which woman was given away to whom by parents with water according to the moral code binding on them, that woman belongs to him alone even after death.' By what reason now are you thus not willing to take me, the women having a good conduct, devoted to her husband and belonging to you, from this place? You ought to take me, who is so devoted to her husband and who is distressed and feels alike in pleasure and pain and shares with her husband joys and sorrows. I shall take resort to poison or fire or water for dying, if you are not willing to take me, afflicted as I am, as above."
Despite all her entreaties Rama was still not inclined to take Seetha with him to the forest due to the hardship she would be meeting there. He tried to pacify her explaining again the difficulties that would be met in the forest. Instead of being pacified, Seetha became more distressed and agitated. She looked at her husband and said hotly "Oh, Brave man! Are you afraid to take me to the forest? In that case do you know what my father, the king of Mithila, would think? He would think that he got a son-in-law namely, you, a woman in the form of a man. It is a pity that the people of Ayodhya through ignorance hold the false notion about your excellent valour. I wonder why you are trying to avoid me, for whom there is no other recourse. Know me to be as dependent on you as Savitri who was devoted to Satyavan the son of Dyumatsena. I will not see, even in thought, anyone except you as any other woman bringing disrepute to her family would! I shall accompany you to the forest. I am a young girl, lived for a long time with you, a chaste woman and your wife. How could you, like an actor intend to deliver me to others by your own will? Be always dutiful and obedient to him, whom you speak of welfare, for whose sake I am being kept back. (But it is improper to ask me to stay obedient to him). It is not proper for you as such to set out to the forest without taking me. Any term of austerities or forest or even heaven, it will have to be for me with you only. To me, who follows you behind, there will be no tiresomeness. I shall remain in the path without any fatigue, as remaining in a place of recreation or as in a sleep. While walking with you, blades of kusha grass, shrubs by the name of kaasa, reeds and rushes and plants with prickles which fall in the path will touch my soles like a heap of cotton or soft deerskin. I shall reckon the dust raised by the strongest wind that will cover my body as sandal dust of highest quality. While dwelling in the forest, in its midst, I shall lie down on green grass. Will lying in beds with carpets be more comfortable than that? Leaves, tubers and fruits either a little or abundant in quantity brought and given by you yourself will be like nectar to me. Enjoying the flowers and fruits belonging to various seasons there, I shall neither recollect my mother nor father nor my home. Hence, you are not justified to think of anything unpleasant there. There will be no annoyance to you because of me. I will not be difficult to be maintained. Your companionship will be a heaven to me. Without you, it will be a hell. My Darling! By knowing thus my great love, obtain supreme joy with me. On the contrary, if you do not take me, who is not alarmed of the forest as such, I shall drink poison now itself. But on no account would I bow to the enemies. As a result of grief I will not live afterwards when abandoned by you. Death will surely be my recourse at the time of your relinquishment of me. I cannot bear this grief even for a moment."
Seetha, with untold grief, exerted, lamented much piteously, embraced her husband and cried a lot with a loud voice and shedding tears copiously. Crystal-like tears oozed from her eyes, like water-drops from two lotus flowers. Her face with shining brilliance of the moon and having longish eyes, withered with tears as a lotus flower pulled out from water. Then Rama embraced her, who was depressed and had fainted as it were, told her reassuringly "Oh, Seetha, my lovely wife! I do not relish even heaven while you are in grief. There is indeed no fear whatsoever to me, like god Brahma. Even though I am able to protect you, without knowing your opinion, I do not like to force you to the forest life. It appears that you are indeed destined to dwell in the forest with me. Hence, you cannot be left behind by me, like the honour by a man of self-respect. Earlier, righteousness (like fulfilling the father's command) was practised by good men. Now, I shall follow that righteousness, like Suvarchala(wife of the sun) following the sun. I cannot desist from going to forest. That word of my father, made strong by his truthfulness is taking me to the forest. Being obedient to father and mother is one's sacred duty. That is why, I do not wish to survive, in violation of that duty. My mind was depressed to take you to the forest. But seeing that you are so determined to follow me, I think that it would be better if I take you to the forest with me. Follow me and become my help-mate. You adopted a very auspicious resolve, suitable in all ways to me and to your race. Now itself, begin with duties appropriate for living in exile. Even heaven will not be heaven without you. Give valuable gifts to Brahmanas and food to mendicants. Make them snappy. Do not delay. Give to the various classes of your dependents whatever costly ornaments, beautiful and fine articles of wearing apparel, gadgets used for sports, my couches, conveyances and other articles left after satisfying brahmanas."
Seetha, elated that her husband agreed to take her with him to the forest, quickly set about making gifts and was ready to follow her husband snappily.
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