One Min Ramayana-3- Lakshmana Swamy never drew Lakshmana rekha!!

Many of us believe that Sita-maatha was kidnapped because she crossed the Lakshman rekha. But there was no mention of Lakshman rekha in Valmiki Ramayana!!

So how did Ravana kidnap Sita-maatha? And what can we learn from this episode in Ramayana?

Before going into those details let me quote slokas in Valmiki Ramayana, related to this
episode.

In Aranyakanda, Sarga/Chapter 44, slokas no: 24 and 25 say that Rama was stunned when Mareecha

shouts “Ha Seetha and Ha Lakshmana” mimicking Rama’s voice. He immediately senses trouble and
starts to go towards his hut in the forest.

In the next chapter, i.e Sarga 45 Sita-maatha orders Lakshmana to go and check about Lord Rama-Slokas 1 and 2.

In the next slokas, Lakshmana Swamy tries to convince Sita-maatha that it may be some Rakshasa trick and no one can harm Lord Rama as he is so powerful.

Sloka no 24 onwards Sita-maatha gets restless and impatient. She feels time is running out. She gets frustrated and gets conquered by anger. In an extreme state of mental distress, Sita-maatha says Lakshmana may be eyeing her and also Bharatha sent him as a spy to make sure Rama is finished. These slokas make Lakshmana leave immediately. There was no mention of Lakshmana rekha as per Sarga/Chapter 45 in Aranyakanda
of Valmiki Ramayana.

In Sloka no 40, Valmiki Maharshi specifically describes how Lakshmana left the place offering respects to Sita-maatha. Clearly there is no mention of Lakshmana Rekha in any of the slokas in this Sarga/Chapter.

So what do we learn from this episode? What is the reason for Seetha maatha kidnap?

2 reasons – Dissatisfaction and Anger.

1. Lord Rama is described as Pumsaya Mohana Rupaya punya slokaya mangalam. That means he was so
handsome that even Males used to admire his handsomeness. In spite of having such a beautiful person in front of her, Seetha maatha still longed for another beautiful thing, i.e the golden deer in this context.

We too in our lives, although we have something comfortable, we are never satisfied and keep longing

for more. Even though we have God within us, we cannot realize it since we always keep longing for

worldly pleasures.

2. Next, Seetha maatha says something to Lakshmana that she should not have said, that is because she gets conquered by Anger. She may not mean it but she just says it in a fit of rage which makes Lakshmana leave immediately looking for Rama.

So because of dis-satisfaction and anger, she lost her protectors and Ravana was able to kidnap her.

If we can learn this moral that we should not be dissatisfied or conquered by anger, then we may

avoid such tragedy that Seetha maatha had to go through.

Source: Valmiki Ramayana and BrahmaSri SriBhashyam gaari Pravachanam

Sri Rama Jayam.