At the outset let me make it clear that I am not an atheist, I am a staunch believer in the higher power called god and I worship, pray and celebrate the higher power and I am definitely not questioning anyone's belief or faith. I am just presenting my views.
Story starts with a crown prince being sent on exile by his step mother so that her real son could inherit the crown. The prince dutifully obeys his step mother and leaves for exile and his wife follows her husband where ever he goes as an ideal wife is expected to do. Once they are in the forest living their days of exile and hardship the wife is kidnapped by an influential king who is smitten by her beauty. Thus begins the story of how the prince builds his army and fights the evil king and wins back his wife. This saga of victory of good over evil is worshipped and celebrated in the Hindu mythology as Ramayana the greatest epic of all time. The prince comes back to his kingdom and is worshipped by one and all for his righteousness and big golden heart and courage and is crowned as the king. So far so good!!!
But what actually captured my attention in this epic was the Agni pariksha part. Our righteous prince after winning back his wife from the evil king makes her go through fire test to prove that she was untouched and remained pure during her stay as a captive in the evil king's custody and the fire god himself comes out and assures the prince of our lady's loyalty. Applause applause applause!!!!!!!!!!! I don't know who scored the brownie points here. Ram our beloved prince for making his wife enter into the fire or the fire god for proving someone else's wife's loyalty or the wife who instead of giving her husband one tight slap for asking her to do all this nonsense and questioning him to prove his loyalty instead actually jumped into the fire!!!! Actually all three of them (including our fire god) deserve to be thrown from the highest peak of Himalayas and yeah definitely the audience who have been worshipping this male chauvinistic epic for ages needs to be thrown into that very fire for sure.
My question is simple, why did it never occur to anyone to question lord Ram and put him through some fire test or whatever test to prove his loyalty considering he was also away from his wife and he was free to fall for any kind of temptations and distraction. But I guess some questions can never be answered.
Now moving to part 2 of our act. Back in the kingdom our new king and queen (lord Ram and his fire certified loyal wife) are leading a happily ever after life when one day our king Ram hears some random guy talking to some other random guy about the queen and her character and gossiping about her stay in evil king's palace. King Ram is shocked to hear this and what happens next is actually my favourite part. Our righteous king comes back home and throws away his pregnant wife without giving her any chance just because he does not want his image as a king to be tarnished among his country men. Amazing!!!!!! Our king is now promoted as the super king for all the righteous acts he does (which includes choosing his country men and his image over his pregnant wife) and we for ages continue to worship this man for his courage, righteousness and his selflessness. A man who can not defend his wife in front of some random man and throws a pregnant wife out of his life so that his image as a king is not tarnished is definitely worth worshipping!
I just have one question- In a society with highest number of crimes against women do we still need to advertise and idealise such epics as examples of righteousness and do we still need to worship such men as god. May be lord Ram had super powers and may be he defeated a mighty Ravan with his powers but a man needs much more than just power to be worshipped as a god. I was a 12 year old when I heard this part of the Ramayana epic and ever since then I just have one conclusion for the epic. Lord Ram was an ordinary man, just an ordinary man. Power does not make you a god