Sati - What is the real legend
- Leena Mehendale 25.11.99 Pioneer Delhi
Taken up for correction 15 aug 2012)
The word Sati has been the catch-word in last two weeks in the media. Scenarios and conclusions have been hyped. Ordinarily the word Sati has come to be associated with a backward looking, non-developmental mind. There is no dearth of words to describe how the illiterate, uneducated, dumb women of our country fall prey to the vision of Sati. This is an issue where I consider the intelligentia guilty on more than one count. Firstly they have not made proper assessment of the enormity of the problem which is both quantitative and qualitative. We have nearly fifty crore women in the country out of which more than twenty crore are illiterate, and uneducated. Those who are educated are either steeped in tradition without knowing where the original idea came from or are extremely critical of present day tradition but have not tried to look into the origin and enlighten others about it.
The idea of Sati has not come from some meek women surrendering to death after the demise of the husband. In fact, the original legendary personality in Indian mythology bearing the name Sati was the beloved daughter of Prajapati Daksha and the beloved wife of Lord Shiva. Those were the days of early human settlements of the Vedic period. There appears to have been an attempt to relegate Shiva in the background and project Indra and such other deities in the fore front. Hence Daksha organised a Yagnya for which all deities and local leaders were invited except Lord Shiva and his wife Sati.
The story goes that Sati learnt of this Yagnya, and feeling that she need not stand on the formalities of being invited by her own father, went to attend the Yagnya where she was not welcome. Further, she found that while all smaller and bigger deities were given their due recognitiion, Lord shiva, was sought to be dismissed and ignored despite his great capabilities. Furious at the behaviour of all her society, her kith and kin, for their inability to recognize and respect the abilities of Lord Shiva, she created her own fire through Yogic action and immolated herself. She condemned the society and ordained that Lord Shiva who was otherwise too docile, lenient and tolerant towards their misdemeanour must come forward and take revenge of her death and demand and ensure that the society recognises and respects his due place.
Thus we see that the first mythological personality performing self-immolation and giving her name Sati to the act of self-immolation was a fiery lady, well versed in Hathoyoga, to be able to create her own Yogic Fire and also well versed in how society should behave and why the due respect must be given by society to a person of abilities.
She is perhaps the first person to have emphasized that Rights are NOT for surrendering. She performed self-immolation not on her husband's pier as it were, but as a protest against the society who failed to give respect and recognition where it was due. She was a fighter for her rights and her husband's right and a martyr to that cause rather than someone who gives up fight against society because the husband had died.
Another glorious personality of Indian mythology who is reverred equally as Sati and for the similarly wrong ideas is Savitri. Here was another fighter. She was a princess and a great warrier who used to accompany her father on battlefields. She was a great charioteer and a horse rider. She set out on a long journey all alone so that she could find a suitable husband for herself. She found Satyawan, who once a prince, was living in jungles with his old parents after his father lost his kingdom in a battle and had become blind. What had Satyawan to offer to a princess but for his truthfulness! When Savitri went back to her father and declared her decision to marry Satyawan, her father and the counsellors were aghast at first. The fortune tellers of her father's court tried to disuade her by pointing out that Satywan was destined to die after a year.
Look at the sharp wit and intelligence of Savitri. She asked whether she was destined to be a widow! "No" came the answer. "Then where was need to worry for the destiny of Satyawan?"
The same wit is seen again when finally the Death God Yama comes to take away the life of Satyawan. First Yama has to acknowledge that she could see him face to face because she was utterly fearless. Later she tricked Yama in returning life back to Satyawan. Savitri fought her war with Yama not by weapons but by keeping her cool, going with Yama and engaging him in a polite but brilliant conversation in which she could trick him. This was a battle of wits and nerve!
Savitri is the only personality in the Indian or the world mythology who is Mrityunjayee i.e. the conqueror of Death. What a denigration of our society that an act of meekly surrendering before the world, the society and the Death by a woman gets associated with the two great ladies who did exactly the opposite. One fought for her husband's rightful place and did something to bring him to realise that he must demand his rights. The other fought and conquered the Death God himself.
Why has not our society been able to catch and retain a glimpse of their fighting spirit? And what a failure of our intelligentia to educate the men and women of this country regarding what was the true fighting spirits of Sati and Savitri. Our intelligentia have learned only to condemn those millions of men and women who love and adore the stories of Sati and Savitri for their superstitions and their patriarchal attitudes. Instead why not educate them about the original personalities and their issues! Is not it high time to educate people that the word Sati cannot be associated with any lady not having the courage to dare and to challenge the society! Sati and Savitri are for daring, challenging and conquering your rights even by defeating Death itself.
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