The Flying Chariot: Rama Shows Sita the Road

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Dharma Katha · Season 4: The Road to Diwali · Episode 126 Imagine flying over every place where your life fell apart. Not in a dream. In daylight, with the person you lost beside you, looking down at the forest where you were separated, the lake where you wept, the hill where a friend died for you. And this time, you are going home. That is what happens next in the Ramayana. Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 125 first. Source note. Label: scripture. Rama's refusal to bathe while Bharata lives as an ascetic, Vibhishana's gift of the Pushpaka, the vanaras honoured and joining the journey, the flight in which Rama shows Sita Lanka, the battlefield, the bridge Nalasetu, Kishkindha, where Sita asks for Tara, Ruma and the other women to come, Rishyamuka, Pampa, Janasthana and Jatayu, Panchavati, Agastya's and Sharabhanga's ashrams, Chitrakuta, the Yamuna, the Ganga at Shringaverapura, the Sarayu and Ayodhya, are in the Valmiki Ramayana, Yuddha Kanda, around sargas one hundred and twenty-one to one hundred and twenty-three in popular vulgate editions; numbering differs in the critical edition. The line about Shiva's grace at the bridge is in popular texts; the full Rameshwaram story belongs to later texts and temple tradition. Some details I have abridged. The reflections are my own. Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.