Kochu poocha kunjinoru kochamali pattil Kachi vacha choodu pal oodi chenu nakki kunju navu polliyappol kunji poocha kenu Myau.. Myau.. Myau.. Myau..

here’s the translation in case you can’t understand

The cute little kitten met with a small accident It ran and drank the boiled milk in a hurry The little tongue was burnt and it started crying Myav…Myav….Myav….Myav….

oh beta, so many lies. Did your little tongue get burnt from all those jhooths? it’s ok, we know how unhappy you were after you got humiliated here last week. we know you want to try to redeem yourself. don’t worry, we still love you. now ja, have some ice cream and come back when you are not so offset…

oh “gby”, what lie? you, i meant wry, said the supreme court found her guilty of perjury. this is plainly false. the toi reporter’s credibility has been successfully questioned – what he claimed was the sit report was merely the gujarat counsel talking about the gujarat govt’s (gosh! self serving report), as newspapers and commenters have observed. even if that was in question, the supreme court has not found her guilty of a single thing – instead it has acquitted her of similar charges in the past, and both the supreme court and the head of the sit have taken great offense to leaking of comments made in court.

Ginti Geet Nursery Rhyme Ek do, kabhi na ro theen chaar rakhna pyar paanch che, mil kar rakh saath aat pad le paat nov das jore se hans.

Did you learn you numbers? Yaaay!

All it took from the moment you started commenting on this blog was a couple of comments questioning your claims and your petty, abusive, mendacious nature was laid bare, despite your best attempts. Well, I guess it is 5 more years of frothing at the mouth for you, good luck with continuing to spout your lies to whomever will buy your garbage I did want to bid adieu, your pathetic whining was too hilarious for me to resist. But since you are begging and pleading for me to desist, I cannot but pity you at what must be such a dark moment for you given that your favorite party (which, of course, you are not peddling) was soundly routed, and will let you proceed with your falsehoods.

Well guess what – they all got issues!

My point is this – the media shapes minds. The Ramayana was media way before it ever reached Doordarshan and despite the fact that most people who believe in it could not read. It was and remains an oral tradition. Oral traditions are media. Media has an effect on the minds and ethos of a people bit by bit, over time. Some of those effects are good, some are bad, most are a combination. All cultures practice mind control. All controls seek to brainwash. All cultures want conformity.

See here;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CWMCt35oFY&feature=related

Sitayana,

The effect of the Ramayana as a whole on hindu society has been an emphasis on duty, a reverence of mother and father, younger brother for older brother, and the exhortation for good to stand up against evil. Rama and Sita have been celebrated for their dedication to each other in spite of royal polygamy being the norm. For the sake of argument, even if we assume that the Uttara Khanda should be considered a part of the original, the message in it is not for men to not stand by their women. As I noted above, the message is that a king’s duty to his subjects come even before his queen. Sita was no doubt blameless and was obviously wronged, but that’s also why Rama was heartbroken when he let her go and begged her to return when he found out about Lava and Kusha. That was what yoga fire was trying to say. Either one can continue to focus on individual motifs and use irrelevant constructs to develop a template of misogyny (aka a stick with which to beat hinduism), or one can view the entire epic holistically and imbibe the real message that comes through.

In essence, you find the things you are looking for. If you are looking for misogynists and wronged women you will always find them. If you are looking for morals that can help better your life and your familial and personal relationships, you will also find it. The choice is yours.

To answer your question, contrary to what you are probably looking for, the agni pareeksha was, for obvious reasons, never really practiced in hindu society. There is absolutely no link to Sati. For that, you would have to refer to the Puranas where Sati (Shiva’s first wife) first committed the act of her own volition in her anger at Daksha’s(her father) treatment of Shiva. She no longer wished to be his daughter and was later reincarnated as Parvati. If you are really that interested in trials by fire in society, you would have to refer to European Civilization and Christianity. The Inquisitions and witch-burning that took place, would I am sure, be an interesting study for gender sociologists everywhere. As to whether Christian holy books, rather than depraved and power hungry abusers of religion, were responsible, you would have to confer with a biblical specialist.