The Exile

Last week we cognized various aspects of Bharat's character those were unknown to us, certainly he did set high standards of brotherly love and devotion, but there's a lot more of his mettle we are to know. Before that! before knowing more of him, I must put out the aspects of the exile first. Shri Ram was announced as the future king of Ayodhya, celebrations were on, every citizen was in a joyful state waiting for the coronation.

But suddenly the tables were turned overnight; that one night, turned a loving step-mother against his dear step-son, made an powerful king so weak that he couldn't defend his most valuable possession, his son and the commandment was out that changed everything. I am often asked a lot about Shri Ram's exile, for example why did Shri Ram chose the certain route for his exile over the other pleasant options, why didn't he stayed near Ayodhya?

To answer the FAQs and understand the working of the divine, let's get sorted one by one:

The displacement of Mareech proved to be a logical shift. It showed that Shri Ram was already aware of destiny and in future it proved to be a reason good enough for choosing Chitrakoot followed by Panchwati where Mareech confronted Shri Ram again, only to get liberated of his hands.
In order to forewarn the impregnable Rakshas empire, Shri Ram chose his stay at Mount Chitrakoot that was adjacent to Dandkaranya(outpost of the rakshas empire, current day region of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh{confluent}). There he met sage Valmiki who helped him selecting an ideal spot to build his hermitage as well as sages who aware him about the menaces of the rakshasas that wasn't much known to him(humane perspective).
Though the Suryavanshees were efficacious in the whole Earth along with Aryavart, yet there wasn't much of an communication or territorial integrity among them. The rakshasas under Raavarn’s shelter had based in the forest regions of the Dandkaranya and were endorsing unethical practices along with tormenting the sages.

While preparing for the exile, Shri Ram also prepared himself strategizing as to how he would approach this region. The persecution of the rakshasas was well known. It was time for him to execute the very motive of his incarnation as well as installing dharm and expanding the ambits of Aryavart for the world’s benefit with the elimination of Raavarn.
The varn-vyavastha followed those times was ideal, without any disparity. But that had a slight adverse effect, lesser participation from the cogent minds of lower castes due to lack of motivation from the regime. Also, there was negligible rapprochement between the Aryan kingdoms and the southern kingdoms including the vaanars. Shri Ram unified the Aryan kingdoms with the great Kishkindha through Lanka. The kingdoms of the south also were affected by that positively as due to the torments and the dread created by Raavarn the communications were gone null. Shri Ram's association with Guh, Shabri and the vaanars improved the interactions.

Raavarn-Vaddha wasn't the only motive of incarnation, the exile was meant to serve a lot more purposes and the above stated points brings our attention to that. The commandment for exile was meant to be only for Shri Ram but Devi Sita stressed on her going she was aware that without her the actual motive won't be accomplished, together, they both planned the exile and succeeded. Lakshmarn, though not aware of the divine also went along as without him it would have been difficult.

Thus started the chain of events, that resulted in the installation of Dharma.