Apart from its crucial value to the plot of the Ramayana, the episode of Maricha illustrates how human desire is the greatest enemy to man, bringing in its wake sin, sorrow and misery, said Kidambi Sri Narayanan. Desire takes root when Sita is enticed by the golden deer and yearns for it. This is despite the fact that Sita is the embodiment of dharma, on a par with Rama.
Both Rama and Lakshmana are aware that after the humiliating defeat at Rama’s hands in Janasthana, the rakshasas would be planning retaliatory tactics. So, they suspect their cunning hand in the appearance of the golden deer in the vicinity of the hermitage. But Sita refuses to even think on these lines and is bent on having her way. She even feels that Lakshmana is dead against her desire to possess the deer and hence is preventing Rama from going after it.
In the Gita, Arjuna asks Krishna about how people are driven to commit sin, as if by force, even against their will. Desire when thwarted turns into anger, says Krishna. The Lord explains how craving is born when ‘rajas’ is dominant and demands to be satiated. But the irony is that it is never satisfied by the enjoyment of the objects of desire. In fact it grows as does the fire that is fed with fuel. The insatiable fire of desire envelops the inherent good sense within all beings, causing one to act in sinful ways. This is what happens when Sita turns her ire against Lakshmana who is caught in a dilemma, a situation when obeying Rama means disobeying Sita and vice versa.
Sita commits the sin of slandering Lakshmana. But she herself is easily deceived by the sly Ravana, who, comes in the guise of a sanyasi. The desire for Sita which Ravana nurtures ultimately brings about his downfall.
