Was Sita Really Born from the Earth?

Question

Another question arises from the story where Anusuya asks Sita to tell her life story. Sita says that her father, King Janaka, was plowing the field for a yajna (sacrifice), and while plowing the land, she appeared from the earth — that she was a girl not born of a womb, ayonija.

So the question is: is it really possible for a child to appear from the ground?

Answer

King Janaka was plowing the land to prepare the field for a yajna, and as he plowed, a girl appeared — that girl was Sita. Now, let’s look at what this really means. The yajna ground mentioned here is symbolic.

We’ve discussed before, in the Bhagavad Gita, that one should make every action into a yajna. Until our actions become yajna-like, we must bear their consequences; but when we make our actions into yajna, we’re freed from their results.

So what does yajna really mean?
Yajna means performing an action without ego, without attachment to the result, and without pride of doership. When our actions become free of ego and desire, they are called yajna.

Here, the story says that King Janaka was plowing the field for a yajna. That does not mean an external ritual fire with offerings and chants. The real yajna is to act without ego. And when can we do that? — only when knowledge (gyān) arises within us.

Now, plowing the field (hal chalana) is also symbolic. The plow represents knowledge. When we run the plow of knowledge over the field of our mind and intellect, the impurities — lust, anger, greed, attachment, and jealousy — are removed, and that inner field becomes pure.

Think of it physically: when you plow land, the stones and clods are thrown aside, and the soil becomes fertile. Similarly, when we plow our mind–intellect field with the plow of knowledge, the impurities are thrown out, and our inner field becomes clean and fruitful.

In the Vedas (not just in the Puranas), it is said that when a piece of land is plowed and the stones are removed, that line of freshly turned, purified soil is called “Sītā” — literally, “a furrow.” That’s the physical meaning.

Spiritually, when the impurities are removed from our mind and intellect, and purity arises within, that purity itself is called Sita. So the girl born there was named Sita — because, just as the plowed, fertile line in the soil is called Sita, the purified mind-intellect is also called Sita.

Therefore, Sita is not a woman in the literal sense. We think of Sita as a lady walking behind Rama, but at the spiritual level, Sita means purity of thought — the purity of our thinking.

Until we plow our mind–intellect with the plow of knowledge, our thinking remains impure. When we do plow it with knowledge, our thoughts become pure. That is what Sita represents — the symbol of pure thinking.

So, no, a child cannot literally be born from the earth. Whether one believes in science or scripture, this is true — we should never fall into such superstitions.

But we have. Even many who study the Ramayana deeply, with good intentions, do not realize this simple fact: no child can come out of the ground. Our scriptures contain many such symbolic stories — even Rama’s birth was said to happen through payas (divine pudding).

Why don’t we question that? Can eating a bowl of pudding really produce a child? Can plowing a field really produce a girl? It is simply not possible. But we’ve become so caught in belief, so deeply rooted in blind acceptance, that even intelligent people have accepted such things without inquiry.

That’s why we fail to reach the real knowledge that the scriptures aim to convey. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are also Puranas — long narratives written in symbolic form. Because of that narrative form, we began treating them as literal “history,” as something that happened outside.

But these things don’t happen outside — they happen within us.
When we plow our inner field — our mind and intellect — with the plow of knowledge, purity arises within. That’s what the story means.

So we must separate the outer from the inner. Our scriptures always point inward. Outer things we already know — what we need is inner understanding. Without knowledge, without understanding the essence, if we keep reading our scriptures as mere stories or history, what will we gain?

At best, we become emotional, we feel devotion, but we miss the truth. Many people read these texts and become emotional, but they ignore the inner reality. Here, we are not walking the path of emotion; we are walking the path of understanding.

So remember — no child is born from the earth. The story speaks of the birth of purity within the field of our mind.