Canto 2 -
Ayodhyā-kāṇḍa
Chapter 27: Sītā Requests Rāma to Take Her to the Forest
Text 2.27.5
भर्तुर्भाग्यं तु भार्यैका प्राप्नोति पुरुषर्षभ।
अतश्चैवाहमादिष्टा वने वस्तव्यमित्यपि॥
bhartur bhāgyaṁ tu bhāryaikā prāpnoti puruṣa-rṣabha
ataś caivāham ādiṣṭā vane vastavyam ity api
bhartuḥ = of her husband; bhāgyam = the results of the activities; tu = but; bhāryā = a wife; ekā = alone; prāpnoti = attains; puruṣa-rṣabha = O prince; ataḥ ca eva = therefore; aham = I; ādiṣṭā = have been instructed; vane = in the forest [along with You]; vastavyam iti = to live; api = also.
O prince, but a wife alone attains the results of the activities of her husband. Therefore I have also been instructed to live in the forest [along with You].
1 This is the duty of a wife. But what is the duty of a husband? That is noted in the first half of the next sentence.
Each of the persons mentioned in text 4 experience the results of their own activities. [But] a wife alone experiences the result of her husband’s activities because she is half of her husband’s body because she alone is eligible for it. Therefore, Sītā-devī considered that she has also been ordered to reside in the forest. She implies that because both of them are companions in dharma, a [dhārmika] instruction to him also applies to her.
NOTE. Śrīla Prabhupāda has stated in this regard in his purport to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.11.29:
The faithfulness of the goddess of fortune is the ideal for a chaste woman. The Brahma-saṁhitā (5.29) says, lakṣmī-sahasra-śata-sambhrama-sevyamānam. In the Vaikuṇṭha planets, Lord Viṣṇu is worshiped by many, many thousands of goddesses of fortune, and in Goloka Vṛndāvana, Lord Kṛṣṇa is worshiped by many, many thousands of gopīs, all of whom are goddesses of fortune. A woman should serve her husband as faithfully as the goddess of fortune.1 A man should be an ideal servant of the Lord, and a woman should be an ideal wife like the goddess of fortune. Then both husband and wife will be so faithful and strong that by acting together they will return home, back to Godhead, without a doubt.