Ramayana, Book 2, The

<SPAN name="toc193" id="toc193"></SPAN> <SPAN name="pdf194" id="pdf194"></SPAN> <SPAN name="CantoII-XIX" id="CantoII-XIX" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Canto XIX. Ráma's Promise.</span></h2> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>Calm and unmoved by threatened woe</div> <div>The noble conqueror of the foe</div> <div>Answered the cruel words she spoke,</div> <div>Nor quailed beneath the murderous stroke:</div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“Yea, for my father's promise sake</span></div> <div>I to the wood my way will take,</div> <div>And dwell a lonely exile there</div> <div>In hermit dress with matted hair.</div> <div>One thing alone I fain would learn,</div> <div>Why is the king this day so stern?</div> <div>Why is the scourge of foes so cold,</div> <div>Nor gives me greeting as of old?</div> <div>Now let not anger flush thy cheek:</div> <div>Before thy face the truth I speak,</div> <div>In hermit's coat with matted hair</div> <div>To the wild wood will I repair.</div> <div>How can I fail his will to do,</div> <div>Friend, master, grateful sovereign too?</div> <div>One only pang consumes my breast:</div> <div>That his own lips have not expressed</div> <div>His will, nor made his longing known</div> <div>That Bharat should ascend the throne.</div> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page115"></span><SPAN name="Pg115" id="Pg115" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <div>To Bharat I would yield my wife,</div> <div>My realm and wealth, mine own dear life,</div> <div>Unasked I fain would yield them all:</div> <div>More gladly at my father's call,</div> <div>More gladly when the gift may free</div> <div>His honour and bring joy to thee.</div> <div>Thus, lady, his sad heart release</div> <div>From the sore shame, and give him peace.</div> <div>But tell me, O, I pray thee, why</div> <div>The lord of men, with downcast eye,</div> <div>Lies prostrate thus, and one by one</div> <div>Down his pale cheek the tear-drops run.</div> <div>Let couriers to thy father speed</div> <div>On horses of the swiftest breed,</div> <div>And, by the mandate of the king,</div> <div>Thy Bharat to his presence bring.</div> <div>My father's words I will not stay</div> <div>To question, but this very day</div> <div>To Daṇḍak's pathless wild will fare,</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >For twice seven years an exile there.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>When Ráma thus had made reply</div> <div>Kaikeyí's heart with joy beat high.</div> <div>She, trusting to the pledge she held,</div> <div>The youth's departure thus impelled:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“'Tis well. Be messengers despatched</span></div> <div>On coursers ne'er for fleetness matched,</div> <div>To seek my father's home and lead</div> <div>My Bharat back with all their speed.</div> <div>And, Ráma, as I ween that thou</div> <div>Wilt scarce endure to linger now,</div> <div>So surely it were wise and good</div> <div>This hour to journey to the wood.</div> <div>And if, with shame cast down and weak,</div> <div>No word to thee the king can speak,</div> <div>Forgive, and from thy mind dismiss</div> <div>A trifle in an hour like this.</div> <div>But till thy feet in rapid haste</div> <div>Have left the city for the waste,</div> <div>And to the distant forest fled,</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >He will not bathe nor call for bread.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“Woe! woe!”</span> from the sad monarch burst,</div> <div>In surging floods of grief immersed;</div> <div>Then swooning, with his wits astray,</div> <div>Upon the gold-wrought couch he lay,</div> <div>And Ráma raised the aged king:</div> <div>But the stern queen, unpitying,</div> <div>Checked not her needless words, nor spared</div> <div>The hero for all speed prepared,</div> <div>But urged him with her bitter tongue,</div> <div>Like a good horse with lashes stung,</div> <div>She spoke her shameful speech. Serene</div> <div>He heard the fury of the queen,</div> <div>And to her words so vile and dread</div> <div>Gently, unmoved in mind, he said:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“I would not in this world remain</span></div> <div>A grovelling thrall to paltry gain,</div> <div>But duty's path would fain pursue,</div> <div>True as the saints themselves are true.</div> <div>From death itself I would not fly</div> <div>My father's wish to gratify,</div> <div>What deed soe'er his loving son</div> <div>May do to please him, think it done.</div> <div>Amid all duties, Queen, I count</div> <div>This duty first and paramount,</div> <div>That sons, obedient, aye fulfil</div> <div>Their honoured fathers' word and will.</div> <div>Without his word, if thou decree,</div> <div>Forth to the forest will I flee,</div> <div>And there shall fourteen years be spent</div> <div>Mid lonely wilds in banishment.</div> <div>Methinks thou couldst not hope to find</div> <div>One spark of virtue in my mind,</div> <div>If thou, whose wish is still my lord,</div> <div>Hast for this grace the king implored.</div> <div>This day I go, but, ere we part,</div> <div>Must cheer my Sítá's tender heart,</div> <div>To my dear mother bid farewell;</div> <div>Then to the woods, a while to dwell.</div> <div>With thee, O Queen, the care must rest</div> <div>That Bharat hear his sire's behest,</div> <div>And guard the land with righteous sway,</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >For such the law that lives for aye.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>In speechless woe the father heard,</div> <div>Wept with loud cries, but spoke no word.</div> <div>Then Ráma touched his senseless feet,</div> <div>And hers, for honour most unmeet;</div> <div>Round both his circling steps he bent,</div> <div>Then from the bower the hero went.</div> <div>Soon as he reached the gate he found</div> <div>His dear companions gathered round.</div> <div>Behind him came Sumitrá's child</div> <div>With weeping eyes so sad and wild.</div> <div>Then saw he all that rich array</div> <div>Of vases for the glorious day.</div> <div>Round them with reverent stops he paced,</div> <div>Nor vailed his eye, nor moved in haste.</div> <div>The loss of empire could not dim</div> <div>The glory that encompassed him.</div> <div>So will the Lord of Cooling Rays<SPAN id="noteref_286" name="noteref_286" href="#note_286"><span class="tei tei-noteref" ><span style="font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">286</span></span></SPAN></div> <div>On whom the world delights to gaze,</div> <div>Through the great love of all retain</div> <div>Sweet splendour in the time of wane.</div> <div>Now to the exile's lot resigned</div> <div>He left the rule of earth behind:</div> <div>As though all worldly cares he spurned</div> <div>No trouble was in him discerned.</div> <div>The chouries that for kings are used,</div> <div>And white umbrella, he refused,</div> <div>Dismissed his chariot and his men,</div> <div>And every friend and citizen.</div> <div>He ruled his senses, nor betrayed</div> <div>The grief that on his bosom weighed,</div> <div>And thus his mother's mansion sought</div> <div>To tell the mournful news he brought.</div> <div>Nor could the gay-clad people there</div> <div>Who flocked round Ráma true and fair,</div> <div>One sign of altered fortune trace</div> <div>Upon the splendid hero's face.</div> <div>Nor had the chieftain, mighty-armed,</div> <div>Lost the bright look all hearts that charmed,</div> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page116"></span><SPAN name="Pg116" id="Pg116" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <div>As e'en from autumn moons is thrown</div> <div>A splendour which is all their own.</div> <div>With his sweet voice the hero spoke</div> <div>Saluting all the gathered folk,</div> <div>Then righteous-souled and great in fame</div> <div>Close to his mother's house he came.</div> <div>Lakshmaṇ the brave, his brother's peer</div> <div>In princely virtues, followed near,</div> <div>Sore troubled, but resolved to show</div> <div>No token of his secret woe.</div> <div>Thus to the palace Ráma went</div> <div>Where all were gay with hope and joy;</div> <div>But well he knew the dire event</div> <div>That hope would mar, that bliss destroy.</div> <div>So to his grief he would not yield</div> <div>Lest the sad change their hearts might rend,</div> <div>And, the dread tiding unrevealed,</div> <div>Spared from the blow each faithful friend.</div> </div> <SPAN name="toc195" id="toc195"></SPAN> <SPAN name="pdf196" id="pdf196"></SPAN> <SPAN name="CantoII-XX" id="CantoII-XX" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Canto XX. Kausalyá's Lament.</span></h2> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>But in the monarch's palace, when</div> <div>Sped from the bower that lord of men,</div> <div>Up from the weeping women went</div> <div>A mighty wail and wild lament:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“Ah, he who ever freely did</span></div> <div>His duty ere his sire could bid,</div> <div>Our refuge and our sure defence,</div> <div>This day will go an exile hence,</div> <div>He on Kauśalyá loves to wait</div> <div>Most tender and affectionate,</div> <div>And as he treats his mother, thus</div> <div>From childhood has he treated us.</div> <div>On themes that sting he will not speak,</div> <div>And when reviled is calm and meek.</div> <div>He soothes the angry, heals offence:</div> <div>He goes to-day an exile hence.</div> <div>Our lord the king is most unwise,</div> <div>And looks on life with doting eyes,</div> <div>Who in his folly casts away</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >The world's protection, hope, and stay.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>Thus in their woe, like kine bereaved</div> <div>Of their young calves,<SPAN id="noteref_287" name="noteref_287" href="#note_287"><span class="tei tei-noteref" ><span style="font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">287</span></span></SPAN> the ladies grieved,</div> <div>And ever as they wept and wailed</div> <div>With keen reproach the king assailed.</div> <div>Their lamentation, mixed with tears,</div> <div>Smote with new grief the monarch's ears,</div> <div>Who, burnt with woe too great to bear,</div> <div>Fell on his couch and fainted there.</div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>Then Ráma, smitten with the pain</div> <div>His heaving heart could scarce restrain,</div> <div>Groaned like an elephant and strode</div> <div>With Lakshmaṇ to the queen's abode.</div> <div>A warder there, whose hoary eld</div> <div>In honour high by all was held,</div> <div>Guarding the mansion, sat before</div> <div>The portal, girt with many more.</div> <div>Swift to their feet the warders sprang,</div> <div>And loud the acclamation rang,</div> <div>Hail, Ráma! as to him they bent,</div> <div>Of victor chiefs preëminent.</div> <div>One court he passed, and in the next</div> <div>Saw, masters of each Veda text,</div> <div>A crowd of Bráhmans, good and sage,</div> <div>Dear to the king for lore and age.</div> <div>To these he bowed his reverent head,</div> <div>Thence to the court beyond he sped.</div> <div>Old dames and tender girls, their care</div> <div>To keep the doors, were stationed there.</div> <div>And all, when Ráma came in view,</div> <div>Delighted to the chamber flew,</div> <div>To bear to Queen Kauśalyá's ear</div> <div>The tidings that she loved to hear.</div> <div>The queen, on rites and prayer intent,</div> <div>In careful watch the night had spent,</div> <div>And at the dawn, her son to aid,</div> <div>To Vishṇu holy offerings made.</div> <div>Firm in her vows, serenely glad,</div> <div>In robes of spotless linen clad,</div> <div>As texts prescribe, with grace implored,</div> <div>Her offerings in the fire she poured.</div> <div>Within her splendid bower he came,</div> <div>And saw her feed the sacred flame.</div> <div>There oil, and grain, and vases stood,</div> <div>With wreaths, and curds, and cates, and wood,</div> <div>And milk, and sesamum, and rice,</div> <div>The elements of sacrifice.</div> <div>She, worn and pale with many a fast</div> <div>And midnight hours in vigil past,</div> <div>In robes of purest white arrayed,</div> <div>To Lakshmí Queen drink-offerings paid.</div> <div>So long away, she flew to meet</div> <div>The darling of her soul:</div> <div>So runs a mare with eager feet</div> <div>To welcome back her foal.</div> <div>He with his firm support upheld</div> <div>The queen, as near she drew,</div> <div>And, by maternal love impelled,</div> <div>Her arms around him threw.</div> <div>Her hero son, her matchless boy</div> <div>She kissed upon the head:</div> <div>She blessed him in her pride and joy</div> <div>With tender words, and said:</div> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page117"></span><SPAN name="Pg117" id="Pg117" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“Be like thy royal sires of old,</span></div> <div>The nobly good, the lofty-souled!</div> <div>Their lengthened days and fame be thine,</div> <div>And virtue, as beseems thy line!</div> <div>The pious king, thy father, see</div> <div>True to his promise made to thee:</div> <div>That truth thy sire this day will show,</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >And regent's power on thee bestow.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>She spoke. He took the proffered seat,</div> <div>And as she pressed her son to eat,</div> <div>Raised reverent bands, and, touched with shame,</div> <div>Made answer to the royal dame:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“Dear lady, thou hast yet to know</span></div> <div>That danger threats, and heavy woe:</div> <div>A grief that will with sore distress</div> <div>On Sítá, thee, and Lakshmaṇ press.</div> <div>What need of seats have such as I?</div> <div>This day to Daṇḍak wood I fly.</div> <div>The hour is come, a time, unmeet</div> <div>For silken couch and gilded seat.</div> <div>I must to lonely wilds repair,</div> <div>Abstain from flesh, and living there</div> <div>On roots, fruit, honey, hermit's food,</div> <div>Pass twice seven years in solitude.</div> <div>To Bharat's hand the king will yield</div> <div>The regent power I thought to wield,</div> <div>And me, a hermit, will he send</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >My days in Daṇḍak wood to spend.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>As when the woodman's axe has lopped</div> <div>A Śal branch in the grove, she dropped:</div> <div>So from the skies a Goddess falls</div> <div>Ejected from her radiant halls.</div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>When Ráma saw her lying low,</div> <div>Prostrate by too severe a blow,</div> <div>Around her form his arms he wound</div> <div>And raised her fainting from the ground.</div> <div>His hand upheld her like a mare</div> <div>Who feels her load too sore to bear,</div> <div>And sinks upon the way o'ertoiled,</div> <div>And all her limbs with dust are soiled.</div> <div>He soothed her in her wild distress</div> <div>With loving touch and soft caress.</div> <div>She, meet for highest fortune, eyed</div> <div>The hero watching by her side,</div> <div>And thus, while Lakshmaṇ bent to hear,</div> <div>Addressed her son with many a tear!</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“If, Ráma, thou had ne'er been born</span></div> <div>My child to make thy mother mourn,</div> <div>Though reft of joy, a childless queen,</div> <div>Such woe as this I ne'er had seen.</div> <div>Though to the childless wife there clings</div> <div>One sorrow armed with keenest stings,</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“No child have I: no child have I,”</span></div> <div>No second misery prompts the sigh.</div> <div>When long I sought, alas, in vain,</div> <div>My husband's love and bliss to gain,</div> <div>In Ráma all my hopes I set</div> <div>And dreamed I might be happy yet.</div> <div>I, of the consorts first and best,</div> <div>Must bear my rivals' taunt and jest,</div> <div>And brook, though better far than they,</div> <div>The soul distressing words they say.</div> <div>What woman can be doomed to pine</div> <div>In misery more sore than mine,</div> <div>Whose hopeless days must still be spent</div> <div>In grief that ends not and lament?</div> <div>They scorned me when my son was nigh;</div> <div>When he is banished I must die.</div> <div>Me, whom my husband never prized,</div> <div>Kaikeyí's retinue despised</div> <div>With boundless insolence, though she</div> <div>Tops not in rank nor equals me.</div> <div>And they who do me service yet,</div> <div>Nor old allegiance quite forget,</div> <div>Whene'er they see Kaikeyí's son,</div> <div>With silent lips my glances shun.</div> <div>How, O my darling, shall I brook</div> <div>Each menace of Kaikeyí's look,</div> <div>And listen, in my low estate,</div> <div>To taunts of one so passionate?</div> <div>For seventeen years since thou wast born</div> <div>I sat and watched, ah me, forlorn!</div> <div>Hoping some blessed day to see</div> <div>Deliverance from my woes by thee.</div> <div>Now comes this endless grief and wrong,</div> <div>So dire I cannot bear it long,</div> <div>Sinking, with age and sorrow worn,</div> <div>Beneath my rivals' taunts and scorn.</div> <div>How shall I pass in dark distress</div> <div>My long lone days of wretchedness</div> <div>Without my Ráma's face, as bright</div> <div>As the full moon to cheer my sight?</div> <div>Alas, my cares thy steps to train,</div> <div>And fasts, and vows, and prayers are vain.</div> <div>Hard, hard, I ween, must be this heart</div> <div>To hear this blow nor burst apart,</div> <div>As some great river bank, when first</div> <div>The floods of Rain-time on it burst.</div> <div>No, Fate that speeds not will not slay,</div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">Nor Yama's halls vouchsafe me room,</div> <div>Or, like a lion's weeping prey,</div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">Death now had borne me to my doom.</div> <div>Hard is my heart and wrought of steel</div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">That breaks not with the crushing blow,</div> <div>Or in the pangs this day I feel</div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">My lifeless frame had sunk below.</div> <div>Death waits his hour, nor takes me now:</div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">But this sad thought augments my pain,</div> <div>That prayer and largess, fast and vow,</div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">And Heavenward service are in vain.</div> <div>Ah me, ah me! with fruitless toil</div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">Of rites austere a child I sought:</div> <div>Thus seed cast forth on barren soil</div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">Still lifeless lies and comes to naught.</div> <div>If ever wretch by anguish grieved</div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">Before his hour to death had fled,</div> <div>I mourning, like a cow bereaved,</div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em"><span class="tei tei-q" >Had been this day among the dead.”</span></div> </div></div> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page118"></span><SPAN name="Pg118" id="Pg118" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> <SPAN name="toc197" id="toc197"></SPAN> <SPAN name="pdf198" id="pdf198"></SPAN> <SPAN name="CantoII-XXI" id="CantoII-XXI" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Canto XXI. Kausalyá Calmed.</span></h2> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>While thus Kauśalyá wept and sighed,</div> <div>With timely words sad Lakshmaṇ cried:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“O honoured Queen I like it ill</span></div> <div>That, subject to a woman's will,</div> <div>Ráma his royal state should quit</div> <div>And to an exile's doom submit.</div> <div>The aged king, fond, changed, and weak,</div> <div>Will as the queen compels him speak.</div> <div>But why should Ráma thus be sent</div> <div>To the wild woods in banishment?</div> <div>No least offence I find in him,</div> <div>I see no fault his fame to dim.</div> <div>Not one in all the world I know,</div> <div>Not outcast wretch, not secret foe,</div> <div>Whose whispering lips would dare assail</div> <div>His spotless life with slanderous tale.</div> <div>Godlike and bounteous, just, sincere,</div> <div>E'en to his very foemen dear:</div> <div>Who would without a cause neglect</div> <div>The right, and such a son reject?</div> <div>And if a king such order gave,</div> <div>In second childhood, passion's slave,</div> <div>What son within his heart would lay</div> <div>The senseless order, and obey?</div> <div>Come, Ráma, ere this plot be known</div> <div>Stand by me and secure the throne.</div> <div>Stand like the King who rules below,</div> <div>Stand aided by thy brother's bow:</div> <div>How can the might of meaner men</div> <div>Resist thy royal purpose then?</div> <div>My shafts, if rebels court their fate,</div> <div>Shall lay Ayodhyá desolate.</div> <div>Then shall her streets with blood be dyed</div> <div>Of those who stand on Bharat's side:</div> <div>None shall my slaughtering hand exempt,</div> <div>For gentle patience earns contempt.</div> <div>If, by Kaikeyí's counsel changed,</div> <div>Our father's heart be thus estranged,</div> <div>No mercy must our arm restrain,</div> <div>But let the foe be slain, be slain.</div> <div>For should the guide, respected long,</div> <div>No more discerning right and wrong,</div> <div>Turn in forbidden paths to stray,</div> <div>'Tis meet that force his steps should stay.</div> <div>What power sufficient can he see,</div> <div>What motive for the wish has he,</div> <div>That to Kaikeyí would resign</div> <div>The empire which is justly thine?</div> <div>Can he, O conqueror of thy foes,</div> <div>Thy strength and mine in war oppose?</div> <div>Can he entrust, in our despite,</div> <div>To Bharat's hand thy royal right?</div> <div>I love this brother with the whole</div> <div>Affection of my faithful soul.</div> <div>Yea Queen, by bow and truth I swear,</div> <div>By sacrifice, and gift, and prayer,</div> <div>If Ráma to the forest goes,</div> <div>Or where the burning furnace glows,</div> <div>First shall my feet the forest tread,</div> <div>The flames shall first surround my head.</div> <div>My might shall chase thy grief and tears,</div> <div>As darkness flies when morn appears.</div> <div>Do thou, dear Queen, and Ráma too</div> <div>Behold what power like mine can do.</div> <div>My aged father I will kill,</div> <div>The vassal of Kaikeyí's will,</div> <div>Old, yet a child, the woman's thrall,</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >Infirm, and base, the scorn of all.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>Thus Lakshmaṇ cried, the mighty-souled:</div> <div>Down her sad cheeks the torrents rolled,</div> <div>As to her son Kauśalyá spake:</div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“Now thou hast heard thy brother, take</span></div> <div>His counsel if thou hold it wise,</div> <div>And do the thing his words advise,</div> <div>Do not, my son, with tears I pray,</div> <div>My rival's wicked word obey,</div> <div>Leave me not here consumed with woe,</div> <div>Nor to the wood, an exile, go.</div> <div>If thou, to virtue ever true,</div> <div>Thy duty's path would still pursue,</div> <div>The highest duty bids thee stay</div> <div>And thus thy mother's voice obey.</div> <div>Thus Kaśyap's great ascetic son</div> <div>A seat among the Immortals won:</div> <div>In his own home, subdued, he stayed,</div> <div>And honour to his mother paid.</div> <div>If reverence to thy sire be due,</div> <div>Thy mother claims like honour too,</div> <div>And thus I charge thee, O my child,</div> <div>Thou must not seek the forest wild.</div> <div>Ah, what to me were life and bliss,</div> <div>Condemned my darling son to miss?</div> <div>But with my Ráma near, to eat</div> <div>The very grass itself were sweet.</div> <div>But if thou still wilt go and leave</div> <div>Thy hapless mother here to grieve,</div> <div>I from that hour will food abjure,</div> <div>Nor life without my son endure.</div> <div>Then it will be thy fate to dwell</div> <div>In depth of world-detested hell.</div> <div>As Ocean in the olden time</div> <div>Was guilty of an impious crime</div> <div>That marked the lord of each fair flood</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >As one who spills a Bráhman's blood.”</span><SPAN id="noteref_288" name="noteref_288" href="#note_288"><span class="tei tei-noteref" ><span style="font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">288</span></span></SPAN></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>Thus spake the queen, and wept, and sighed:</div> <div>Then righteous Ráma thus replied:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“I have no power to slight or break</span></div> <div>Commandments which my father spake.</div> <div>I bend my head, dear lady, low,</div> <div>Forgive me, for I needs must go.</div> <div>Once Kaṇdu, mighty saint, who made</div> <div>His dwelling in the forest shade,</div> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page119"></span><SPAN name="Pg119" id="Pg119" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <div>A cow—and duty's claims he knew—</div> <div>Obedient to his father, slew.</div> <div>And in the line from which we spring,</div> <div>When ordered by their sire the king,</div> <div>Through earth the sons of Sagar cleft,</div> <div>And countless things of life bereft.<SPAN id="noteref_289" name="noteref_289" href="#note_289"><span class="tei tei-noteref" ><span style="font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">289</span></span></SPAN></div> <div>So Jamadagní's son<SPAN id="noteref_290" name="noteref_290" href="#note_290"><span class="tei tei-noteref" ><span style="font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">290</span></span></SPAN> obeyed</div> <div>His sire, when in the wood he laid</div> <div>His hand upon his axe, and smote</div> <div>Through Renuká his mother's throat.</div> <div>The deeds of these and more beside.</div> <div>Peers of the Gods, my steps shall guide,</div> <div>And resolute will I fulfil</div> <div>My father's word, my father's will.</div> <div>Nor I, O Queen, unsanctioned tread</div> <div>This righteous path, by duty led:</div> <div>The road my footsteps journey o'er</div> <div>Was traversed by the great of yore.</div> <div>This high command which all accept</div> <div>Shall faithfully by me be kept,</div> <div>For duty ne'er will him forsake</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >Who fears his sire's command to break.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>Thus to his mother wild with grief:</div> <div>Then thus to Lakshmaṇ spake the chief</div> <div>Of those by whom the bow is bent,</div> <div>Mid all who speak, most eloquent:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“I know what love for me thou hast,</span></div> <div>What firm devotion unsurpassed:</div> <div>Thy valour and thy worth I know,</div> <div>And glory that appals the foe.</div> <div>Blest youth, my mother's woe is great,</div> <div>It bends her 'neath its matchless weight:</div> <div>No claims will she, with blinded eyes,</div> <div>Of truth and patience recognize.</div> <div>For duty is supreme in place,</div> <div>And truth is duty's noblest base.</div> <div>Obedient to my sire's behest</div> <div>I serve the cause of duty best.</div> <div>For man should truly do whate'er</div> <div>To mother, Bráhman, sire, he sware:</div> <div>He must in duty's path remain,</div> <div>Nor let his word be pledged in vain.</div> <div>And, O my brother, how can I</div> <div>Obedience to this charge deny?</div> <div>Kaikeyí's tongue my purpose spurred,</div> <div>But 'twas my sire who gave the word.</div> <div>Cast these unholy thoughts aside</div> <div>Which smack of war and Warriors' pride;</div> <div>To duty's call, not wrath attend,</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >And tread the path which I commend.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>Ráma by fond affection moved</div> <div>His brother Lakshmaṇ thus reproved;</div> <div>Then with joined hands and reverent head</div> <div>Again to Queen Kauśalyá said:</div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“I needs must go—do thou consent—</span></div> <div>To the wild wood in banishment.</div> <div>O give me, by my life I pray,</div> <div>Thy blessing ere I go away.</div> <div>I, when the promised years are o'er,</div> <div>Shall see Ayodhyá's town once more.</div> <div>Then, mother dear, thy tears restrain,</div> <div>Nor let thy heart be wrung by pain:</div> <div>In time, my father's will obeyed,</div> <div>Shall I return from greenwood shade.</div> <div>My dear Videhan, thou, and I,</div> <div>Lakshmaṇ, Sumitrá, feel this tie,</div> <div>And must my father's word obey,</div> <div>As duty bids that rules for aye.</div> <div>Thy preparations now forgo,</div> <div>And lock within thy breast thy woe,</div> <div>Nor be my pious wish withstood</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >To go an exile to the wood.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>Calm and unmoved the prince explained</div> <div>His duty's claim and purpose high,</div> <div>The mother life and sense regained,</div> <div>Looked on her son and made reply:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“If reverence be thy father's due,</span></div> <div>The same by right and love is mine:</div> <div>Go not, my charge I thus renew,</div> <div>Nor leave me here in woe to pine,</div> <div>What were such lonely life to me,</div> <div>Rites to the shades, or deathless lot?</div> <div>More dear, my son, one hour with thee</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >Than all the world where thou art not.”</span></div> <div>As bursts to view, when brands blaze high,</div> <div>Some elephant concealed by night,</div> <div>So, when he heard his mother's cry,</div> <div>Burnt Ráma's grief with fiercer might.</div> <div>Thus to the queen, half senseless still,</div> <div>And Lakshmaṇ, burnt with heart-felt pain,</div> <div>True to the right, with steadfast will,</div> <div>His duteous speech he spoke again:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“Brother, I know thy loving mind,</span></div> <div>Thy valour and thy truth I know,</div> <div>But now to claims of duty blind</div> <div>Thou and my mother swell my woe.</div> <div>The fruits of deeds in human life</div> <div>Make love, gain, duty, manifest,</div> <div>Dear when they meet as some fond wife</div> <div>With her sweet babes upon her breast.</div> <div>But man to duty first should turn</div> <div>Whene'er the three are not combined:</div> <div>For those who heed but gain we spurn,</div> <div>And those to pleasure all resigned.</div> <div>Shall then the virtuous disobey</div> <div>Hosts of an aged king and sire,</div> <div>Though feverous joy that father sway,</div> <div>Or senseless love or causeless ire?</div> <div>I have no power, commanded thus,</div> <div>To slight his promise and decree:</div> <div>The honoured sire of both of us,</div> <div>My mother's lord and life is he.</div> <div>Shall she, while yet the holy king</div> <div>Is living, on the right intent,—</div> <div>Shall she, like some poor widowed thing,</div> <div>Go forth with me to banishment?</div> <div>Now, mother, speed thy parting son,</div> <div>And let thy blessing soothe my pain,</div> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page120"></span><SPAN name="Pg120" id="Pg120" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <div>That I may turn, mine exile done,</div> <div>Like King Yayáti, home again.</div> <div>Fair glory and the fruit she gives,</div> <div>For lust of sway I ne'er will slight:</div> <div>What, for the span a mortal lives.</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >Were rule of faith without the right?”</span></div> <div>He soothed her thus, firm to the last</div> <div>His counsel to his brother told:</div> <div>Then round the queen in reverence passed,</div> <div>And held her in his loving hold.</div> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />