Ayodhya Kanda, Sarga 104

Meaning

Placing the widows of King Daśaratha in the forefront, Vasiṣṭha, who was feeling athirst for the sight of Śrī Rāma, proceeded to that region where Śrī Rāma was sojourning. (1)

Meaning

Making their way with slow paces towards the river Mandākinī the dowager queens saw there a descent (suitable for bathing etc.) to the river resorted to by Śrī Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa. (2)

Meaning

With a withering face bathed in tears, Kausalyā spoke as follows to the afflicted Sumitrā and the other queens that were present there : (3)

Meaning

“Here is the descent selected for the first time by those fatherless children, who have been expelled from their kingdom and who are now living a hard life in the forest, though unwearied in action. (4)

Meaning

“Along this route, O Sumitrā, does your elder son, Lakṣmaṇa, ever unweariedly fetch water himself for the sake of my son (his elder brother). (5)

Meaning

“Your son has not been subjected to any reproach, even though he has done menial service to his elder brother. All that which is devoid of use to one’s elder brother, who is held to be on a par with one’s father, is censured by men possessed of noble qualities. (6)

Meaning

“Let this son of yours, too, who is undeserving of the hardships, which are being experienced by him, totally give up the work in hand whose execution is painful and fit for menials, now that his elder brother is soon returning to Ayodhyā.” (7)

Meaning

The large-eyed Kausalyā presently saw the crushed pulp of Iṅgudī fruits placed by Śrī Rāma on blades of Kuśa grass spread on the earth’s surface with their ends pointing to the south as an offering intended for the gratification of his deceased father. (8)

Meaning

Observing the said pulp placed on the ground by the afflicted Śrī Rāma for the gratification of his deceased father, the aforesaid Queen Kausalyā spoke as follows to all the other consorts of King Daśaratha : (9)

Meaning

“Behold here this offering made in accordance with the scriptural ordinance by Rāma, a scion of Raghu, for the gratification of his high-souled father, the late King Daśaratha, also a scion of Raghu, the lord of the Ikṣwākus. (10)

Meaning

“I do not consider this food (viz., the pulp of the Iṅgudī-fruit) to be fit for the consumption of that high-souled monarch, who vied with gods and had enjoyed all the luxuries of life. (11)

Meaning

“Having ruled over the globe bounded by the four oceans, how will the emperor, who was a compeer on earth of the great Indra, be able to partake of the crushed pulp of Iṅgudī fruits? (12)

Meaning

“Nothing in the world appears more painful to me than the occasion when Rāma, who is full of riches of every description, should feel constrained to offer the crushed pulp of Iṅgudī fruits to the spirit of his deceased father. (13)

Meaning

“Why does my heart not get split into a thousand fragments through agony perceiving the crushed pulp of Iṅgudī fruits offered by Rāma to the spirit of his deceased father?” (14)

Meaning

“The popular saying that the deities of a man partake of the same food on which a man subsists, appears undoubtedly true to us.” (15)

Meaning

Comforting the afflicted Kausalyā in the foregoing words on that occassion, her aforesaid co-wives departed with Kausalyā and beheld Śrī Rāma seated in his hermitage like an immortal fallen from heaven. (16)

Meaning

Distressed to observe the celebrated Śrī Rāma shorn of all luxuries, his mothers wept loudly, emaciated as they were through grief. (17)

Meaning

Duly rising from his seat, Śrī Rāma, a veritable tiger among men, who was true to his promise, clasped the lotus-like feet of all his aforesaid mothers. (18)

Meaning

With their lovely hands, which were delightful to the touch and the base of whose fingers was exceptionally soft, those large-eyed ladies wiped the dust off Śrī Rāma’s back. (19)

Meaning

Distressed to perceive all the aforesaid mothers, Lakṣmaṇa (son of Sumitrā) too fondly greeted them immediately after Śrī Rāma. (20)

Meaning

All the ladies behaved towards the celebrated Lakṣmaṇa, sprung from the loins of Daśaratha, who was endowed with auspicious bodily marks, in the same way as they did towards Śrī Rāma. (21)

Meaning

Holding firmly the feet of the said mothers-in-law, Sītā too stood agonized before them with her eyes full of tears. (22)

Meaning

Embracing her, as a mother would embrace her own daughter, the sorrow-stricken Kausalyā spoke as follows to Sītā, who looked withered through exile in the forest : (23)

Meaning

“I wonder how the consort of Rāma, daughter of Janaka (a royal personage of the Videha clan) and daughter-in-law of Emperor Daśaratha, has undergone suffering in a lonely forest. (24)

Meaning

“The fire of grief produced by the firewood of adversity and existing in my mind, O princess of the Videha kingdom, burns me to the core even as the element of fire consumes the very substance that sustains it, when I gaze on your countenance resembling a lotus scorched by the sun, a crushed lily, gold soiled with dust and the moon obscured by clouds.” (25-26)

Meaning

Reaching the feet of Vasiṣṭha, while his distressed mother was speaking as aforesaid, Śrī Rāma, a scion of Raghu, the elder brother of Bharata, clasped them. (27)

Meaning

Holding the feet of the said priest—who was possessed of very great splendour and resembled the fire-god—even as Indra, the ruler of gods, would clasp the feet of Bṛhaspati, the preceptor of gods, Śrī Rāma (a scion of Raghu) took his seat with Vasiṣṭha himself. (28)

Meaning

Thereupon alongwith his friends, counsellors and the foremost of citizens as well as with the troops and men who knew best what is right, the celebrated Bharata, who was full of piety, sat down on that occasion close to his elder brother, Śrī Rāma, at his back. (29)

Meaning

Perceiving Śrī Rāma, a scion of Raghu, blazing with glory in the garb of an ascetic, Bharata, for his part, who was seated closeby at that time and was exceedingly powerful, folded his hands in the same way as the mighty Indra submissively would before Brahmā, the lord of created beings. (30)

Meaning

A great curiosity really arose at that moment in the mind of those worthies assembled there as to what submission yonder Bharata would now politely make after bowing low and paying his homage to Śrī Rāma, a scion of Raghu, that day. (31)

Meaning

Nay, surrounded by their near and dear ones, the celebrated Śrī Rāma, a scion of Raghu, who was firmly devoted to truthfulness, and the noble-minded Lakṣmaṇa and the pious Bharata shone brightly on the sacrificial ground like the three sacrificial fires (known by the names of Gārhapatya, Āhavanīya and Dakṣiṇā) accompanied by the superintending priests. (32)