Ayodhya Kanda, Sarga 59

Meaning

“Offering salutation with folded hands to both the princes on Śrī Rāma having duly departed for the forest, and mounting the chariot, I too forthwith made ready to depart for Ayodhyā, restraining that unbearable agony of separation from Śrī Rāma. My horses, however, even as I turned my back on Śrī Rāma, did not proceed on their journey to Ayodhyā and stood shedding tears of grief. (1-2)

Meaning

“I remained with Guha, the chieftain of Śṛṅgaverapura, at his own place for many (three) days in the hope that Śrī Rāma might probably call me again through foresters. (3)

Meaning

“Withered through intense suffering, O great monarch, even trees in your kingdom with their flowers, shoots and buds have been blasted. (4)

Meaning

“The water of the rivers as well as of ponds and lakes has got dried up. Nay, the leaves in the wood and groves have got withered. (5)

Meaning

“Living beings in the forest do not move about, nor do reptiles crawl even in search of food, the entire living creation being overwhelmed with grief born of separation from Śrī Rāma. Nay, the forest on the way is noiseless too, as it were, though full of birds. (6)

Meaning

“The water of the rivers, again, has become turbid and the leaves of the lotuses in them have fallen down. The lotuses in the ponds have got dried up and the fishes and water-fowls in them have perished. (7)

Meaning

“Nay, giving forth very little fragrance, aquatic flowers and those growing on land do not look very charming and fruits too are not so luscious as before. (8)

Meaning

“Desolate are the gardens in the city and the birds in them have disappeared. Nor do I find the parks so pleasing, O jewel among men ! (9)

Meaning

“None greeted me as I entered Ayodhyā. Not perceiving Śrī Rāma, men sighed again and again. (10)

Meaning

“Seeing from a distance the royal chariot arrived in Ayodhyā without Śrī Rāma, O lord, all the people present on the main road had their faces drenched with tears. (11)

Meaning

“Perceiving from their mansions, seven-storeyed buildings and palaces the chariot returned from the forest, the ladies, who were feeling distressed due to their not being able to see Śrī Rāma, broke into lamentation. (12)

Meaning

“The ladies, who were sore afflicted due to the exile of Śrī Rāma, mutely gazed on one another with their large eyes flooded with an upsurge of tears, their collyrium washed thereby. (13)

Meaning

“I do not perceive any difference in point of affliction between his enemies, friends and neutrals. (14)

Meaning

“With its cheerless men and women and wretched elephants and horses, nay, looking blasted through plaintive cries and full of noise in the shape of sighs, O great monarch, Ayodhyā appears to me joyless and distressed through the banishment of Śrī Rāma, like Empress Kausalyā, bereft of her son.” (15-16)

Meaning

Hearing the submission of Sumantra, Daśaratha made the following reply to the charioteer in a most piteous tone, faltering through tears: (17)

Meaning

“No deliberation was made by me on the point of sending Rāma into exile with the elders, clever in giving counsel, dictated as I was by Kaikeyī of sinful birth and intention. (18)

Meaning

“Without taking counsel with my well-wishers and ministers, including those well-versed in the Vedas, was this step precipitately taken by me through excessive infatuation in order to please my wife. (19)

Meaning

“Or, this great calamity has surely taken us by surprise by the will of Providence for the destruction of this race, O charioteer ! (20)

Meaning

“If at all, O charioteer, any good turn has been done to you by me, take you me at once to Rāma; for my senses are importunately hastening me to catch a last glimpse of Rāma. (21)

Meaning

“If my authority alone prevails even today, let anyone fetch Rāma back to Ayodhyā; for I shall not be able to survive without Rāma even for an hour or so. (22)

Meaning

“Or, may be the mighty-armed prince might have gone afar by now. In that case helping me on to a chariot, promptly show me to Rāma. (23)

Meaning

“Where is that Rāma (the eldest brother of Lakṣmaṇa) who has pearl-like teeth and is possessed of a mighty bow? I can survive only if I am properly able to see him with Sītā. (24)

Meaning

“If I am not able to see the mighty-armed Rāma with reddish eyes and adorned with earrings made of gems, I shall surely reach the abode of Yama, the god of death. (25)

Meaning

“What can possibly be more painful to me than the fact that I do not behold Rāma, a scion of Raghu, the delight of the Ikṣwākus, at this juncture, when I am reduced to this wretched plight? (26)

Meaning

“Ah Rāma, Ah Lakṣmaṇa (younger brother of Rāma), Ah Sītā (a princess of the Videha clan), who are engaged in austerities, you do not know that I am dying through agony like a forlorn creature.” (27)

Meaning

His mind being overwhelmed with that unbearable agony, and plunged as he was in that ocean of grief, which was most difficult to cross, the aforesaid king spoke of his grief in terms of an ocean in the following words : (28)

Meaning

“This ocean of grief, in which, alas! I am plunged, O Kausalyā, bereft as I am of Rāma, is difficult for me to cross while I am living, O godly lady ! Consciousness of Rāma’s grief caused by his separation from his parents, relations and friends etc., is its tremendous force. Severance from Sītā is the other shore to which it extends. Outgoing and ingoing breaths are the waves and whirlpools. It is rendered turbid by the water of rivers flowing into it in the shape of the upsurge of tears of Kausalyā and others. The throwing about of arms in agony represents the leaping of fishes. The loud wailings represent its roaring. Dishevelled hair are the sea-weeds. Kaikeyī represents the submarine fire. It is the source of showers in the form of the welling up of my tears. The words of Mantharā are so many mighty alligators infesting its waters. The couple of boons granted by me in favour of Kaikeyī represent its coastline and the term of Rāma’s exile marks its extent. (29—32)

Meaning

“It is most unfortunate that I am unable to clasp on Rāma, a scion of Raghu, alongwith Lakṣmaṇa on this spot today, even though I long to see them.” Lamenting thus, that highly illustrious monarch immediately dropped senseless, as it were, on the couch. (33)

Meaning

When the Emperor fainted while lamenting most piteously for Rāma as aforesaid, Queen Kausalyā, Śrī Rāma’s mother, once more fell a prey to twofold fear on hearing his wail. (34)