{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry091.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry091.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry091.htm","text":"Unworthy of his mournful fate,\n The mighty king, unfortunate,\n Lay prostrate in unseemly guise,\n As, banished from the blissful skies,\n Yay\u00e1ti, in his evil day.\n His merit all exhausted, lay. \u00a01\n The queen, triumphant in the power\n Won by her beauty's fatal dower,\n Still terrible and unsubdued,\n Her dire demand again renewed:\n 'Great Monarch,'twas thy boast till now\n To love the truth and keep the vow;\n Then wherefore would thy lips refuse\n The promised boon 'tis mine to choose?'\n \u00a0\u00a0 King Das'aratha, thus addressed,\n With anger raging in his breast,\n Sank for a while beneath the pain,\n Then to Kaikey\u00ed spoke again:\n \n \n \n 'Childless so long, at length I won,\n With mighty toil, from Heaven a son,\n R\u00e1ma, the mighty-armed; and how\n Shall I desert my darling now?\n A scholar wise, a hero bold,\n Of patient mood, with wrath controlled,\n How can I bid my R\u00e1ma fly,\n My darling of the lotus eye?\n In heaven itself I scarce could bear,\n When asking of my R\u00e1ma there,\n To hear the Gods his griefs declare,\n And O, that death would take me hence\n Before I wrong his innocence!'\n \n \n As thus the monarch wept and wailed,\n And maddening grief his heart assailed,\n The sun had sought his resting-place,\n And night was closing round apace.\n But yet the moon-crowned night could bring\n No comfort to the wretched king.\n As still he mourned with burning sighs\n And fixed his gaze upon the skies:\n 'O Night whom starry fires adorn,\n I long not for the coming morn.\n Be kind and show some mercy: see,\n My suppliant hands are raised to thee.\n Nay, rather fly with swifter pace;\n No longer would I see the face\n Of Queen Kaikey\u00ed, cruel, dread,\n Who brings this woe upon mine head.'\n Again with suppliant hands he tried\n To move the queen, and wept and sighed:\n 'To me, unhappy me, inclined\n To good, sweet dame, thou shouldst be kind;\n Whose life is well-nigh fled, who cling\n To thee for succour, me thy king.\n This, only this, is all my claim:\n Have mercy, O my lovely dame.\n None else have I to take my part.\n Have mercy: thou art good at heart.\n Hear, lady of the soft black eye.\n And win a name that ne'er shall die:\n Let R\u00e1ma rule this glorious land,\n The gift of thine imperial hand.\n O lady of the dainty waist,\n With eyes and lips of beauty graced,\n Please R\u00e1ma, me, each saintly priest,\n Bharat, and all from chief to least.'\n \n \n \u00a0\u00a0 She heard his wild and mournful cry,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She saw the tears his speech that broke,\n \u00a0\u00a0 Saw her good husband's reddened eye,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But, cruel still, no word she spoke.\n \u00a0\u00a0 His eyes upon her face he bent,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And sought for mercy, but in vain:\n \u00a0\u00a0 She claimed his darling's banishment,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He swooned upon the ground again.\n \n \n \n \n \n106:1 Only the highest merit obtains a home in heaven for ever. Minor degrees of merit procure only leases of heavenly mansions terminable after periods proportioned to the fund which buys them. King Yay\u00e1ti went to heaven and when his term expired was unceremoniously ejected, and thrown down to earth.","title":"Book II: Canto XIII.: Das'aratha's Distress.","type":"page"}