{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry115.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry115.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry115.htm","text":"Thus spake the virtuous sage: and then\n R\u00e1ma addressed the king of men.\n In laws of meek behaviour bred,\n Thus to his sire he meekly said:\n \n \n 'King, I renounce all earthly care,\n And live in woods on woodland fare.\n What, dead to joys, have I to do\n With lordly train and retinue!\n Who gives his elephant and yet\n Upon the girths his heart will set?\n How can a cord attract his eyes\n Who gives away the nobler prize?\n Best of the good, with me he led\n No host, my King with banners spread.\n All wealth, all lordship I resign:\n The hermit's dress alone be mine.\n Before I go, have here conveyed\n A little basket and a spade.\n With these alone I go, content,\n For fourteen years of banishment.'\n \n \n With her own hands Kaikey\u00ed took\n The hermit coats of bark, and, 'Look,'\n She cried with bold unblushing brow\n Before the concourse, 'Dress thee now.'\n That lion leader of the brave\n Took from her hand the dress she gave,\n Cast his fine raiment on the ground,\n \n \n And round his waist the vesture bound.\n Then quick the hero Lakshman too\n His garment from his shoulders threw,\n And, in the presence of his sire,\n Indued the ascetic's rough attire.\n But S\u00edt\u00e1, in her silks arrayed,\n Threw glances, trembling and afraid,\n On the bark coat she had to wear,\n Like a shy doe that eyes the snare.\n Ashamed and weeping for distress\n From the queen's hand she took the dress.\n The fair one, by her husband's side\n Who matched heaven's minstrel monarch, \u00a01 cried:\n 'How bind they on their woodland dress,\n Those hermits of the wilderness?'\n \n \n There stood the pride of Janak's race\n Perplexed, with sad appealing face.\n One coat the lady's fingers grasped,\n One round her neck she feebly clasped,\n But failed again, again, confused\n By the wild garb she ne'er had used.\n Then quickly hastening R\u00e1ma, pride\n Of all who cherish virtue, tied\n The rough bark mantle on her, o'er\n The silken raiment that she wore.\n \n \n Then the sad women when they saw\n R\u00e1ma the choice bark round her draw,\n Rained water from each tender eye,\n And cried aloud with bitter cry:\n 'O, not on her, beloved, not\n On S\u00edt\u00e1 falls thy mournful lot.\n If, faithful to thy father's will,\n Thou must go forth, leave S\u00edt\u00e1 still.\n Let S\u00edt\u00e1 still remaining here\n Our hearts with her loved presence cheer.\n With Lakshman by thy side to aid\n Seek thou, dear son, the lonely shade.\n Unmeet, one good and fair as she\n Should dwell in woods a devotee.\n Let not our prayers be prayed in vain:\n Let beauteous S\u00edt\u00e1 yet remain;\n For by thy love of duty tied\n Thou wilt not here thyself abide.'\n \n \n Then the king's venerable guide\n Vas'ishtha, when he saw each coat\n Enclose the lady's waist and throat,\n Her zeal with gentle words repressed,\n And Queen Kaikey\u00ed thus addressed:\n 'O evil-hearted sinner, shame\n Of royal Kekaya's race and name;\n Who matchless in thy sin couldst cheat\n Thy lord the king with vile deceit;\n Lost to all sense of duty, know\n S\u00edt\u00e1 to exile shall not go.\n S\u00edt\u00e1 shall guard, as 'twere her own,\n The precious trust of R\u00e1ma's throne.\n \n \n \n Those joined by wedlock's sweet control\n Have but one self and common soul.\n Thus S\u00edt\u00e1 shall our empress be,\n For R\u00e1ma's self and soul is she.\n Or if she still to R\u00e1ma cleave\n And for the woods the kingdom leave:\n If naught her loving heart deter,\n We and this town will follow her.\n The warders of the queen shall take\n Their wives and go for R\u00e1ma's sake,\n The nation with its stores of grain,\n The city's wealth shall swell his train.\n Bharat, S'atrughna both will wear\n Bark mantles, and his lodging share,\n Still with their elder brother dwell\n In the wild wood, and serve him well.\n Rest here alone, and rule thy state\n Unpeopled, barren, desolate;\n Be empress of the land and trees,\n Thou sinner whom our sorrows please.\n The land which R\u00e1ma reigns not o'er\n Shall bear the kingdom's name no more:\n The woods which R\u00e1ma wanders through\n Shall be our home and kingdom too.\n Bharat, be sure, will never deign\n O'er realms his father yields, to reign.\n Nay, if the king's true son he be,\n He will not, sonlike, dwell with thee.\n Nay, shouldst thou from the earth arise,\n And send thy message from the skies,\n To his forefathers' custom true\n No erring course would he pursue.\n So hast thou, by thy grievous fault,\n Offended him thou wouldst exalt.\n In all the world none draws his breath\n Who loves not R\u00e1ma, true to death.\n This day, O Queen, shalt thou behold\n Birds, deer, and beasts from lea and fold\n Turn to the woods in R\u00e1ma's train.\n And naught save longing trees remain.'\n \n \n \n \n \n139:1 Chitraratha, King of the celestial choristers.","title":"Book II: Canto XXXVII.: The Coats of Bark.","type":"page"}