{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry123.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry123.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry123.htm","text":"Their tender love the people drew\n To follow R\u00e1ma brave and true,\n The high-souled hero, as he went\n Forth from his home to banishment.\n The king himself his friends obeyed,\n And turned him homeward as they prayed.\n But yet the people turned not back,\n Still close on R\u00e1ma's chariot track.\n For they who in Ayodhy\u00e1 dwelt\n For him such fond affection felt,\n Decked with all grace and glories high,\n The dear full moon of every eye.\n Though much his people prayed and wept,\n Kakutstha's son his purpose kept,\n And still his journey would pursue\n To keep the king his father true.\n Deep in the hero's bosom sank\n Their love, whose signs his glad eye drank.\n He spoke to cheer them, as his own\n Dear children, in a loving tone:\n 'If ye would grant my fond desire,\n Give Bharat now that love entire\n And reverence shown to me by all\n Who dwell within Ayodhy\u00e1's wall.\n For he, Kaikey\u00ed's darling son,\n His virtuous career will run,\n And ever bound by duty's chain\n Consult your weal and bliss and gain.\n In judgment old, in years a child,\n With hero virtues meek and mild,\n A fitting lord is he to cheer\n His people and remove their fear.\n In him all kingly gifts abound,\n Wore noble than in me are found:\n Imperial prince, well proved and tried--\n Obey him as your lord and guide.\n And grant, I pray, the boon I ask:\n To please the king be still your task,\n That his fond heart, while I remain\n Far in the wood, may feel no pain.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 The more he showed his will to tread\n The path where filial duty led,\n The more the people, round him thronged,\n For their dear R\u00e1ma's empire longed.\n Still more attached his followers grew,\n As R\u00e1ma, with his brother, drew\n The people with his virtues' ties,\n Lamenting all with tear-dimmed eyes.\n The saintly twice-born, triply old\n In glory, knowledge, seasons told,\n With hoary heads that shook and bowed,\n Their voices raised and spake aloud:\n 'O steeds, who best and noblest are,\n Who whirl so swiftly R\u00e1ma's car,\n Go not, return: we call on you:\n Be to your master kind and true.\n For speechless things are swift to hear,\n And naught can match a horse's ear.\n O generous steeds, return, when thus\n You hear the cry of all of us.\n Each vow he keeps most firm and sure,\n And duty makes his spirit pure.\n Back with our chief! not wood-ward hence;\n Back to his royal residence!'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Soon as he saw the aged band.\n Exclaiming in their misery, stand,\n And their sad cries around him rang,\n Swift from his chariot R\u00e1ma sprang.\n Then, still upon his journey bent,\n With S\u00edt\u00e1 and with Lakshman went\n The hero by the old men's side\n Suiting to theirs his shortened stride.\n He could not pass the twice-born throng\n As weariedly they walked along:\n With pitying heart, with tender eye,\n He could not in his chariot fly.\n When the steps of R\u00e1ma viewed\n That still his onward course pursued.\n Woe shook the troubled heart of each,\n And burnt with grief they spoke this speech--\n \u00a0\u00a0 'With thee, O R\u00e1ma, to the wood\n All Br\u00e1hmans go and Br\u00e1hmanhood:\n Borne on our aged shoulders, see,\n Our fires of worship go with thee.\n Bright canopies that lend their shade\n In Vajapeya\u00a01 rites displayed,\n In plenteous store are borne behind\n Like cloudlets in the autumn wind.\n No shelter from the sun hast thou,\n And, lest his fury burn thy brow,\n These sacrificial shades we bear\n Shall aid thee in the noontide glare.\n Our hearts, who ever loved to pore\n On sacred text and Vedic lore,\n Now all to thee, beloved, turn,\n And for a life in forests yearn.\n Deep in our aged bosoms lies\n The Vedas' lore, the wealth we prize,\n There still, like wives at home, shall dwell,\n Whose love and truth protect them well.\n \n \n \n To follow thee our hearts are bent;\n We need not plan or argument.\n All else in duty's law we slight,\n For following thee is following right.\n O noble Prince, retrace thy way:\n O, hear us, R\u00e1ma, as we lay,\n With many tears and many prayers,\n Our aged heads and swan-white hairs\n Low in the dust before thy feet;\n O, hear us, R\u00e1ma, we entreat.\n Full many of these who with thee run,\n Their sacred rites had just begun.\n Unfinished yet those rites remain;\n But finished if thou turn again.\n All rooted life and things that move\n To thee their deep affection prove.\n To them, when warmed by love, they glow\n And sue to thee, some favour show\n Each lowly bush, each towering tree\n Would follow too for love of thee.\n Bound by its root it must remain;\n But--all it can--its boughs complain,\n As when the wild wind rushes by\n It tells its woe in groan and sigh.\n No more through air the gay birds flit,\n But, foodless, melancholy sit\n Together on the branch and call\n To thee whose kind heart feels for all.'\n \n \n As wailed the aged Br\u00e1hmans, bent\n To turn him back, with wild lament,\n Seemed Tamas\u00e1 herself to aid,\n Checking his progress, as they prayed.\n Sumantra from the chariot freed\n With ready hand each weary steed;\n He groomed them with the utmost heed,\n \n \n Their limbs he bathed and dried,\n Then led them forth to drink and feed\n At pleasure in the grassy mead\n That fringed the river side.\n \n \n \n \n147:1 An important sacrifice at which seventeen victims were immolated.","title":"Book II: Canto XLV.: The Tamas\u00e1.","type":"page"}