{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry134.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry134.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry134.htm","text":"Then R\u00e1ma, when the morning rose,\n Called Lakshman gently from repose:\n 'Awake, the pleasant voices hear\n Of forest birds that warble near.\n Scourge of thy foes, no longer stay;\n The hour is come to speed away.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 The slumbering prince unclosed his eyes\n When thus his brother bade him rise,\n Compelling, at the timely cry,\n Fatigue, and sleep, and rest to fly.\n The brothers rose and S\u00edt\u00e1 too;\n Pure water from the stream they drew,\n Paid morning rites, then followed still\n The road to Chitrak\u00fata's hill.\n Then R\u00e1ma as he took the road\n With Lakshman, while the morning, glowed,\n To the Videhan lady cried,\n S\u00edt\u00e1 the fair, the lotus-eyed:\n 'Look round thee, dear; each flowery tree\n Touched with the fire of morning see:\n The Kins'uk, now the Frosts are fled,--\n How glorious with his wreaths of red!\n The Bel-trees see, so loved of men,\n Hanging their boughs in every glen.\n O'erburthened with their fruit and flowers:\n A plenteous store of food is ours.\n \u00a0\u00a0 See, Lakshman, in the leafy trees,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Where'er they make their home.\n \u00a0\u00a0 Down hangs, the work of labouring bees\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The ponderous honeycomb.\n \u00a0\u00a0 In the fair wood before us spread\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The startled wild-cock cries:\n \u00a0\u00a0 Hark, where the flowers are soft to tread,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The peacock's voice replies.\n \u00a0\u00a0 Where elephants are roaming free,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And sweet birds' songs are loud,\n \u00a0\u00a0 The glorious Chitrak\u00fata see:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 His peaks are in the cloud.\n \u00a0\u00a0 On fair smooth ground he stands displayed,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Begirt by many a tree:\n \u00a0\u00a0 O brother, in that holy shade\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How happy shall we be!'\u00a01\n \n \n Then R\u00e1ma, Lakshman, Sit\u00e1, each\n Spoke raising suppliant hands this speech\n To him, in woodland dwelling met,\n V\u00e1lmiki, ancient anchoret:\n 'O Saint, this mountain takes the mind,\n With creepers, trees of every kind,\n Vith fruit and roots abounding thus,\n A pleasant life it offers us:\n Here for a while we fain would stay,\n And pass a season blithe and gay.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Then the great saint, in duty trained,\n With honour gladly entertained:\n He gave his guests a welcome fair,\n And bade them sit and rest them there,\n R\u00e1ma of mighty arm and chest\n His faithful Lakshman then addressed:\n 'Brother, bring hither from the wood\n Selected timber strong and good,\n And build therewith a little cot;\n My heart rejoices in the spot\n That lies beneath the mountain's side,\n Remote, with water well supplied.'\n Sumitr\u00e1's son his words obeyed,\n Brought many a tree, and deftly made,\n With branches in the forest cut,\n As R\u00e1ma bade, a leafy hut.\n Then R\u00e1ma, when the cottage stood\n Fair, firmly built, and walled with wood,\n To Lakshman spake, whose eager mind\n To do his brother's will inclined:\n 'Now, Lakshman as our cot is made,\n Must sacrifice be duly paid\n By us, for lengthened life who hope,\n With venison of the antelope.\n Away, O bright-eyed Lakshman, speed:\n Struck by thy bow a deer must bleed:\n As Scripture bids, we must not slight\n The duty that commands the rite.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Lakshman, the chief whose arrows laid\n His foemen low, his word obeyed;\n And R\u00e1ma thus again addressed\n The swift performer of his hest:\n 'Prepare the venison thou hast shot,\n To sacrifice for this our cot.\n Haste, brother dear, for this the hour,\n And this the day of certain power.'\n Then glorious Lakshman took the buck\n His arrow in the wood had struck;\n Bearing his mighty load he came,\n And laid it in the kindled flame.\n \n \n Soon as he saw the meat was done,\n And that the juices ceased to run\n From the broiled carcass, Lakshman then\n Spoke thus to R\u00e1ma best of men:\n 'The carcass of the buck, entire,\n Is ready dressed upon the fire.\n Now be the sacred rites begun\n To please the God, thou godlike one.'\n \n \n R\u00e1ma the good, in ritual trained,\n Pure from the bath, with thoughts restrained,\n Hasted those verses to repeat\n Which make the sacrifice complete.\n The hosts celestial came in view,\n And R\u00e1ma to the cot withdrew,\n While a sweet sense of rapture stole\n Through the unequalled hero's soul.\n He paid the Vis'vedevas \u00a01 due.\n And Rudra's right, and Vishnu's too,\n Nor wonted blessings, to protect\n Their new-built home, did he neglect.\n With voice repressed he breathed the prayer,\n Bathed duly in the river fair,\n And gave good offerings that remove\n The stain of sin, as texts approve.\n And many an altar there he made,\n And shrines, to suit the holy shade,\n All decked with woodland chaplets sweet,\n And fruit and roots and roasted meat,\n With muttered prayer, as texts require,\n Water, and grass and wood and fire.\n So R\u00e1ma, Lakshman, S\u00edt\u00e1 paid\n Their offerings to each God and shade,\n And entered then their pleasant cot\n That bore fair signs of happy lot.\n They entered, the illustrious three,\n The well-set cottage, fair to see,\n Roofed with the leaves of many a tree,\n \u00a0\u00a0 And fenced from wind and rain;\n So, at their Father Brahm\u00e1's call,\n The Gods of heaven, assembling all,\n To their own glorious council hall\n \u00a0\u00a0 Advance in shining train.\n So, resting on that lovely hill,\n Near the fair lily-covered rill,\n \u00a0\u00a0 The happy prince forgot,\n Surrounded by the birds and deer,\n The woe, the longing, and the fear\n \u00a0\u00a0 That gloom the exile's lot.\n \n \n \n \n \n161:1 'We have often looked on that green hill: it is the holiest spot of that sect of the Hindu faith who devote themselves to this incarnation, of Vishnu. The whole neighbourhood is R\u00e1ma's country. Every headland has some legend, every cavern is connected with his name; some of the wild fruits are still called St\u00e1phal, being the reputed food of the exile. Thousands and thousands annually visit the spot, and round the hill is a raised foot-path, on which the devotee, with naked feet, treads full of pious awe.' Calcutta Review, Vol. XXIII.","title":"Book II: Canto LVI.: Chitrakuta.","type":"page"}