{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry150.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry150.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry150.htm","text":"He entered in, he looked around,\n Nor in the house his father found;\n Then to his mother's dwelling, bent\n To see her face, he quickly went.\n She saw her son, so long away,\n Returning after many a day,\n And from her golden seat in joy\n Sprung forward to her darling boy.\n Within the bower, no longer bright,\n Came Bharat lover of the right,\n And bending with observance sweet\n Clasped his dear mother's lovely feet.\n Long kisses on his brow she pressed,\n And held her hero to her breast,\n Then fondly drew him to her knees,\n And questioned him in words like these:\n 'How many nights have fled, since thou\n Leftest thy grandsire's home, till now?\n By flying steeds so swiftly borne,\n Art thou not weak and travel-worn?\n How fares the king my father, tell:\n Is Yudh\u00e1jit thine uncle well?\n And now, my son, at length declare\n The pleasure of the visit there.'\n \n \n Thus to the offspring of the king\n She spake with tender questioning,\n And to his mother made reply\n Young Bharat of the lotus eye:\n 'The seventh night has come and fled\n Since from my grandsire's home I sped:\n My mother's sire is well, and he,\n Yudh\u00e1jit, from all trouble free.\n The gold and every precious thing\n Presented by the conqueror king,\n The slower guards behind convey:\n I left them weary on the way.\n Urged by the men my father sent,\n My hasty course I hither bent:\n Now, I implore, an answer deign,\n And all I wish to know, explain.\n \n \n Unoccupied I now behold\n This couch of thine adorned with gold,\n And each of King Ikshv\u00e1ku's race\n Appears with dark and gloomy face.\n The king is aye, my mother dear,\n Most constant in his visits here.\n To meet my sire I sought this spot:\n How is it that I find him not?\n I long to clasp my father's feet:\n Say where he lingers, I entreat.\n Perchance the monarch may be seen\n Where dwells Kaus'aly\u00e1, eldest queen.'\n \n \n His father's fate, from him concealed.\n Kaikey\u00ed to her son revealed:\n Told as glad news the story sad,\n For lust of sway had made her mad:\n 'Thy father, O my darling, know,\n Has gone the way all life must go:\n Devout and famed, of lofty thought,\n In whom the good their refuge sought.'\n \n \n When Bharat pious, pure, and true,\n Heard the sad words which pierced him through,\n Grieved for the sire he loved so well\n Prostrate upon the ground he fell:\n Down fell the strong-armed hero, high\n Tossing his arms, and a sad cry,\n 'Ah, woe is me, unhappy, slain!'\n Burst from his lips again, again,\n Afflicted for his father's fate\n By grief's intolerable weight,\n With every sense amazed and cowed\n The splendid hero wailed aloud:\n 'Ah me, my royal father's bed\n Of old a gentle radiance shed,\n Like the pure sky when clouds are past,\n And the moon's light is o'er it cast:\n Ah, of its wisest lord bereft,\n It shows to-day faint radiance left,\n As when the moon has left the sky.\n Or mighty Ocean's depths are dry.'\n \n \n With choking sobs, with many a tear.\n Pierced to the heart with grief sincere,\n The best of conquerors poured his sighs,\n And with his robe veiled face and eyes.\n Kaikey\u00ed saw him fallen there,\n Godlike, afflicted, in despair,\n Used every art to move him thence,\n And tried him thus with eloquence:\n 'Arise, arise, my dearest; why\n Wilt thou, famed Prince, so lowly lie?\n Not by such grief as this are moved\n Good men like thee, by all approved.\n The earth thy father nobly swayed,\n And rites to Heaven he duly paid.\n At length his race of life was run:\n Thou shouldst not mourn for him, my son.'\n \n \n Long on the ground he wept, and rolled\n From side to side, still unconsoled,\n And then, with bitter grief oppressed,\n His mother with those words addressed:\n \n \n 'This joyful hope my bosom fed\n When from my grandsire's halls I sped--\n 'The king will throne his eldest son,\n And sacrifice, as should be done.'\n But all is changed, my hope was vain,\n And this sad heart is rent in twain,\n For my dear father's face I miss,\n Who ever sought his loved ones' bliss.\n But in my absence, mother, say,\n What sickness took my sire away?\n Ah, happy R\u00e1ma, happy they\n Allowed his funeral rites to pay!\n The glorious monarch has not learned\n That I his darling have returned,\n Or quickly had he hither sped,\n And pressed his kisses on my head.\n Where is that hand whose gentle touch,\n Most soft and kind I loved so much,\n The hand that loved to brush away\n The dust that on his darling lay?\n Quick, bear the news to R\u00e1ma's ear;\n Tell the great chief that I am here:\n Brother, and sire, and friend, and all\n Is he, and I his trusty thrall,\n For noble hearts, to virtue true,\n Their sires in elder brothers view.\n To clasp his feet I fain would bow:\n He is my hope and refuge now.\n What said my glorious sire, who knew\n Virtue and vice, so brave and true?\n Firm in his vows, dear lady, say,\n What said he ere he passed away?\n What was his rede to me? I crave\n To hear the last advice he gave.'\n \n \n Thus closely questioned by the youth,\n Kaikeyi spoke the mournful truth:\n 'The high-souled monarch wept and sighed,\n For R\u00e1ma, S\u00edt\u00e1, Lakshman, cried,\n Then, best of all who go to bliss,\n Passed to the world which follows this.\n 'Ah, blessed are the people who\n Shall R\u00e1ma and his S\u00edt\u00e1 view, \n And Lakshman of the mighty arm,\n Returning free from scathe and harm.'\n Such were the words, the last of all,\n Thy father, ere he died, let fall,\n By Fate and Death's dread coils enwound,\n As some great elephant is bound.'\n \n \n He heard, yet deeper in despair,\n Her lips this double woe declare,\n And with sad brow that showed his pain\n Questioned his mother thus again:\n 'But where is he, of virtue tried,\n Who fills Kaus'aly\u00e1's heart with pride,\n Where is the noble R\u00e1ma? where\n Is Lakshman brave, and S\u00edt\u00e1 fair?'\n \n \n Thus pressed, the queen began to tell\n The story as each thing befell,\n And gave her son in words like these,\n The mournful news she meant to please:\n 'The prince is gone in hermit dress\n To Dandak's mighty wilderness,\n And Lakshman brave and S\u00edt\u00e1 share\n The wanderings of the exile there.'\n \n \n Then Bharat's soul with fear was stirred\n Lest R\u00e1ma from the right had erred,\n And jealous for ancestral fame,\n He put this question to the dame:\n 'Has R\u00e1ma grasped with lawless hold\n A Br\u00e1hman's house, or land, or gold?\n Has R\u00e1ma harmed with ill intent\n Some poor or wealthy innocent?\n Was R\u00e1ma, faithless to his vows,\n Enamoured of anothers spouse?\n Why was he sent to Dandak's wild,\n Like one who kills an unborn child?'\n \n \n He questioned thus: and she began\n To tell her deeds and crafty plan.\n Deceitful-hearted, fond, and blind\n As is the way of womankind:\n 'No Br\u00e1hman's wealth has R\u00e1ma seized,\n No dame his wandering fancy pleased;\n His very eyes he ne'er allows\n To gaze upon a neighbour's spouse,\n But when I heard the monarch planned\n To give the realm to R\u00e1ma's hand,\n I prayed that R\u00e1ma hence might flee,\n And claimed the throne, my son, for thee.\n The king maintained the name he bare,\n And did according to my prayer.\n And R\u00e1ma, with his brother, sent,\n And S\u00edt\u00e1, forth to banishment.\n When his dear son was seen no more,\n The lord of earth was troubled sore:\n Too feeble with his grief to strive,\n He joined the elemental Five.\n Up then, most dutiful! maintain\n The royal state, arise, and reign.\n For thee, my darling son, for thee\n All this was planned and wrought by me.\n Come, cast thy grief and pain aside,\n With manly courage fortified.\n This town and realm are all thine own,\n And fear and grief are here unknown.\n Come, with Vas'ishtha's guiding aid,\n \u00a0\u00a0 And priests in ritual skilled\n Let the king's funeral dues be paid,\n \u00a0\u00a0 And every claim fulfilled.\n Perform his obsequies with all\n \u00a0\u00a0 That suits his rank and worth,\n Then give the mandate to install\n \u00a0\u00a0 Thyself as lord of earth.'","title":"Book II: Canto LXXII.: Bharat's Inquiry.","type":"page"}