{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry204.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry204.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry204.htm","text":"When he his heavenly home had found,\n The holy men who dwelt around\n To R\u00e1ma flocked, whose martial fame\n Shone glorious as the kindled flame:\n Vaikh\u00e1nasas \u00a01 who love the wild.\n Pure hermits B\u00e1lakhilyas \u00a02 styled,\n Good Sampraksh\u00e1las, \u00a03 saints who live\n On rays which moon and daystar give:\n Those who with leaves their lives sustain\n And those who pound with stones their grain:\n And they who lie in pools, and those\n Whose corn, save teeth, no winnow knows:\n Those who for beds the cold earth use,\n And those who every couch refuse:\n And those condemned to ceaseless pains,\n Whose single foot their weight sustains:\n And those who sleep neath open skies,\n Whose food the wave or air supplies,\n And hermits pure who spend their nights\n On ground prepared for sacred rites;\n Those who on hills their vigil hold,\n Or dripping clothes around them fold:\n The devotees who live for prayer,\n Or the five fires \u00a04 unflinching bear.\n On contemplation all intent,\n With light that heavenly knowledge lent,\n They came to R\u00e1ma, saint and sage,\n In S'arabhaga's hermitage.\n The hermit crowd around him pressed,\n And thus the virtuous chief addressed:\n 'The lordship of the earth is thine,\n O Prince of old Ikshv\u00e1ku's line.\n \n \n Lord of the Gods is Indra, so\n Thou art our lord and guide below.\n Thy name, the glory of thy might,\n Throughout the triple world are bright:\n Thy filial love so nobly shown.\n Thy truth and virtue well are known.\n To thee, O lord, for help we fly,\n And on thy love of right rely:\n With kindly patience hear us speak,\n And grant the boon we humbly seek.\n That lord of earth were most unjust,\n Foul traitor to his solemn trust,\n Who should a sixth of all \u00a01b require,\n Nor guard his people like a sire.\n But he who ever watchful strives\n To guard his subjects' wealth and lives,\n Dear as himself or, dearer still,\n His sons, with earnest heart and will,--\n That king, O Raghu's son, secures\n High fame that endless years endures,\n And he to Brahm\u00e1's world shall rise,\n Made glorious in the eternal skies,\n Whate'er, by duty won, the meed\n Of saints whom roots and berries feed,\n One fourth thereof, for tender care\n Of subjects, is the monarch's share.\n These, mostly of the Br\u00e1hman race,\n Who make the wood their dwelling-place,\n Although a friend in thee they view,\n Fall friendless neath the giant crew.\n Come, R\u00e1ma, come, and see hard by\n The holy hermits' corpses lie,\n Where many a tangled pathway shows\n The murderous work of cruel foes.\n These wicked fiends the hermits kill--\n Who live on Chitrak\u00fata's hill,\n And blood of slaughtered saints has dyed\n Mand\u00e1kin\u00ed and Pamp\u00e1's side.\n No longer can we bear to see\n The death of saint and devotee\n Whom through the forest day by day\n These R\u00e1kshases unpitying slay.\n To thee, O Prince, we flee, and crave\n Thy guardian help our lives to save.\n From these fierce rovers of the night\n Defend each stricken anchorite.\n Throughout the world 'twere vain to seek\n An arm like thine to aid the weak.\n O Prince, we pray thee hear our call,\n And from these fiends preserve us all.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 The son of Raghu heard the plaint\n Of penance-loving sage and saint,\n And the good prince his speech renewed\n To all the hermit multitude:\n \u00a0\u00a0 'To me, O saints, ye need not sue:\n I wait the hests of all of you.\n I by mine own occasion led\n This mighty forest needs must tread,\n \n \n And while I keep my sire's decree\n Your lives from threatening foes will free.\n I hither came of free accord\n To lend the aid by you implored,\n And richest meed my toil shall pay,\n While here in forest shades I stay.\n I long in battle strife to close.\n And slay these fiends, the hermits' foes,\n That saint and sage may learn aright\n My prowess and my brother's might.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Thus to'the saints his promise gave\n That prince who still to virtue clave\n \u00a0\u00a0 With never-wandering thought:\n And then with Lakshman by his side,\n With penance-wealthy men to guide,\n \u00a0\u00a0 Sut\u00edkshna's home he sought.\n \n \n \n \n \n235:1 Hermits who live upon roots which they dig out of the earth: literally diggers, derived from the prefix vi and khan to dig.\n235:2 Generally, divine personages of the height of a man's thumb, produced from Brahm\u00e1's hair: here, according to the commentator followed by Gorresio, hermits who when they have obtained fresh food throw away what they had laid up before.\n235:3 Sprung from the washings of Vishnu's feet.\n235:4 Four fires burning round them, and the sun above.\n235:1b The tax allowed to the king by the Laws of Manu.","title":"BOOK III: Canto VI.: R\u00e1ma's Promise.","type":"page"}