{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry236.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry236.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry236.htm","text":"\"Once in my strength and vigour's pride\n I roamed this earth from side to side,\n And towering like a mountain's crest,\n A thousand N\u00e1gas'\u00a01b might possessed.\n Like some vast sable cloud I showed:\n My golden armlets flashed and glowed.\n A crown I wore, an axe I swayed,\n And all I met were sore afraid.\n I roved where Dandak wood is spread;\n On flesh of slaughtered saints I fed.\n Then Vis'v\u00e1mitra, sage revered.\n Holy of heart, my fury feared.\n To Das'aratha's court he sped\n And went before the king and said:\u00a02b\n \n \n 'With me, my lord, thy R\u00e1ma send\n On holy days his aid to lend.\n M\u00e1r\u00edcha fills my soul with dread\n And keeps me sore disquieted.'\n \n \n The monarch heard the saint's request\n And thus the glorious sage addressed:\n \n \n 'My boy as yet in arms untrained\n The age of twelve has scarce attained.\n But I myself a host will lead\n To guard thee in the hour of need.\n My host with fourfold troops complete,\n The rover of the night shall meet,\n And I, O best of saints, will kill\n Thy foeman and thy prayer fulfil.'\n The king vouchsafed his willing aid:\n The saint again this answer made:\n \n \n 'By R\u00e1ma's might, and his alone,\n Can this great fiend be overthrown.\n I know in days of yore the Blest\n Thy saving help in fight confessed.\n Still of thy famous deeds they tell\n In heaven above, in earth, and hell,\n A mighty host obeys thy hest:\n Here let it still, I pray thee, rest.\n Thy glorious son, though yet a boy,\n Will in the fight that fiend destroy.\n R\u00e1ma alone with me shall go:\n Be happv, victor of the foe.'\n \n \n He spoke: the monarch gave assent,\n And R\u00e1ma to the hermit lent.\n So to his woodland home in joy\n Went Vis'v\u00e1mitra with the boy.\n With ready bow the champion stood\n To guard the rites in Dandak wood.\n With glorious eyes, most bright to view,\n Beardless as yet and dark of hue;\n A single robe his only wear,\n His temples veiled with waving hair,\n \n \n Around his neck a chain of gold,\n He grasped the bow he loved to bold;\n And the young hero's presence made\n A glory in the forest shade.\n Thus R\u00e1ma with his beauteous mien,\n Like the young rising moon was seen,\n I, like a cloud which tempest brings,\n My arms adorned with golden rings,\n Proud of the boon which lent me might,\n Approached where dwelt the anchorite.\n But R\u00e1ma saw me venturing nigh,\n Raising my murderous axe on high;\n He saw, and fearless of the foe,\n Strung with calm hand his trusty bow\n By pride of conscious strength beguiled,\n I scorned him as a feeble child,\n And rushed with an impetuous bound\n On Vis'v\u00e1mitra's holy ground.\n A keen swift shaft he pointed well,\n The foeman's rage to check and quell,\n And hurled a hundred leagues away\n Deep in the ocean waves I lay.\n He would not kill, but, nobly brave,\n My forfeit life he chose to save.\n So there I lay with wandering sense\n Dazed by that arrow's violence.\n Long in the sea I lay: at length\n Slowly returned my sense and strength,\n And rising from my watery bed\n To Lank\u00e1's town again I sped.\n Thus was I spared, but all my band\n Fell slain by R\u00e1ma's conquering hand,--\n A boy, untrained in warrior skill,\n Of iron arm and dauntless will.\n If thou with R\u00e1ma still, in spite\n Of warning and of prayer, wilt fight,\n I see terrific woes impend,\n And dire defeat thy days will end.\n Thy giants all will feel the blow\n And share the fatal overthrow,\n Who love the taste of joy and play,\n The banquet and the festal day.\n Thine eyes will see destruction take\n Thy Lank\u00e1, lost for Sit\u00e1's sake,\n And stately pile and palace fall\n With terrace, dome, and jewelled wall.\n The good will die: the crime of kings\n Destruction on the people brings:\n The sinless die, as in the lake\n The fish must perish with the snake.\n The prostrate giants thou wilt see\n Slain for this folly wrought by thee,\n Their bodies bright with precious scent\n And sheen of heavenly ornament;\n Or so the remnant of thy train\n Seek refuge far, when help is vain\n And with their wives, or widowed, fly\n To every quarter of the sky;\n Thy mournful eyes, where'er they turn,\n Will see thy stately city burn,\n When royal homes with fire are red,\n \n \n And arrowy nets around are spread.\n A sin that tops all sins in shame\n Is outrage to another's dame,\n A thousand wives thy palace fill,\n And countless beauties wait thy will.\n O rest contented with thine own,\n Nor let thy race be overthrown.\n If thou, O King, hast still delight\n In rank and wealth and power and might,\n In noble wives, in troops of friends,\n In all that royal state attends,\n I warn thee, cast not all away,\n Nor challenge R\u00e1ma to the fray.\n If deaf to every friendly prayer,\n \u00a0\u00a0 Thou still wilt seek the strife,\n And from the side of R\u00e1ma tear\n \u00a0\u00a0 His lovely Maithil wife,\n Soon will thy life and empire end\n \u00a0\u00a0 Destroyed by R\u00e1ma's bow,\n And thou, with kith and kin and friend,\n To Yama'a realm must go.'\n \n \n \n \n \n \n273:1b Serpent-gods.\n273:2b See p. 33.","title":"BOOK III: Canto XXXVIII.: M\u00e1r\u00edcha's Speech.","type":"page"}