{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry237.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry237.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry237.htm","text":"'I told thee of that dreadful day\n When R\u00e1ma smote and spared to slay.\n Now hear me, R\u00e1van, while I tell\n What in the after time befell.\n At length, restored to strength and pride,\n I and two mighty fiends beside\n Assumed the forms of deer and strayed\n Through Dandak wood in lawn and glade,\n I reared terrific horns: beneath\n Were flaming tongue and pointed teeth.\n I roamed where'er my fancy led,\n And on the flesh of hermits fed,\n In sacred haunt, by hallowed tree,\n Where'er the ritual fires might be.\n A fearful shape, I wandered through\n The wood, and many a hermit slew.\n With ruthless rage the saints I killed\n Who in the grove their tasks fulfilled.\n When smitten to the earth they sank,\n Their flesh I ate, their blood I drank,\n And with my cruel deeds dismayed\n All dwellers in the forest shade,\n Spoiling their rites in bitter hate,\n With human blood inebriate.\n Once in the wood I chanced to see\n R\u00e1ma again, a devotee,\n A hermit, fed on scanty fare,\n Who made the good of all his care.\n His noble wife was by his side,\n And Lakshman in the battle tried.\n In senseless pride I scorned the might\n Of that illustrious anchorite,\n And heedless of a hermit foe,\n Recalled my earlier overthow.\n \n \n I charged him in my rage and scorn\n To slay him with my pointed horn,\n In heedless haste, to fury wrought\n As on my former wounds I thought.\n Then from the mighty bow he drew\n Three foe-destroying arrows flew,\n Keen-pointed, leaping from the string:\n Swift as the wind or feathered king.\n Dire shafts, on flesh of foemen fed,\n Like rushing thunderbolts they sped.\n With knots well smoothed and barbs well bent,\n Shot e'en as one, the arrows went.\n But I who R\u00e1ma's might had felt,\n And knew the blows the hero dealt,\n Escaped by rapid flight. The two\n Who lingered on the spot, he slew.\n I fled from mortal danger, freed\n From the dire shaft by timely speed.\n Now to deep thought my days I give,\n And as a humble hermit live.\n In every shrub, in every tree\n I view that noblest devotee.\n In every knotted trunk I mark\n His deerskin and his coat of bark,\n And see the bow-armed R\u00e1ma stand\n Like Yama with his noose in hand.\n I tell thee R\u00e1van, in my fright\n A thousand R\u00e1mas mock my sight,\n This wood with every bush and bough\n Seems all one fearful R\u00e1ma now.\n Throughout the grove there is no spot\n So lonely where I see him not.\n He haunts me in my dreams by night,\n And wakes me with the wild affright.\n The letter that begins his name\n Sends terror through my startled frame.\n The rapid cars whereon we ride,\n The rich rare jewels, once my pride,\n Have names \u00a01 that strike upon mine ear\n With hated sound that counsels fear.\n His mighty strength too well I know,\n Nor art thou match for such a foe.\n Too strong were Raghus's son in fight\n For Namu*chi or Bali's might.\n Then R\u00e1ma to the battle dare,\n Or else be patient and forbear;\n But, wouldst thou see me live in peace,\n Let mention of the hero cease.\n The good whose holy lives were spent\n In deepest thought, most innocent.\n With all their people many a time\n Have perished through another's crime.\n So in the common ruin, I\n Must for another's folly die,\n Do all thy strength and courage can.\n But ne'er will I approve the plan.\n For he, in might supremely great,\n \n \n The giant world could extirpate,\n Since, when impetuous Khara sought\n The grove of Janasth\u00e1n and fought\n For S\u00farpanakh\u00e1's sake, he died\n By R\u00e1ma's hand in battle tried.\n How has he wronged thee? Soothly swear,\n And R\u00e1ma's fault and sin declare.\n \u00a0\u00a0 I warn thee, and my words are wise,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I seek thy people's weal:\n \u00a0\u00a0 But if this rede thou wilt despise.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nor hear my last appeal,\n \u00a0\u00a0 Thou with thy kin and all thy friends\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In fight this day wilt die,\n \u00a0\u00a0 When his great bow the hero bends,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And shafts unerring fly.'\n \n \n \n \n275:1 The Sanskrit words for car and jewels begin with ra.","title":"BOOK III: Canto XXXIX.: M\u00e1r\u00edcha's Speech.","type":"page"}