{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry243.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry243.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry243.htm","text":"But Sit\u00e1 hearing as she thought,\n Her husband's cry with anguish fraught.\n Called to her guardian, 'Lakshman, run\n And in the wood seek Raghu's son.\n Scarce can my heart retain its throne,\n Scarce can my life be called mine own,\n Assail my powers and senses fail\n At that long loud and bitter wail.\n Haste to the wood with all thy speed\n And save thy brother in his need\n Go, save him in the distant glade\n Where loud he calls, for timely aid.\n He * beneath some giant foe,\n A * whom * overthrown'\n \u00a0\u00a0 * to her prayer,* step he stirred\n Obedient to his mother's word\n T * Janak's child, with inflamed,\n * scorn *\n \u00a0\u00a0 Sumitr\u00e1's son, a friend *\n * they brother's foe\n W* at such *\n * and neglect *\n * Lakshman, * of me\n * couldst see,\n * thy *\n * thy feet so *\n \n \n Thou hast no love for R\u00e1ma, no\n Thy joy is vice thy thoughts are low\n Hence thus unmoved thou yet canst stay\n While my dear lord is far away.\n If aught of ill my lord betide\n Who led thee here, thy chief and guide\n Ah what will be my hapless fate\n Left in the wild wood desolate!'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Thus spoke the lady sad with fear.\n With many a sigh and many a tear,\n Still trembling like a captured doe:\n And Lakshman spoke to calm her woe:\n \u00a0 'Videhan Queen, be sure of this,--\n And at the thought thy fear dismiss,--\n Thy husband's mightier power defies\n All Gods and angels of the skies,\n Gandharvas, and the sons of light,\n Serpents, and rovers of the night\n I tell thee, of the sons of earth,\n Of Gods who boast celestial birth,\n Of beasts and birds and giant hosts,\n Of demigods, Gandharvas ghosts,\n Of awful fiends, O thou most fair,\n There lives not one whose heart would dare\n To meet thy R\u00e1ma in the fight,\n Like Indra's self unmatched in might.\n Such idle words thou must not say\n Thy R\u00e1ma lives whom none may slay.\n I will not, cannot leave thee here\n In the wild wood till he be near.\n The mightiest strength can ne'er withstand\n His eager force, his vigorous hand.\n No, not the triple world allied\n With all the immortal Gods beside.\n Dismiss thy fear, again take heart,\n Let all thy doubt and woe depart.\n Thy lord, be sure, will soon be here\n And bring thee back that best of deer,\n Not his, not his that mournful cry,\n Nor haply came it from the sky.\n Some giant's art was busy there\n And framed a castle based on air\n A precious pledge art thou, consigned\n To me by him of noblest mind,\n Nor can I fairest dame, forsake\n The pledge which R\u00e1ma bade me take.\n Upon our heads, O Queen, we drew\n The giants' hate when R\u00e1ma slew\n Their chieftain Khara, and the shade\n Of Janasth\u00e1n in ruin laid.\n Through all this mighty wood they rove\n With varied cries from grove to grove\n On * bent they wander here.\n But O dismiss thy causeless fear.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Bright flashed her eye as Lashman spoke\n And forth her words of fury broke\n Upon her truthful guardian, flung\n With bitter taunts that pierced and stung;\n 'Shame on such false compassion, base\n * of thy glorious race!\n * joyous sight I ween to thee\n \n \n My lord in direst strait to see.\n Thou knowest R\u00e1ma sore bested,\n Or word like this thou ne'er hadst said.\n No marvel if we find such sin\n In rivals false to kith and kin.\n Wretches like thee of evil kind,\n Concealing crime with crafty mind.\n Thou, wretch, thine aid wilt still deny,\n And leave my lord alone to die.\n Has love of me unnerved thy hand,\n Or Bharat's art this ruin planned?\n But be the treachery his or thine,\n In vain, in vain the base design.\n For how shall I, the chosen bride\n Of dark-hued R\u00e1ma, lotus-eyed,\n The queen who once called R\u00e1ma mine,\n To love of other men decline?\n Believe me, Lakshman, R\u00e1ma's wife\n Before thine eyes will quit this life,\n And not a moment will she stay\n If her dear lord have passed away.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 The lady's bitter speech, that stirred\n Each hair upon his frame, he heard.\n With lifted hands together laid,\n His calm reply he gently made:\n \u00a0\u00a0 'No words have I to answer now:\n My deity, O Queen, art thou.\n But 'tis no marvel, dame, to find\n Such lack of sense in womankind.\n Throughout this world, O Maithil dame,\n Weak women's hearts are still the same.\n Inconstant, urged by envious spite,\n They sever friends and hate the right.\n I cannot brook, Videhan Queen,\n Thy words intolerably keen.\n Mine ears thy fierce reproaches pain\n As boiling water seethes the brain.\n And now to bear me witness all\n The dwellers in the wood I call,\n That, when with words of truth I plead,\n This harsh reply is all my meed.\n Ah, woe is thee! Ah, grief, that still\n Eager to do my brother's will,\n Mourning thy woman's nature, I\n Must see thee doubt my truth and die.\n I fly to R\u00e1ma's side, and Oh,\n May bliss attend thee while I go!\n May all attendant wood-gods screen\n Thy head from harm, O large-eyed Queen\n And though dire omens meet my sight\n And fill my soul with wild affright,\n May I return in peace and see\n The son of Raghu safe with thee!'\n \u00a0\u00a0 The child of Janak heard him speak,\n And the hot tear-drops down her cheek,\n Increasing to a torrent, ran,\n Aa thus once more the dame began:\n 'O Lakshman, if I widowed be\n God\u00e1van's** flood shall cover me,\n Or I will die by cord, or leap,\n Life weary, from yon rocky steep;\n \n \n Or deadly poison will I drink,\n Or 'neath the kindled flames will sink,\n But never, reft of R\u00e1ma, can\n Consent to touch a meaner man.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 The Maithil dame with many sighs,\n And torrents pouring from her eyes,\n The faithful Lakshman thus adressed,\n And smote her hands upon her breast.\n Sumitr\u00e1's son, o'erwhelmed by fears,\n \u00a0\u00a0 Looked on the large-eyed queen:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He saw that flood of burning tears,\n \u00a0\u00a0 He saw that piteous mien.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He yearned sweet comfort to afford,\n \u00a0\u00a0 He strove to soothe her pain\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But to the brother of her lord\n \u00a0 She spoke no word again.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 His reverent hands once more he raised,\n \u00a0\u00a0 His head he slightly bent,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Upon her face he sadly gazed,\n \u00a0\u00a0 And then toward R\u00e1ma went.","title":"BOOK III: Canto XLV.: Lakshman's Departure.","type":"page"}