{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry266.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry266.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry266.htm","text":"Thus faithful Lakshman strove to cheer\n The prince with counsel wise and clear.\n Who, prompt to seize the pith of all,\n Let not that wisdom idly fall.\n With vigorous effort he restrained\n The passion in his breast that reigned,\n And leaning on his bow for rest\n His brother Lakshman thus addressed:\n 'How shall we labour now, reflect;\n Whither again our search direct?\n Brother, what plan canst thou devise\n To bring her to these longing eyes?'\n \u00a0\u00a0 To him by toil and sorrow tried\n The prudent Lakshman thus replied:\n 'Come, though our labour yet be vain,\n And search through Janasth\u00e1n again,-\n A realm where giant foes abound.\n And trees and creepers hide the ground.\n For there are caverns deep and dread,\n By deer and wild birds tenanted,\n And hills with many a dark abyss,\n Grotto and rock and precipice.\n There bright Gandharvas love to dwell,\n And Kinnars in each bosky dell.\n With me thy eager search to aid\n Be every hill and cave surveyed.\n Great chiefs like thee, the best of men,\n Endowed with sense and piercing ken,\n Though tried by trouble never fail.\n Like rooted hills that mock the gale,'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Then R\u00e1ma, pierced by anger's sting,\n Laid a keen arrow on his string,\n And by the faithful Lakshman's side\n Roamed through the forest far and wide.\n Jat\u00e1yus there with blood-drops dyed,\n Lying upon the ground he spied,\n Huge as a mountain's shattered crest,\n Mid all the birds of air the best.\n In wrath the mighty bird he eyed,\n And thus the chief to Lakshman cried:\n \u00a0\u00a0 'Ah me, these signs the truth betray;\n My darling was the vulture's prey.\n Some demon in the bird's disguise\n Roams through the wood that round us lies,\n On large eyed S\u00edt\u00e1 he has fed.\n And rest him now with wings outspread\n But my keen * whose flight is true,\n Shall *\n \n \n An arrow on the string he laid,\n And rushing near the bird surveyed,\n While earth to ocean's distant side\n Trembled beneath his furious stride.\n With blood and froth on neck and beak\n The dying bird essayed to speak,\n And with a piteous voice, distressed,\n Thus Das'aratha's son addressed:\n \u00a0\u00a0 'She whom like some sweet herb of grace\n Thou seekest in this lonely place,\n Fair lady, is fierce R\u00e1van's prey,\n Who took, beside, my life away.\n Lakshman and thou had parted hence\n And left the dame without defence,\n I saw her swiftly borne away\n By R\u00e1van's might which none could stay.\n I hurried to the lady's aid,\n I crushed his car and royal shade,\n And putting forth my warlike might\n Hurled R\u00e1van to the earth in fight.\n Here, R\u00e1ma, lies his broken bow,\n Here lie the arrows of the foe.\n There on the ground before thee are\n The fragments of his battle car.\n There bleeds the driver whom my wings\n Beat down with ceaseless buffetings\n When toil my aged strength subdued,\n His sword my weary pinions hewed.\n Then lifting up the dame he bare\n His captive through the fields of air.\n Thy vengeful blows from me restrain,\n Already by the giant slain.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 When R\u00e1ma heard the vulture tell\n The tale that proved his love so well,\n His bow upon the ground he placed,\n And tenderly the bird embraced:\n Then to the earth he fell o'erpowered,\n And burning tears both brothers showered,\n For double pain and anguish pressed\n Upon the patient hero's breast.\n The solitary bird be eyed\n Who in the lone wood gasped and sighed,\n And as again his anguish woke\n Thus R\u00e1ma to his brother spoke:\n \u00a0\u00a0 'Expelled from power the woods I tread,\n My spouse is lost, the bird is dead.\n A fate so sad. I ween, would tame\n The vigour of the glorious flame.\n If I to cool my fever tried\n To cross the deep from side to side.\n The sea,--so hard my fate,--would dry\n His waters as my feet came nigh.\n In all this world there lives not one\n So cursed as I beneath the sun;\n So strong a net of misery cast\n Around me holds the captive fast,\n Best of all birds that play the wing,\n Loved, honoured by our sire the king,\n The vulture, in my fate enwound,\n Lies bleeding, dying on the ground.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Then R\u00e1ma and his brother stirred\n \n \n By pity mourned the royal bird,\n And, as their hands his limbs caressed,\n Affection for a sire expressed.\n And R\u00e1ma to his bosom strained\n The bird with mangled wings distained,\n \u00a0\u00a0 With crimson blood-drops dyed.\n He fell, and shedding many a tear,\n \u00a0\u00a0 'Where is my spouse than life more dear?\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Where is my love?' he cried.","title":"BOOK III: Canto LXVIII.: Jat\u00e1yus.","type":"page"}