{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry296.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry296.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry296.htm","text":"There breathing still with slow faint sighs\n Lay B\u00e1li on the ground: his eyes,\n \n \n Damp with the tears of death, he raised,\n On conquering Sugr\u00edva gazed,\n And then in clearest speech expressed\n The tender feelings of his breast;\n 'Not to my charge, Sugr\u00edva, lay\n Thine injuries avenged to-day;\n But rather blame resistless Fate\n That urged me on infuriate.\n Fate ne'er agreed our lives to bless\n With simultaneous happiness:\n To dwell like brothers side by side\n In tender love was still denied.\n The V\u00e1nars' realm is thine to-day:\n Begin, O King, thy rightful sway; \u00a01\n for I must go at Yama's call\n To sojourn in his gloomy hall;\n Must part and leave this very hour\n My life, my realm, my kingly power,\n And go instead of these to gain\n Bright glory free from spot and stain.\n Now at thy hands one boon I seek\n With the last words my lips shall speak,\n And, though it be no easy thing,\n perform the task I give thee, King.\n This son of mine, no foolish boy,\n Worthy of bliss and nursed in joy,--\n See, prostrate on the ground he lies,\n The hot tears welling from his eyes--\n The child I love so well, more sweet\n Than life itself, for woe unmeet,--\n To him be kindly favour shown:\n O guard and keep him as thine own.\n Retain him ever by thy side,\n His father, helper, friend, and guide.\n From fear and woe his young life save,\n And give him all his father gave.\n Then T\u00e1r\u00e1's son in time shall be\n Brave, resolute, and famed like thee,\n And march before thee to the fight\n Where stricken fiends shall own his might.\n While yet a tender stripling, fame\n Shall bruit abroad his warrior name,\n And brigbtlv shall his glory shine\n For exploits worthy of his line.\n Child of Sushen,\u00a02 my T\u00e1r\u00e1 well\n Obscurest lore can read and tell;\n And, trained in wondrous art, divines\n Each mystery of boding signs.\n Her solemn warning ne'er despise,\n Do boldly what her lips advise;\n For things to come her eye can see,\n And with her words events agree.\n And for the son of Raghu's sake\n The toil and danger undertake:\n \n \n For breach of faith were grievous wrong,\n Nor wouldst thou be unpunished long.\n Now, brother, take this chain of gold,\n Gift of celestial hands of old,\n Or when I die its charm will flee,\n And all its might be lost with me.'\n \n \n The loving speech Sugr\u00edva heard.\n And all his heart with woe was stirred.\n Remorse and gentle pity stole\n Each thought of triumph from his soul:\n Thus fades the light when R\u00e1hu\u00a01b mars\n The glory of the Lord of Stars.\u00a02b\n All angry thoughts were staved and stilled\n And kindly love his bosom filled.\n His brother's word the chief obeyed\n And took the chain as B\u00e1li prayed.\n On little Angad standing nigh\n The dying hero fixed his eye,\n And, ready from this world to part,\n Spoke the fond utterance of his heart:\n \n \n 'Let time and place thy thoughts employ:\n In woe be strong, he meek in joy.\n Accept both pain and pleasure, still\n Obedient to Sugr\u00edva's will.\n Thou hast, my darling, from the first\n With tender care been softly nursed;\n But harder days, if thou wouldst win\n Sugr\u00edva's love, must now begin.\n To those who hate him ne'er incline,\n Nor count his foe a friend of thine.\n In all thy thoughts his welfare seek,\n Obedient, lowly, faithful, meek.\n Let no rash suit his bosom pain,\n Nor yet from due requsts abstain. \u00a03b\n Each is a grievous fault, between\n The two is round the happy mean.'\n \n \n Then B\u00e1li ceased: his eyeballs rolled\n In stress of anguish uncontrolled\n His massive teeth were bared to view,\n And from the frame the spirit flew.\n Their lord and leader dead, the crowd\n Of noblest V\u00e1nars shrieked aloud:\n 'Since thou, O King, hast sought the skies\n All desolate Kishkindh\u00e1 lies.\n Her woods, where V\u00e1nars loved to rove,\n Are empty now, and hill and grove.\n From every eye the light is fled,\n Since thou, our mighty lord, art dead.\n Thine was the unwearied arm that bore\n The brunt of deadly fight of yore\n With Golabh the Gandharva, when,\n Lasting through five long years and ten,\n \n \n The dreadful conflict knew no stay\n In gloom of night, in glare of day;\n And when the fifteenth year had past\n Thy dire opponent fell at last.\n If such a foeman fell beneath\n Our hero's arm and awful teeth\n Who freed us from our terror, how\n Is conquering B\u00e1li fallen now?'\n \n \n Then when they saw their leader slain\n Great anguish seized the V\u00e1nar train,\n Weeping their mighty chief, as when\n In pastures near a lion's den\n The cows by sudden fear are stirred,\n Slain the bold bull who led the herd.\n And hapless T\u00e1r\u00e1 sank below\n The whelming waters of her woe,\n Looked upon B\u00e1li's face and fell\n Beside him whom she loved go well,\n Like a young creeper clinging round\n A tall tree prostrate on the ground.\n \n \n \n \n \n350:1b Sugr\u00edva and Angad.\n351:1 Angad himself, being too young to govern, would be Yuvar\u00e1ja or heir- apparent.\n351:2 Sushena was the son of Varuna the God of the sea,\n351:1b A demon with the tail of a dragon, that causes eclipses by endeavouring to swallow the sun and moon.\n351:2b The Lord of Stars is the Moon.\n351:3b Or the passage may be interpreted: 'Be neither to obsequious or affectionate, nor wanting in due respect of love.'","title":"BOOK IV: Canto XXII.: B\u00e1li Dead.","type":"page"}