{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry299.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry299.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry299.htm","text":"Then Raghu's son, whose feeling breast\n Shared the great woe that moved the rest,\n Strove with wise charm their grief to ease\n And gently spoke in words like these:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 'You ne'er can raise the dead to bliss\n By agony of grief like this\n Cease your lament, nor leave undone\n The funeral task you may not shun.\n As nature orders o'er the dead\n Your tributary tears are shed,\n But Fate, directing each event,\n Is still the lord preeminent.\n Yes, all obey the changeless laws\n Of Fate the universal cause,\n By Fate, the lives of all proceed,\n That governs every word and deed,\n None acts, none sees his hest obeyed.\n But each and all by Fate are swayed.\n The world its ordered course maintains,\n And o'er that course Fate ever reigns.\n Fate ne'er exceeds the rule of Fate:\n Is ne'er too swift, is ne'er too late,\n And making nature its ally\n Forgets no life, nor passes by.\n No kith and kin, no power and force\n Can check or stay its settled course,\n No friend or client, grace or charm,\n That victor of the world disarm.\n So all who see with prudent eyes\n The hand of Fate must recognize,\n For virtue rules, or love, or gain,\n As Fate's unchanged decrees ordain.\n B\u00e1li has died and won the meed\n That waits in heaven on noble deed,\n Throned in the seats the brave may reach\n By liberal hand and gentle speech,\n True to a warrior's duty, bold\n In fight, the hero lofty-souled\n Deigned not to guard his life: he died,\n And now in heaven is glorified.\n Then cease these tears and wild despair:\n Turn to the task that claims your care,\n For B\u00e1li's is the glorious fate\n Which warriors count most fortunate.'\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When R\u00e1ma's speech had found a close.\n Brave Lakshman, terror of his foes,\n With wise and soothing words addressed\n Sugr\u00edva still with woe oppressed:\n 'Arise Sugr\u00edva,' thus he said,\n 'Perform the service of the dead.\n Prepare with T\u00e1r\u00e1 and her son\n That B\u00e1li's rites be duly done.\n A store of funeral wood provide\n Which wind and sun and time have dried\n And richest sandal fit to grace\n The pyre of one of royal race.\n \n \n With words of comfort soft and kind\n Console poor Angad's troubled mind,\n Nor let thy heart be thus cast down,\n For thine is now the V\u00e1nars' town.\n Let Angad's care a wreath supply,\n And raiment rich with varied dye,\n And oil and perfumes for the fire,\n And all the solemn rites require.\n Go, hasten to the town, O King,\n And T\u00e1r\u00e1's little quickly bring.\n A virtue is despatch: and speed\n Is best of all in hour of need.\n Go, let a chosen band prepare\n The litter of the dead to bear.\n For stout and tall and strong of limb\n Must be the cheifs who carry him.'\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He spoke,--his friends' delight and pride,--\n Then stood again by R\u00e1ma's side.\n When T\u00e1ra \u00a01 heard the words he said\n Within the town he quickly sped,\n And brought, on stalwart shoulders laid,\n The litter for the rites arrayed,\n Framed like a car for Gods, complete\n With painted sides and royal seat,\n With latticed windows deftly made,\n And golden birds and trees inlaid:\n Well joined and wrought in every part,\n A marvel of ingenious art.\n Where pleasure mounds in carven wood\n And many a graven figure stood.\n The best of jewels o'er it hung,\n And wreaths of flowers around it clung,\n And over all was raised on high\n A canopy of saffron dye,\n While like the sun of morning shone\n The billiant blooms that lay thereon.\n That glorious litter R\u00e1ma eyed.\n And spake to Lakshman by his side:\n 'Let B\u00e1li on the bier be placed\n And with all funeral service graced.'\n Sugr\u00edva then with many a tear\n Drew B\u00e1li's body to the bier\n Whereon, with weeping Angad's aid,\n The relics of the chief were laid\n Neath many a vesture's varied fold,\n And wreaths and ornaments and gold.\n Then King Sugr\u00edva bade them speed\n The obsequies by law decreed:\n 'Let V\u00e1nars lead the way and throw\n Rich gems around them as they go,\n And be the chosen bearers near\n Behind them, laden with the bier.\n No costly rite may you deny,\n Used when the proudest monarchs die:\n As for a king of widest sway.\n Perform his obsequies to-day,'\n \n \n Sugr\u00edva gave his high behest;\n Then Princely T\u00e1ra and the rest,\n With little Angad weeping, led\n The long procession of the dead.\n Behind the funeral litter came,\n With T\u00e1ra first, each widowed dame\n In tears and shrieks her loss deplored,\n Add cried aloud, My lord! My lord!\n While wood and hill and valley sent\n In echoes back the shrill lament.\n Then on a low and sandy isle\n Was reared the hero's funeral pile\n By crowds of toiling V\u00e1nars, where\n The mountain stream ran fresh and fair.\n The V\u00e1nar chiefs, a noble band,\n Had laid the litter on the sand,\n And stood a little space apart,\n Each mourning in his inmost heart.\n But T\u00e1ra, when her weeping eye\n Saw B\u00e1li, on the litter lie,\n Laid his dear head upon her lap,\n And wailed aloud her dire mishap;\n 'O mighty V\u00e1nar, lord and king,\n To whose fond breast brave, and bold,\n Rise, look upon me as of old.\n Rise up, my sovereign, dost thou see\n A crowd of subjects weep for thee?\n Still o'er thy face, though breath has fled.\n The joyous light of life is spread:\n Thus around the sun, although he set,\n A crimson glory lingers yet.\n Death clad in R\u00e1ma's form to-day\n Hast dragged thee from the world away.\n One shaft from his tremendous bow\n Dooms us to widowhood and woe.\n Hast thou, O V\u00e1nar King, no eyes\n Thy weeping wives to recognize,\n Who for the length of way unmeet\n Have followed thee with weary feet?\n Yet every moon-faced beauty here\n By thee, O King was counted dear.\n Lord of the V\u00e1nar race, hast thou\n No eyes to see Sugr\u00edva now?\n About thee stands in mournful mood\n A sore-afflicted multitude,\n And T\u00e1ra and thy lords of state\n Around their monarch weep and wait,\n Arise my lord, with gentle speech,\n As was thy wont, dismissing each,\n Then in the forest will we play\n And love shall make our spirits gay.'\n \u00a0\u00a0 The V\u00e1nar dames raised T\u00e1ra, drowned\n In floods of sorrow, from the ground;\n And Angad with Sugr\u00edva's aid,\n O'erwhelmed with anguish and dismayed,\n Weeping for his departed sire,\n Placed Bali's body on the pyre:\n Then lit the flame, and round the dead\n Paced slowly with a mourner's tread.\n Thus with full rites the funeral train.\n Performed the service for the slain,\n Then sought the flowing stream and made\n Libations to the parted shade.\n There, setting Angad first in place,\n The chieftains of the Vanar race,\n With T\u00e1ra and Sugr\u00edva, shed\n The water that delights the dead.\n \n \n \n \n354:1 The V\u00e1nar chief, not to be confounded with T\u00e1r\u00e1.","title":"BOOK IV: Canto XXV.: R\u00e1ma's Speech.","type":"page"}