Having taken refuge under the tree and performed his evening devotions,
that foremost of those capable of charming others, Rama, addressed
Lakshmana, saying,--"To day is the first night (which we must spend)
outside the inhabited tracts without the company of Sumantra. Thou ought
not to suffer thy mind to be uneasy on that score. From tonight forth,
we shall have to guard her vigilantly; for, O Lakshmana, the
preservation of what she has as well as the securing unto her of what
she has not, rests with us. We will, O son of Sumitra, anyhow pass the
night; let us ourselves procuring (leaves) and spreading them on the
ground, anyhow lie down on it." Saying this, Rama lying down on the
ground although worthy of a costly bed, spoke these excellent words unto
Sumitra's son,--"O Lakshmana, surely the king sleeps uneasily to day,
and Kaikeyi having attained her end ought to be satisfied. Will not that
revered lady, for the purpose of having Bharata established in the
kingdom, take the king's life, when she shall see Bharata arrived?
Forlorn and old and deprived of me, I do not know what he will do, his
soul possessed by desire, and having come under the influence of
Kaikeyi. Viewing this calamity (that has overtaken us) and the disorder
that has taken place in the senses of the monarch, I deem even lust as
more potent than either virtue or interest. O Lakshmana, what man is
there ignorant though he be, who for the sake of a female forsaketh as
my father has done me, his son following his foot-steps? Ah! Kaikeyi's
son Bharata with his wife is really happy--he that enjoys the sole
sovereignity of the delighted Kocalas. Now that our father has grown old
and I have taken refuge in the forest, he will alone experience the
supreme felicity in the kingdom. He that renouncing interest and virtue,
followes lust, speedily gets himself involved in troubles even like king
Dacaratha. O amiable one, I think that Kaikeyi has been born for making
an end of Dacaratha, sending me into exile, and conferring the kingdom
on Bharata. At present for imparting me pain, Kaikeyi intoxicated by the
tide of good fortune, will afflict Kaucalya and Sumitra. Thy mother, the
revered Sumitra, will be smitten with grief on our account. Do thou,
Lakshmana, tomorrow morning repair unto Ayodhya: I alone will go unto
Dandaka along with Sita. Thou wilt be the protector of the helpless
Kaucalya. Kaikeyi is surely mean-minded, she perpetrates wrongs from
malice. O thou cognizant of virtue, she may administer poison unto my
mother. Surely, O child, in a former birth, women were bereft of their
sons by my mother, O son of Sumitra; and it is for this that this
misfortune has befallen her. Having been brought up and reared with
great pains by Kaucalya, I have left her at the time when her labors
ought to have borne fruit. Fie on me! Let no woman, son of Sumitra, give
birth unto a son like me who have imparted such infinite pain unto my
mother. O Lakshmana, I consider my mother's female parrot as more
sharing her affection, since she is heard to say, 'O Suka, do you bite
the foot of the foe?' What am I, O repressor of foes, now to do for her,
bewailing, of slender fortune,--she that hath not profitted in the least
by her son, and who stands in no further need of his good offices?
Surely my unfortunate mother, Kaucalya, bereft of me, lies down on the
ground, overwhelmed will woe, and plunged in an ocean of grief. O
Lakshmana, enraged, I alone, without doubt, can rid Ayodhya--the Earth
herself--by means of my arrows. But improper is the display of prowess
for no reason. O sinless one, I am afraid of unrighteousness and of the
next life; and for this it is that, O Lakshmana, I do not install myself
in the kingdom."
Having in solitude for a long while piteously bewailed thus and in other
ways, Rama sat silent in the night with tears in his eyes. Thereupon
Lakshmana consoled Rama spent with lamentation, like unto fire deprived
of its radiance or the ocean of its tide. "Surely, O Rama, O foremost of
warriors, on your having come out, the city of Ayodhya is shorn of its
splendour like the night deprived of the moon. This is not fit that you
should grieve; for thereby, O foremost of men, you make both Sita and
myself grieve. Raghava, deprived of you neither Sita nor I can live for
a moment, like fish taken out of water : without you, O repressor of
foes, I wish to see neither my father, nor Satrughna, nor Sumitra, nor
heaven itself." Then viewing from where they sat at ease their well-laid
bed under the banian, those virtuous ones (Rama and Sita) went to it.
Hearing Lakshmana's excellent and appropriate words with which he gladly
assumed a life in the woods, that subduer of foes, Raghava, in the name
of righteousness, at once folly granted him the permission to dwell with
him for the entire fourteen years. Then like unto a couple of lions
dwelling on a mountain-summit, at that lone spot of the extensive
forest, those powerful perpetuators of the Raghu race, began to dwell
without fear.