PRAISES ON RÁMA’S SPEECH.
Válmíki said:—When the prince Ráma (having his eyes resembling the
petals of a lotus), had concluded his speech calculated to remove all
ignorance from the mind.
2. All the men in the assembly had their eyes beaming forth with
wonder, and the hairs on their bodies stood erect and pierced through
their garments, as if wishing to hear the speech.
3. The assembly seemed for a moment to have lost their worldly desires
in their eagerness after a stoic indifference, and to be rolling in the
sea of nectar.
4. The audience remained (motionless) as the figures in a painting,
being enraptured with internal delight at hearing the sweet words of
the fortunate Ráma.
5. There were Vasishtha and Viswámitra with other sages, and the prime
minister Jayanta and other counsellors (of the king) then seated in
that assembly.
6. There were also king Dasaratha and his subordinate rajas, with the
citizens and foreign delegates, the chieftains and princes, together
with Bráhmans and men learned in the Vedas and divine knowledge.
7. These accompanied by their friends and allies, with the birds in the
cages and the royal antelopes and steeds of sport (about the palace),
listened to Ráma with fixed and mute attention.
8. There were likewise the queen Kausalyá and other ladies adorned with
their best jewels, and seated at the windows, all mute and motionless.
9. Besides these the birds on the trees and creepers of the princely
pleasure garden, were listening to Ráma without fluttering their wings
or making any motion or sound.
10. There were the Siddhas and ærial beings, and the tribes of
Gandharvas and Kinnaras, together with Nárada, Vyása and Pulapa the
chiefs of sages (present at that place).
11. There were also some of the gods and chiefs of gods, Vidyádharas
and the Nágas, who heard the speech of Ráma which was full of meaning
and clearness.
12. As Ráma whose eyes were beautiful as the lotus, whose face was
as lovely as the moon, and who likened the nocturnal luminary in the
atmosphere of Raghu’s family, held his silence.
13. Flowers were cast upon him from heaven in showers by the hands of
the divine personages with their loud cheers and blessings.
14. The people in the assembly were highly regaled with the sweet scent
and beauty of these flowers of paradise fraught with humming bees in
their cells.
15. These flowers when blown in the air by the breeze of heaven,
appeared as they were clusters of stars, which after their fall
brightened the ground with their beauty as with the beaming smiles of
heavenly maids.
16. They appeared in the form of rain drops falling from the clouds,
and blazing by the light of mute lightenings, and scattering about like
balls of fresh butter.
17. They resembled also as particles of snow-balls, or as the grains
of a necklace of pearls or as beams of moon-light, or as the little
billows of the sea of milk, or like drops of ice-cream.
18. There were also borne by the loose and sweet winds of heaven, some
lotuses with long filaments, and attended by clusters of bees humming
and flying about them.
19. There were also to be seen heaps of _ketaki_ and _Kairava_, _Kunda_
and blue lotus flowers, falling and shining brightly among them.
20. These flowers covered the court hall and the roofs of houses and
their courtyards. The men and women in the city raised their heads to
behold them falling.
21. The sky was quite unclouded when the flowers fell incessantly from
above. A sight like this that was never seen before struck the people
with wonder.
22. The shower of flowers fell for quarter of an hour, but the Siddhas
from whose hands they fell were unseen all the while.
23. The falling of the flowers having ceased after the assembly was
covered with them, they heard the following words, coming to them from
the divine personages in the sky.
24. “We have been travelling every where in whole bodies of the Siddhas
from the beginning of creation; but never have we heard any where so
sweet a speech as this.
25. “Such a magnanimous speech of indifference as has been just now
spoken by Ráma—the moon of Raghu’s race, was never heard even by gods
like ourselves.
26. “We account ourselves truly blessed to hear this highly charming
and wondrous speech from the mouth of Ráma himself to-day.
27. “Indeed we are awakened and edified by attending diligently to this
truly excellent speech, delivered by Ráma on the ambrosial bliss of
asceticism, and leading to the highest felicity of men”.