Book Iv. Canto Xviii. R'ama's Reply
Canto Xviii.: Rma'S Reply.
He ceased: and Rma's heart was stirred
At every keen reproach he heard.
There Bli lay, a dim dark sun,
His course of light and glory run;
Or like the bed of Ocean dried
Of his broad floods from side to side,
Or helpless, as the dying fire,
Hushed his last words of righteous ire.
Then Rma, with his spirit moved,
The Vnar king in turn reproved:
'Why dost thou Bli, thus revile,
And castest not a glance the while
On claims of duty, love, and gain,
And customs o'er the world that reign?
Why dost thou blame me, rash and blind,
Fickle as all thy Vnar kind.
Slighting each rule of ancient days
Which all the good and prudent praise?
This land, each hill and woody chase,
Belongs to old Ikshvku's race:
With bird and beast and man, the whole
Is ours to cherish and control.
Now Bharat, prompt at duty's call,
Wise, just, and true, is lord of all.
Each claim of law, love, gain he knows,
And wrath and favour duly shows.
A king from truth who never bends,
And grace with vigour wisely blends;
With valour worthy of his race,
He knows the claims of time and place,
Now we and other kings of might,
By his ensample taught aright,
The lands of every region tread
That justice may increase and spread.
While royal Bharat, wise and just,
Rules the broad earth, his glorious trust,
Who shall attempt, while he is lord,
A deed by Justice held abhorred?
We now, as Bharat has decreed,
Let justice guide our every deed,
And toil each sinner to repress
Who scorns the way of righteousness.
Thou from that path hast turned aside,
And virtue's holy law defied.
Left the fair path which kings should tread,
And followed pleasure's voice instead.
The man who cleaves to duty's law
Regards these three with filial awe--
The sire, the elder brother, third
Him from whose lips his lore he heard.
Thus too, for duty's sake, the wise
Regard with fond paternal eyes
The well-loved younger brother, one
Their lore has ripened, and a son.
Fine are the laws which guide the good,
Abstruse, and hardly understood;
Only the soul, enthroned within
The breast of each, knows right from sin
But thou art wild and weak of soul,
And spurnest, like thy race, control;
The true and right thou canst not find.
Tht blind consulting with the blind.
Incline thine ear and I will teach
The cause that prompts my present speech
This tempest of thy soul assuage
Nor blame me in thine idle rage.
On this great sin thy thoughts bestow,
The sin for which I lay thee low.
Thou, Bli, in thy brother's life
Hast robbed him of his wedded wife,
And keepest, scorning ancient right,
His Rum for thine own delight.
Thy son's own wife should scarcely be
More sacred in thine eyes than she.
All duty thou hast scorned, and hence
Comes punishment for dire offence.
For those who blindly do amiss
There is, I ween, no way but this:
To check the rash who dare to stray
From custom which the good obey,
I may not, sprung of Kshatriya line,
p. 347
Forgive this heinous sin of thine:
The laws for those who sin like thee
The penalty of death decree.
Now Bharat rules with sovereign sway,
And we his royal word obey.
Tnere was no hope of pardon, none,
For the vile deed that thou hast done,
That wisest monarch dooms to die
The wretch whose crimes the law defy;
And we, chastising those who err,
His righteous doom administer.
Mv soul accounts Sugrva dear
E'en as my brother Lakshman here.
He brings me blessing, and I swore
his wife and kingdom to restore:
A bond in solemn honour bound
When Vnar chieftains stood around.
And can a king like me forsake
His friend, and plighted promise break?
Reflect, O Vnar, on the cause,
The sanction of eternal laws,
And, justly smitten down, confess
Thou diest for thy wickediness,
By honour was I bound to lend
Assistance to a faithful friend;
And thou hast met a righteous fate
Thy former sins to expiate.
And thus wilt thou some merit win
And make atonement for thy sin.
For hear me, Vnar King, rehearse
What Manu 1 spake in ancient verse,--
This holy law, which all accept
Who honour duty, have I kept:
'Pure grow the sinners kings chastise,
And, like.the virtuous, gain the skies;
By pain or full atonement freed,
They reap the fruit of righteous deed,
While kings who punish not incur
The penalties of those who err.'
Mndht 2 once, a noble king,
Light of the line from which I spring,
Punished with death a devotee
When he had stooped to sin like thee;
And many a king in ancient time
Has punished frantic sinners' crime,
And, when their impious blood was spilt,
Has washed away the stain of guilt.
Cease, Bli, cease; no more complain:
Reproaches and laments are vain.
For thou art justly punished: we
Obey our king and are not free.
Once more, O Bli, lend thine ear
Another weightiest plea to hear.
For this, when heard and pondered well.
Will all complaint and rage dispel.
My soul will ne'er this deed repent,
Nor was my shaft in anger sent.
We take the silvan tribes beset
With snare and trap and gin and net,
And many a heedless deer we smite
From thickest shade, concealed from sight.
Wild for the slaughter of the game,
At stately stags our shafts we aim.
We strike them bounding scared away,
We strike them as they stand at bay,
When careless in the shade they lie,
Or scan the plain with watchful eye.
They turn away their heads; we aim,
And none the eager hunter blame.
Each royal saint, well trained in law
Of duty, loves his bow to draw
And strike the quarry, e'en as thou
Hast fallen by mine arrow now,
Fiphting with him or unaware,--
A Vnar thou.--I little care. 1b
But yet, O best of Vnars, know
That kings who rule the earth bestow
Fruit of pure life and virtuous deed.
And lofty duty's hard-won meed.
Harm not thy lord the king: abstain
From ant and word that cause him pain;
For kings are children of the skies
Who walk this earth in men's disguise.
But thou, in duty's claims untaught,
thy breast with blinding passion fraught,
Assailest me who still have clung
To duty, with thy bitter tongue.'
He ceased; and Ball sore distressed
The sovereign claims of law confessed,
And freed, o'erwhelmed with woe and shame,
The lord of Raghu's race from blame.
Then, reverent palm to palm applied,
To Rma thus the Vnar cried:
'True, best of men, is every word
That from thy lips these ears have heard,
It ill beseems a wretch like me
To bandy empty words with thee.
Forgive the angry taunts that broke
From my wild bosom as I spoke.
And lay not to my charge, O King,
p. 348
My mad reproaches' idle sting.
Thou, in the truth by trial trained,
Best knowledge of the right hast gained:
And layest, just and pure within,
The meetest penalty on sin.
Through every bond of law I burst,
The boldest sinner and the worst.
O let thy right-instructing speech
Console my heart and wisely teach.'
Like some sad elephant who stands
Fast sinking in the treacherous sands,
Thus Bli raised despairing eyes;
Then spake again with sobs and sighs:
'Not for myself, O King, I grieve,
For Tr or the friends I leave,
As for sweet Angad, my dear son,
My noble, only little one.
For, nursed in luxury and bliss,
His father he will mourn and miss,
And like a stream whose fount is dry
Will waste away and sink and die,--
My own dear child, my only boy,
His mother Tr's hope and joy.
Spare him, O son of Raghu, spare
The child entrusted to thy care.
My Angad and Sugrva treat
E'en as thy heart considers meet,
For thou, O chief of men, art strong
To guard the right and punish wrong.
O, if thou wilt thine ear incline
To hear these dying words of mine,
He and Sugrva will to thee
As Bharat and as Lakshman be.
Let not my Tr, left forlorn,
Weep for Sugrva's wrathful scorn;
Nor let him, for her lord's offence,
Condemn her faithful innocence.
And well and wisely may he reign
If thy dear grace his power sustain:
If, following thee his friend and guide,
He turn not from thy hest aside:
Thus may he reign with glory, nay
Thus to the skies will win his way.
Though stayed by Tr's fond recall,
By thy dear hand I longed to fall.
Against my brother rushed and fought,
And gained the death I long have sought.'
Then Rma thus the prince consoled
From whose clear eyes the mists were rolled:
'Grieve not for those thou leavest thus,
Nor tremble for thyself or us,
For we will deal with thine and thee
As duty and the laws decree.
He who exacts and he who pays,
Is justly slain or justly slays,
Shall in the life to come have bliss;
For each has done his task in this.
Thou, wandering from the right, art made
Pure by the forfeit thou hast paid.
Thy weight of sins is cast aside,
And duty's claim is satisfied.
Then grieve no more, O Prince, but clear
Thy bosom from all doubt and fear,
For fate, inexorably stern,
Thou hast no power to move or turn.
Thy princely Angad still will share
My tender love. Sugrva's care;
And to thy offspring shall be shown
Affection that shall match thine own.'
Footnotes
346:1 Hayagrva, Horse-necked, is a form of Vishnu
346:2 \"As'vatara is the name of a chief of the Ngas or serpents which inhabit the regions under the earth; it is also the name of a Gandharva. As'vatar ought to be the wife of one of the two, but I am not sure that this conjecture is right. The commentator does not say who this As'vatar is, or what tradition or myth, is alluded to. Vimalabodha reads As'vatar in the nominative case, and explains, As'vatar is the sun, and as the sun with his rays brings back the moon which has been sunk in the ocean and the infernal regions, so will I bring back St." Gorresio.
346:3 That is, 'Consider what answer you can give to your accusers when they charge you with injustice in killing me.'
347:1 Manu, Book Viii. 318. \"But men who have committed offences and have received from kings the punishment due to them, go pure to heaven and become as clear as those who have done well."
347:2 Mndht was one of the earlier descendants of Ikshvku. His name is mentioned in Rma's genealogy, p. 81.
347:1b I cannot understand how Vlmki could put such an excuse as this into Rma's mouth. Rma with all solemn ceremony, has made a league of alliance with Bli's younger brother whom he regards as a dear friend and almost as an equal, and now he winds up his reasons for killing Bli by coolly saying: 'Besides you are only a monkey, you know, after all, and as such I have every right to kill you how, when, and where I like.'
He ceased: and Rma's heart was stirred
At every keen reproach he heard.
There Bli lay, a dim dark sun,
His course of light and glory run;
Or like the bed of Ocean dried
Of his broad floods from side to side,
Or helpless, as the dying fire,
Hushed his last words of righteous ire.
Then Rma, with his spirit moved,
The Vnar king in turn reproved:
'Why dost thou Bli, thus revile,
And castest not a glance the while
On claims of duty, love, and gain,
And customs o'er the world that reign?
Why dost thou blame me, rash and blind,
Fickle as all thy Vnar kind.
Slighting each rule of ancient days
Which all the good and prudent praise?
This land, each hill and woody chase,
Belongs to old Ikshvku's race:
With bird and beast and man, the whole
Is ours to cherish and control.
Now Bharat, prompt at duty's call,
Wise, just, and true, is lord of all.
Each claim of law, love, gain he knows,
And wrath and favour duly shows.
A king from truth who never bends,
And grace with vigour wisely blends;
With valour worthy of his race,
He knows the claims of time and place,
Now we and other kings of might,
By his ensample taught aright,
The lands of every region tread
That justice may increase and spread.
While royal Bharat, wise and just,
Rules the broad earth, his glorious trust,
Who shall attempt, while he is lord,
A deed by Justice held abhorred?
We now, as Bharat has decreed,
Let justice guide our every deed,
And toil each sinner to repress
Who scorns the way of righteousness.
Thou from that path hast turned aside,
And virtue's holy law defied.
Left the fair path which kings should tread,
And followed pleasure's voice instead.
The man who cleaves to duty's law
Regards these three with filial awe--
The sire, the elder brother, third
Him from whose lips his lore he heard.
Thus too, for duty's sake, the wise
Regard with fond paternal eyes
The well-loved younger brother, one
Their lore has ripened, and a son.
Fine are the laws which guide the good,
Abstruse, and hardly understood;
Only the soul, enthroned within
The breast of each, knows right from sin
But thou art wild and weak of soul,
And spurnest, like thy race, control;
The true and right thou canst not find.
Tht blind consulting with the blind.
Incline thine ear and I will teach
The cause that prompts my present speech
This tempest of thy soul assuage
Nor blame me in thine idle rage.
On this great sin thy thoughts bestow,
The sin for which I lay thee low.
Thou, Bli, in thy brother's life
Hast robbed him of his wedded wife,
And keepest, scorning ancient right,
His Rum for thine own delight.
Thy son's own wife should scarcely be
More sacred in thine eyes than she.
All duty thou hast scorned, and hence
Comes punishment for dire offence.
For those who blindly do amiss
There is, I ween, no way but this:
To check the rash who dare to stray
From custom which the good obey,
I may not, sprung of Kshatriya line,
p. 347
Forgive this heinous sin of thine:
The laws for those who sin like thee
The penalty of death decree.
Now Bharat rules with sovereign sway,
And we his royal word obey.
Tnere was no hope of pardon, none,
For the vile deed that thou hast done,
That wisest monarch dooms to die
The wretch whose crimes the law defy;
And we, chastising those who err,
His righteous doom administer.
Mv soul accounts Sugrva dear
E'en as my brother Lakshman here.
He brings me blessing, and I swore
his wife and kingdom to restore:
A bond in solemn honour bound
When Vnar chieftains stood around.
And can a king like me forsake
His friend, and plighted promise break?
Reflect, O Vnar, on the cause,
The sanction of eternal laws,
And, justly smitten down, confess
Thou diest for thy wickediness,
By honour was I bound to lend
Assistance to a faithful friend;
And thou hast met a righteous fate
Thy former sins to expiate.
And thus wilt thou some merit win
And make atonement for thy sin.
For hear me, Vnar King, rehearse
What Manu 1 spake in ancient verse,--
This holy law, which all accept
Who honour duty, have I kept:
'Pure grow the sinners kings chastise,
And, like.the virtuous, gain the skies;
By pain or full atonement freed,
They reap the fruit of righteous deed,
While kings who punish not incur
The penalties of those who err.'
Mndht 2 once, a noble king,
Light of the line from which I spring,
Punished with death a devotee
When he had stooped to sin like thee;
And many a king in ancient time
Has punished frantic sinners' crime,
And, when their impious blood was spilt,
Has washed away the stain of guilt.
Cease, Bli, cease; no more complain:
Reproaches and laments are vain.
For thou art justly punished: we
Obey our king and are not free.
Once more, O Bli, lend thine ear
Another weightiest plea to hear.
For this, when heard and pondered well.
Will all complaint and rage dispel.
My soul will ne'er this deed repent,
Nor was my shaft in anger sent.
We take the silvan tribes beset
With snare and trap and gin and net,
And many a heedless deer we smite
From thickest shade, concealed from sight.
Wild for the slaughter of the game,
At stately stags our shafts we aim.
We strike them bounding scared away,
We strike them as they stand at bay,
When careless in the shade they lie,
Or scan the plain with watchful eye.
They turn away their heads; we aim,
And none the eager hunter blame.
Each royal saint, well trained in law
Of duty, loves his bow to draw
And strike the quarry, e'en as thou
Hast fallen by mine arrow now,
Fiphting with him or unaware,--
A Vnar thou.--I little care. 1b
But yet, O best of Vnars, know
That kings who rule the earth bestow
Fruit of pure life and virtuous deed.
And lofty duty's hard-won meed.
Harm not thy lord the king: abstain
From ant and word that cause him pain;
For kings are children of the skies
Who walk this earth in men's disguise.
But thou, in duty's claims untaught,
thy breast with blinding passion fraught,
Assailest me who still have clung
To duty, with thy bitter tongue.'
He ceased; and Ball sore distressed
The sovereign claims of law confessed,
And freed, o'erwhelmed with woe and shame,
The lord of Raghu's race from blame.
Then, reverent palm to palm applied,
To Rma thus the Vnar cried:
'True, best of men, is every word
That from thy lips these ears have heard,
It ill beseems a wretch like me
To bandy empty words with thee.
Forgive the angry taunts that broke
From my wild bosom as I spoke.
And lay not to my charge, O King,
p. 348
My mad reproaches' idle sting.
Thou, in the truth by trial trained,
Best knowledge of the right hast gained:
And layest, just and pure within,
The meetest penalty on sin.
Through every bond of law I burst,
The boldest sinner and the worst.
O let thy right-instructing speech
Console my heart and wisely teach.'
Like some sad elephant who stands
Fast sinking in the treacherous sands,
Thus Bli raised despairing eyes;
Then spake again with sobs and sighs:
'Not for myself, O King, I grieve,
For Tr or the friends I leave,
As for sweet Angad, my dear son,
My noble, only little one.
For, nursed in luxury and bliss,
His father he will mourn and miss,
And like a stream whose fount is dry
Will waste away and sink and die,--
My own dear child, my only boy,
His mother Tr's hope and joy.
Spare him, O son of Raghu, spare
The child entrusted to thy care.
My Angad and Sugrva treat
E'en as thy heart considers meet,
For thou, O chief of men, art strong
To guard the right and punish wrong.
O, if thou wilt thine ear incline
To hear these dying words of mine,
He and Sugrva will to thee
As Bharat and as Lakshman be.
Let not my Tr, left forlorn,
Weep for Sugrva's wrathful scorn;
Nor let him, for her lord's offence,
Condemn her faithful innocence.
And well and wisely may he reign
If thy dear grace his power sustain:
If, following thee his friend and guide,
He turn not from thy hest aside:
Thus may he reign with glory, nay
Thus to the skies will win his way.
Though stayed by Tr's fond recall,
By thy dear hand I longed to fall.
Against my brother rushed and fought,
And gained the death I long have sought.'
Then Rma thus the prince consoled
From whose clear eyes the mists were rolled:
'Grieve not for those thou leavest thus,
Nor tremble for thyself or us,
For we will deal with thine and thee
As duty and the laws decree.
He who exacts and he who pays,
Is justly slain or justly slays,
Shall in the life to come have bliss;
For each has done his task in this.
Thou, wandering from the right, art made
Pure by the forfeit thou hast paid.
Thy weight of sins is cast aside,
And duty's claim is satisfied.
Then grieve no more, O Prince, but clear
Thy bosom from all doubt and fear,
For fate, inexorably stern,
Thou hast no power to move or turn.
Thy princely Angad still will share
My tender love. Sugrva's care;
And to thy offspring shall be shown
Affection that shall match thine own.'
Footnotes
346:1 Hayagrva, Horse-necked, is a form of Vishnu
346:2 \"As'vatara is the name of a chief of the Ngas or serpents which inhabit the regions under the earth; it is also the name of a Gandharva. As'vatar ought to be the wife of one of the two, but I am not sure that this conjecture is right. The commentator does not say who this As'vatar is, or what tradition or myth, is alluded to. Vimalabodha reads As'vatar in the nominative case, and explains, As'vatar is the sun, and as the sun with his rays brings back the moon which has been sunk in the ocean and the infernal regions, so will I bring back St." Gorresio.
346:3 That is, 'Consider what answer you can give to your accusers when they charge you with injustice in killing me.'
347:1 Manu, Book Viii. 318. \"But men who have committed offences and have received from kings the punishment due to them, go pure to heaven and become as clear as those who have done well."
347:2 Mndht was one of the earlier descendants of Ikshvku. His name is mentioned in Rma's genealogy, p. 81.
347:1b I cannot understand how Vlmki could put such an excuse as this into Rma's mouth. Rma with all solemn ceremony, has made a league of alliance with Bli's younger brother whom he regards as a dear friend and almost as an equal, and now he winds up his reasons for killing Bli by coolly saying: 'Besides you are only a monkey, you know, after all, and as such I have every right to kill you how, when, and where I like.'
