Page:The Rámáyana of Tulsi Dás.djvu/399

 THE FOREST. 339 Dohá 5. May the Lord, whose body is dark of hue as a sombre raincloud, incarnate in form as the divine Ráma, dwell for ever in my soul together with Sita and his brother !" Chaupåi. When he had thus said, the fire of his devotion consumed his body, and by Ráma's favour he ascended to Vaikunth. The saint was not absorbed into the divinity for this reason, that he had already received the mysterious gift of faith. When the assembled Rishis saw the great saint's translation, they were mightily rejoiced at heart and all broke fortb into hymns of praise, Glory to the champion of the humble, the fountain of mercy.' Then Raghunáth went on further into the forest, and a great company of holy men with him. Secing a heap of bones, he asked the saints about them and was moved with much com- passion. "I know, but why ask, Master ? You are all-seeing and know even our thoughts. These are all saints whom the demon hosts have devoured," On hearing this, Raghubír's eyes filled with tears. Dohá 6. He raised his arms and vowed to rid the earth of demons: then gladdened the saints by visiting them all in turn at their hermitages. Chaupái. Saint Agastya had a learned disciple, by name Sutikshna, devoted to God ; in thought, word and deed one of Ráma's faithful servants, who had never even dreamt of any other hope or divinity. When he heard of the Lord's appronch, he rushed out hurriedly, full of longing desire : "0 God, the compassionate Raghurúi will be gracious to even a wretch like me. The holy Ráma and his brother will receive me as their own servant. I have no assured confidence of heart, no faith, nor command over self, nor wisdom of intellect; no communion with saints, no practice in meditation, prayer, or vigil, and no steadfast devotion to his lotus feet ; only the promise of the All-merciful: He is my friend who goeth to none other.' To-day my eyes will be blest with the sight of the lotus- faced, the deliverer from the bondage of existence." The saint, philosopher According to Válmiki it was not Vaikunth, but Brahma's sphoro, to which he wans translated. III. 9. 36. 2 The reward of faith (bhakti) is the admission to the actual presence of the divinity in the sphere where he specially reigns. Absorption into the divinity implies the extinction of individual existence and individual consciousness, and therefore, though the summum bonum of many Hindu sects, it is not so of those whho cherish a personal love for any particular incarnetion, a love which can only be satisfied by a consciousness of the presenee of the boloved,