Page:The Rámáyana of Tulsi Dás.djvu/415

 THE FOREST. 355 Jánaki, now that you are away, they are all as glad as if they had gotten a kingdom. How can I endure this cruelty at your hands; why do you not at once disclose yourself, my beloved ?" In this manner the Lord searched and lamented, like a fond lover distressed by separation. Ráma, who has no wish unsatisfied, the perfection of bliss, the unereated and the everlasting, acted the part of a man. Further on he saw the vulture-king lying, with his thoughts fixed on the prints of Rama's feet. Dohá 26. The compassionate Raghubír laid his lotus hands upon his head. At the sight of Ráma's lovely face all his pain was forgotten, Chaupái. and the vulture recovered himself and spoke as follows : "Hearken Ráma, re- mover of life's troubles. My lord, this is Rávan's doing ; he is the wretch, who has carried off Janak's daughter. He took her away, sire, to the south, crying as piteously as an osprey. I have kept alive, my lord, only to see you ; now, O most merciful, I would depart." Said Ráma: "Remain alive, father." He smiled and answered : "He, by the repetition of whose name at the hour of death the vilest sinner, as the scriptures declare, attains salvation, has come in bodily form before my eyes; what need is there, sire, for me to live any longer ?" Raghurái's eyes filled with tears as he replied : "Father, it is your own good deeds that have saved you. There is nothing in the world beyond the reach of those who devote their soul to the good of others. When you pass out of the body, father, ascend to my sphere in heaven. What more can I give you, your every wish is gratified." Dropping the form of a vulture, he appeared in all the beauty of Hari, bedecked with jewels and in gorgeous yellow attire, with dark-hued body and four mighty arms, and with his eyes full of tears he chant- ed this hymn of praise: Chhand 9. " Glory to Ráma of incomparable beauty; the bodiless, the embodied; the veritable source of every bodily element; who with his mighty arrows has broken the might of the arm of the ten-headed demon; the ornament of the earth. With his body dark as a rain-cloud, with his lotus face and his eyes large as the clustering hair like swarms of bees, teeth white as buds of jasmine, lips like the pomegranate, eyes bright as flashes of lightning, breasts swelling like cocoanuts, a waist like a lion's, a gait like an elephant's, &c., &c. Now that Sita is gone, who excelled each of them in the very point on which they most prided themselves, they may again hear thomselves quoted as porfect.