The Distress of Rama

Sri Valmiki

1. when Vasista spoke thus, Dasaratha was very pleased and happy. He ordered Rama to be brought there along with Laksmana.

2. "O keeper of the door, please bring Rama here, the mighty warrior, along with Lakshmana.There is an important purpose."

3. Ordered thus,the gate keeper went inside the palace, returned quickly and said:

4. -5. "My lord, Rama is sitting in his room quietly in a pensieve mood, like a bee sitting inside a lotus. He said : Go, I am coming in a minute.He does not like anyone to be near him.He again sank into his silence."

6. -7. When he spoke thus, Dasaratha cheered up the servant of Rama(who came along) and asked him,"How is Rama?".Then the servant of Rama replied in a grieving voice.

8. -10. "My lord,Rama is emaciated.Along with him, we are also declining in body and are living in distress (looking at our dear prince). Rama is in the state of dejection since his return from pilgrimages along with the wise brahmins.However much we plead and pray, he is not enthusiastic about even the routine actions and rituals.He may or mayu not perform them. He looks weary and fatigued.

11. -13. He is not interested in bathing or eating.He does not spend time with the palace maidens attending on him.O King, like one, who is falling from heaven after due pleasant stay there, does not feel any interest in heaven, Rama does not evince any interest in jewels and decorations.

14. -16. Rama becomes dejected even with the looks of beautiful, playful women, with fragrant breezes and with flowery arbours.He feels dejected with delectable gourmet which hold the mind and tongue of a person. His eyes become tearfilled with their sight.When he sees beautiful dancing damsels, he shouts at them, saying,"Who are these ladies who cause sorrow?".

15. Like a mad man,he blames and shows aversion to food, bath, bed, and any pleasurable things.

16. "What are these riches?What are these misfortunes and calamities? What are these desires? What are these palaces?All are illusions". Saying thus, he falls silent.

17. -20. He does not indulge in pleasure, nor is he playful.He does not get involved in any activities. He remains always silent and unconcerned.None is able to enthuse or make Rama, of beautiful curly hair, happy.It is as if a dear cannot enliven a forest.

21. -23. As if he is sold to a forest man, Rama wants to live in lonely places like a forest or a river bank.Turning away in aversion from food,clothes and drinks, Rama is like a wandering mendicant interested in penance.O Lord, he prefers lonely places without any human presence.He does not laught, he does not cry, he does not sing, he sits in total concentration.

24. -25. He has no ego.He has no interest in kingship. He is neither elated nor depressed with pleasure or pain.He is sits in lotus-pose, always with his hand under his chin and with his mind empty.

26. We are not aware of what he wants, what he meditates on, what he is searching for, what he thinks, and what for he moves about.

27. He is becoming thinner and thinner day by day.He is becoming paler and paler. He is becoming dejected and disenchanted day by day.His state is like that of a tree in autumn.

28. O King, the condition of his brothers, his followes, Lakshmana and Shatrughna is also similar.They are like his images.

29. -30. When his servants and mothers question him, he says nothing and slips into his silence.He tells his friends by his side, "Do not be attracted to temporary, instand pleasures.They will cause mental agony."

31. He looks at the beautiful maidens in palace as deaths and calamities.

32. He hums again and again to himself : All this life is wasted in efforts which do not lead to that Supreme state.

33. "Become an emperor": If any one of his servants says thus, he says "he is blabbering like a mad fellow" and smiles in silence.

34. He does not notice things around him. He does not encourage conversation.He rejects even good things.

35. "There is a lotus in the sky.There is forest in the sky" - such things do not create any wonder in him.

36. Even when he is in the midst of women, romantic feelings and desires are not arising in him. He is like a stone that cannot be broken by a water jet.

37. -38. "Wealth is the abode of all calamities. Why want it? Saying this,he gives all this wealth to those who ask for it.This is a calamity. This is wealth. All this is mere imagination. It causes attachment" - he sings such couplets.

39. "Oh, I am dead.I am furlorn.People cry like this, yet they do not become detached. What a strange thing", says Rama.

40. -41. We are very much distressed that Rama, the Banyan tree in the vast forest of Raghu dynasty, is in this condition. We do not know what to do in this situation.O mighty king, you have to guide us.

42. He shrugs off any council or discussion by wise men, be it a princely person or a brahmin as mere ignorance and smiles.

43. What is visible as this vast world "is not". I am "not" - He has come to such a conclusion.

44. -45. O lord, there are no friends or enemies for him; no difficulties and no happinesses; no kingdom, no mother, no body, no wealth.He has no desire, no ambition, no rejection.He is not a fool.He is not liberated. And so,we are all very much disturbed.

46. -48. "What have I got to do with wealth, parents, kingdom and desires?", having concluded so, he is even prepared to give up his life.Kingdoms, pleasures, parents and friends have become things of agitation for him, like drought for a "Chataka" bird. This kind of calamity is spreading like the branches of a tree.Kindly pull him out of this.

49. -51. Because of such an attitude, he looks at the world, which is full of prosperity, as poison.Is there anyone capable in this world, who can turn him away from such attitude back into the activity of this world.Is there any great man who can convince him out of this mental delusion successfully (by wisdom and knowledge) the way sun drives away darkness during day.