SECTION LIII.
Having taken refuge under the tree and performed his evening devotions, that foremost of those capable of charming others, Rāma, addressed Lakshmana, saying,—"To day is the first night (which we must spend) outside the inhabited tracts without the company of Sumantra. Thou ought not to suffer thy mind to be uneasy on that score. From tonight forth, we shall have to guard her vigilantly; for, O Lakshmana, the preservation of what she has as well as the securing unto her of what she has not, rests with us. We will, O son of Sumitrā, anyhow pass the night; let us ourselves procuring (leaves) and spreading them on the ground, anyhow lie down on it." Saying this, Rāma lying down on the ground although worthy of a costly bed, spoke these excellent words unto Sumitrā's son,—"O Lakshmana, surely the king sleeps uneasily to day, and Kaikeyi having attained her end ought to be satisfied. Will not that revered lady, for the purpose of having Bharata established in the kingdom, take the king's life, when she shall see Bharata arrived? Forlorn and old and deprived of me, I do not know what he will do, his soul possessed by desire, and having come under the influence of Kaikeyi. Viewing this calamity (that has overtaken us) and the disorder that has taken place in the senses of the monarch, I deem even lust as more potent than either virtue or interest. O Lakshmana, what man is there ignorant though he be, who for the sake of a female forsaketh as my father has done me, his son following his foot-steps? Ah! Kaikeyi's son Bharata with his wife is really happy—he that enjoys the sole sovereignity of the delighted Koçalas. Now that our father has grown old and I have taken refuge in the forest, he will alone experience the supreme felicity in the kingdom. He that renouncing interest and virtue, followes lust, speedily gets himself involved in troubles even like king Daçarātha. O amiable one, I think that Kaikeyi has been born for making an end of Daçarātha, sending me into exile, and conferring the kingdom on Bharata. At present for imparting me pain, Kaikeyi intoxicated by the tide of good fortune, will afflict Kauçalyā and Sumitrā. Thy mother, the revered Sumitrā, will be smitten with grief on our account. Do thou, Lakshmana, tomorrow morning repair unto Ayodhyā: I alone will go unto Dandaka along with Sitā. Thou wilt be the protector of the helpless Kauçalyā. Kaikeyi is surely mean-minded, she perpetrates wrongs from malice. O thou cognizant of virtue, she may administer poison unto my mother. Surely, O child, in a former birth, women were bereft of their sons by my mother, O son of Sumitrā; and it is for this that this misfortune has befallen her. Having been brought up and reared with great pains by Kauçalyā, I have left her at the time when her labors ought to have borne fruit. Fie on me! Let no woman, son of Sumitrā, give birth unto a son like me who have imparted such infinite pain unto my mother. O Lakshmana, I consider my mother's female parrot as more sharing her affection, since she is heard to say, 'O Suka, do you bite the foot of the foe?' What am I, O repressor of foes, now to do for her, bewailing, of slender fortune,—she that hath not profitted in the least by her son, and who stands in no further need of his good offices? Surely my unfortunate mother, Kauçalyā, bereft of me, lies down on the ground, overwhelmed will woe, and plunged in an ocean of grief. O Lakshmana, enraged, I alone, without doubt, can rid Ayodhyā—the Earth herself—by means of my arrows. But improper is the display of prowess for no reason. O sinless one, I am afraid of unrighteousness and of the next life; and for this it is that, O Lakshmana, I do not install myself in the kingdom."
Having in solitude for a long while piteously bewailed thus and in other ways, Rāma sat silent in the night with tears in his eyes. Thereupon Lakshmana consoled Rāma spent with lamentation, like unto fire deprived of its radiance or the ocean of its tide. "Surely, O Rāma, O foremost of warriors, on your having come out, the city of Ayodhyā is shorn of its splendour like the night deprived of the moon. This is not fit that you should grieve; for thereby, O foremost of men, you make both Sitā and myself grieve. Rāghava, deprived of you neither Sitā nor I can live for a moment, like fish taken out of water : without you, O repressor of foes, I wish to see neither my father, nor Satrughna, nor Sumitrā, nor heaven itself." Then viewing from where they sat at ease their well-laid bed under the banian, those virtuous ones (Rāma and Sitā) went to it. Hearing Lakshmana's excellent and appropriate words with which he gladly assumed a life in the woods, that subduer of foes, Rāghava, in the name of righteousness, at once folly granted him the permission to dwell with him for the entire fourteen years. Then like unto a couple of lions dwelling on a mountain-summit, at that lone spot of the extensive forest, those powerful perpetuators of the Raghu race, began to dwell without fear.