SECTION LXIII.
Starting in a moment from sleep, king Daçarātha deprived (almost) of his consciousness by grief, (again) became a prey to thought. And in consequence of the exile of Rāma and Lakshmana, the king resembling Vāsava was overpowered by grief, like the darkness of Rāhu enveloping the sun. Then on Rāma's having gone along with his wife, the lord of the Koçalas, remembering his own misdeed, felt anxious to communicate himself to that lady having her eyes furnished with dark outer corners. And on the sixth night after Rāma had repaired to the forest, the king Daçarātha, when it was midnight, remembered his own unrighteous act. And then unto Kauçalyā aggrieved on account of her son, he spoke these words, "As are the actions of one, O auspicious one—whether good or otherwise— are the consequences, O gentle lady, reaped by the doer of them. He that on the eve of beginning an action either relating to this world or the next, does not take into consideration the fact that actions entail consequences light or grave, disagreeable (or otherwise), is styled a child. He that cutting down a mango grove, waters Palāsa trees, beholding the flowers (blooming), will covet fruits; and grieve when their season arrives. The person that without apprehending (the principle of causation) rushes to action, grieves at the season of fruits, even like him that watereth kinsuka trees (hewing down his mango grove). And in this way, I fool that I am having hewn down my grove of mangos and watered Palāças,—having renounced Rāma in the season of fruit, is grieving in the end. Having, O Kauçalyā, earned the expression—'The Prince can pierce his aim by sound alone,'—I, a prince and bowman, did this offence. Therefore, O noble dame, I have myself brought this misfortune on me. like a child who has eaten poison through ignorance. And even like another person fascinated by the sight of some Palāsa trees (and doing as mentioned above), I (did this act) not foreknowing the consequence that would follow my shooting by sound. O lady, thou wert then unwedded; and I was a youthful prince. And it was at this time that the rainy season increasing my desire set in. Drawing moisture from the ground and heated the earth by his rays, the Sun goes to the dreadful quarter whither repair the dead. The heat was immediately dispelled, and the gelid clouds showed themselves; and frogs and Sārangas and peacocks began to rejoice; and, finding it unpleasant, the feathered ones bathed and with the surface of their plumage shrunk up from the wet, took refuge in trees shaken by the wind and rain. And the hill graced by maddened Sārangas, covered by showers falling simultaneously looked like a mass of waters. And the waters although unstained, being mixed up with mineral substances and ashes from the mountain, flowed in serpentine torrents black and red. At such a sweet hour, I intent upon taking excercise, taking my bow and arrows and mounted on my car, sallied out for the river Sarayu, with the intention that I with my senses under control, should in the watery expense slay any bufifelo, elephant, or any other beast that might have come there in the night. And (coming there) while it was so dark that nothing could be discovered, I heard sounds of a filling pitcher proceeding from the waters; resembling the roars of an elephant. Thereupon raising up my shaft flaming and like unto a serpent of virulent poison, I desirous of hunting the (imaginary) elephant, let fly my shaft in the direction of the sound. Thereupon from the spot whereto the sharpened shaft resembling a poisonous snake had been discharged by me in the twilight, proceeded cries of 'Oh' and 'Alas' uttered by a forester pierced to the quick by the arrow, and falling into the water. And when he had dropped down, words spoken by a human being became audible. 'Why doth the weapon light upon me? I had come to this lone stream for procuring water. By whom have I been wounded by this arrow? To whom have I done wrong? And how can the slaying of one like me bearing a load of matted locks, and wearing bark and deer-skin, who subsists on what the forest yields and never injures others, be sanctioned by the scriptures? Who can serve any purpose by slaying me? And how can I have injured such an one? Such a purposeless act cannot but end in evil. This can never be reckoned as righteous; even like unto violating the chastity of a preceptor's wife. I do not so much lament my end as I lament it on account of my father and mother. To what will the old couple, who have ever been maintained by me, betake themselves when I am gone? My father and mother are old, and I their only son am slain. What boy is it of uncontrolled senses that has killed us all?"
"Hearing his piteous words, I ever anxious to follow virtue, was exceedingly pained, and the bow with its arrow fixed fell down from my hand to the earth. Hearing in the night, the pathetic words of the saint thus lamenting, I became frightened, and was deprived of my senses through excess of grief. And coming to the quarter, I exceedingly unnerved and with an excited mind, discovered on the banks of the Sarayu an ascetic wounded with a shaft, with his matted locks scattered about, his pitcher of water lying by, his body smeared with blood and dust and afflicted by the dart. Gazing with his eyes at me who was extremely agitated and ill at ease, he said these words sternly, as if consuming me with his energy, 'What wrong, O monarch, had I residing in the woods done thee, that coming to procure water for my parents, I have been thus afflicted by thee? By piercing my marrow with a shaft, thou hast slain both my aged and blind father and mother. Surely, they feeble and blind, who afflicted by thirst are remaining in expectation of me, will now bear (the stress and tension of) the expectation as well as the parching thirst. Surely asceticism and study carry no fruit with them, since I lying low on the ground, my father knows nothing about it. And what could he do, even if he knew it, being as he is incapable and unable to go about? One tree cannot rescue another that is being batttered (by the winds). Do thou, O descendant of Raghu, thyself going to my father, speedily inform of him this that has occurred. But take care that like a fire waxing furious consuming a wood, he in his ire do not burn thee. This narrow way, O king, will lead thee unto my father's dwelling. Do thou going there, pacify him, so that getting wroth he may not curse thee. Do thou (now), O king, take out the arrow. Thy sharpened shaft afflicts my marrow, like the tide of a river wearing away a hollow-heaving sand bank.' But touching the extracting of the arrow, this thought perplexed me: 'If the arrow is left alone, it pains; if extracted, death ensues.' As I was distressed, aggrieved and inflicted with sorrow, the son of the ascetic perceived my anxiety. Thereupon that one well versed in the scriptures sinking motionless, with his eyes rolling upwards, and waxing extremely weak, said with difficulty, 'Restraining sorrow, I by dint of patience become calm. Do thou remove from thy mind the grief caused by the consciousness of having slain a Brāhmana. O king, I belong not to the twice-born race: let not thy mind be pained. O lord of the foremost men, I was begot by a Vaicya on a Sudra woman.' As he, his vitals afflicted with the shaft, his eyes rolling, inert and trembling on the ground, with his limbs drawn in, was speaking with difficulty, I drew out the arrow. Thereupon, looking at me, the ascetic, growing affrighted, gave up the ghost. On beholding him with his body dripping with water, and mortally wounded, and breathing hard without respite, after he had bewailed his mortal wound, lying on the banks of the Sarayu, I lamented him and was, O gentle lady, greatly aggrieved."