5. And I have given the same to my attentive pupil the obedient and intelligent Bharadwája, as the sea yields his gems to their seeker.
6. These historical preparatories were rehearsed by the learned Bharadwája in the presence of Brahmá, seated in a certain forest of the Sumeru Mountain.
7. Then the lord Brahmá, the great grandfather of the inhabitants (of the three worlds), was so highly pleased with him that he addressed him saying: “Oh my son! ask the best boon that thou wishest for.”
8. Bharadwája said:—“Oh thou lord, that art master of the past and future times, grant me the desired boon of communicating to me the means whereby people are liberated from their miseries.”
SECTION II.
Brahmá’s Behest.
9. Brahmá said:—“Go ask diligently of thy preceptor Válmíki, to complete the faultless Rámáyana that he has undertaken (to write).
10. “By the hearing of which men will get over their manifold errors, in the same manner as they pass over the sea by the bridge built over it by the great Ráma, who was fraught with all good qualities.”
11. Válmíki said:—Saying this to Bharadwája, the supreme maker of all beings (Brahmá) accompanied him to my hermitage.
12. In right earnest was the god welcomed by me with the argha and offerings of water and the like, when the lord of truth spoke to me for the good of all creatures.
13. Brahmá spake to me saying:—“Do not Oh sage! give up your undertaking until its final completion. No pains ought to be spared to make the history of Ráma as faultless as it ought to be.