16. He was known by the name of Dásúra, and was employed in his austere devotion; sitting on a branch of his kadamba tree with his exalted soul, and devoid of passions.
17. Ráma said:—I want to know Sir, whence and how that hermit came to dwell in that forest, and why he took his seat on that high kadamba tree.
18. Vasishtha replied:—He had for his father, the renowned sage Saraloman, residing in the same mountain, and resembling the great Brahmá in his abstract meditation.
19. He was the only son of that sire, like Kacha the only progeny of Brihaspati, the preceptor of the gods, with whom he came to dwell in the forest from his boyhood.
20. Saraloma having passed many years of his life in this manner, left his mortal frame for his heavenly abode, as a bird quits its nest to fly into the air.
21. Dásúra being left alone in that lonely forest, wept bitterly and lamented over the loss of his father, with as loud wailings as the shrieks of a heron upon separation from its mate.
22. Being bereft of both his parents, he was full of sorrow and grief in his mind; and then he began to fade away as the lotus blossom in winter.
23. He was observed in this sad plight by the sylvan god of that wood, who taking compassion on the forlorn youth, and accosted him unseen in an audible voice and said:—
24. O sagely son of the sage! why weepest thou as the ignorant, and why art thou so disconsolate, knowing the instability of worldly things?
25. It is the state of this frail world, that everything is unstable here; and it is the course of nature that all things are born to live and perish afterwards into nothingness.