Argument. The Meeting of the next morning, and the concourse of attendants.
Válmíki continued:—Ráma passed in this manner the live-long night, in his lengthened chain of reflection; and in eager expectation of dawn, as the lotus longs for the rising sun at day break.
2. Gradually the stars faded away at the appearance of aurora in the east, and the face of the sky was dimly pale, before it was washed over with the white of twilight.
3. The beating of the morning and the alarm of trumpets, roused Ráma from his reverie; and he rose with his moonlike face, blooming as the full-blown lotus in its leafy bed.
4. He performed his morning ablution and devotion, and joined with his brothers and a few attendants, in order to repair to the hermitage of the sage Vasishtha.
5. Having arrived there, they found the sage entranced in his meditation in his lonely solitude; and lowly bent down their heads before him from a respectful distance.
6. After making their obeisance, they waited on him in the compound, until the twilight of morning brought the day-light over the face of the sky.
7. The princes and chiefs, the saints, sages and Bráhmans, thronged in that hermitage, in the manner of the celestials meeting at the empyrean of Brahmá.
8. Now the abode of Vasishtha was full of people, and the crowds of the cars, horses and elephants waiting at the outside, made it equal to a royal palace in its grandeur.
9. After a while the sage rose from his deep meditation, and gave suitable receptions to the assembled throng that bowed down before him.