Mean-spirited is the servant who seeks his own advantage by placing his master in an embarrassing situation. A servant’s gain is to lay aside all selfish pleasure, to do his master service, and not be greedy.

If, my lord, you return to Ayodhya, everyone will be a gainer, but to yield to your command is a myriad times better. This is the essence of the highest good, both temporal and spiritual, and the consummation of all meritorious acts and the ornament of all good destinies.

Listen, divine lord, to this one petition of mine, and then do as you think proper. I have brought with me, duly arranged, all the requisites for your coronation; have it brought into use, my lord, if it pleases you.

Send me and my younger brother (Shatrughna) into the forest and let all your people feel secure again under your protection; or else send back our two brothers (Laksmana and Shatrughna). Lord, and let me accompany you;

-or else (as a third alternative) let us, your three brothers, remain in the forest, and you yourself, Raghunatha, return with Sita. O ocean of compassion, do whatever is most pleasing to yourself.

You have, my divine master, laid the whole burden of decision on me, but I am unversed both in politics and in theology; for I am actuated by self-interest in whatever I say; a man in distress loses his senses.

Shame herself would be ashamed to look at a servant who evades compliance with his master’s will; yet though I do this and am a fathomless ocean of iniquity, still my master in his affection extols me as good!