Early the next morning both king Janaka (the royal son of Nimi) and Rama (the royal son of Ragu) bathed with all their retinue, and then all went and sat under the banyan tree, sad at heart and wasted in body.

The Brahmans from Ayodhya and those from the capital of the king of Mithila, as well as Vasishtha, the guru of the Solar race, and Shatananda, the family priest of king Janaka, who had explored the way to worldly prosperity and the path of spiritual truth,

- gave discourses on various topics – religion, ethics, dispassion and discernment; the sage Vishvamitra eloquently admonished the entire assembly with many a reference to old-time stories.

Then Ragunatha said to Vishvamitra, ‘Yesterday, my lord, everybody went without water.’ Said the sage, ‘Raghunatha has spoken in season; it is already past noon.’

Reading what was in the seer’s mind, the king of Tirhut (Mithila) replied, ‘It will not be proper to take food here.’ The king’s reasonable reply pleased all; and, having received the sage’s permission, they all went to perform their midday ablutions.

At that moment arrived the people of the forest with large quantities of fruits and flowers and leaves and roots of every kind loaded in their panniers.

By the grace of Rama the hills yielded all that the heart could desire and dispelled one’s sorrow by their very sight. The lakes and streams, woods and forest glades all overflowed as it were with joy and love.