All the love in the world, all claims of kinship, all affection and confidence of which the Vedas themselves have sung, for me they are all centred in you and you alone, O lord, friend of the afflicted, knower of the innermost hearts of all!

Piety and propriety should be taught to one who aims at glory, opulence and a noble destiny; but should he who is devoted to your feet in thought, word and deed be discarded, O ocean of grace?

The all-compassionate Lord, on hearing these soft and polite words of his noble brother, took him to his bosom, and seeing him so affectionately dejected, thus consoled him:

'Go, brother, and take leave of your mother, and then come back at once and accompany me to the woods.’ Lakshmana was overjoyed on hearing Raghunatha thus speak; great was his gain and a mighty loss was averted.

He went to his mother as delighted at heart as a blind man who has recovered his sight. Approaching her, he bowed his head before her feet, but his heart was with Rama (the delight of Raghu’s race) and Janaki.

Finding him depressed in spirit, the mother asked him the reason, whereupon Lakshmana related at length the whole story. Sumitra was as alarmed to hear the unwelcome news as is a deer that sees the forest on fire all around her.

Lakshmana apprehended that things would take a wrong turn that day and that his mother’s affection would frustrate his plans. Timidly and hesitatingly he asked her leave to go, thinking within himself, ‘O God, will she bid me accompany Rama or not?’