They wrung their hands and beat their heads and lamented, distressed like birds that have been clipt of their wings. A huge crowd had gathered at the entrance of the royal palace, and there was grief immeasurable, beyond all telling.

The minister (Sumantra) raised the king and seated him, with the agreeable news that Rama had arrived. When he saw his two sons with Sita, the king’s distress was profound.

He was troubled as he gazed and gazed at his two handsome sons and Sita, and clasped them to his bosom time after in an agony of love.

In his agitation the king could not speak; a burning pain, caused by anguish of heart, overmastered him. Most affectionately bowing his head before his father’s feet, Ramachandra then rose and begged permission to depart.

‘Father, give me your blessing and commands; why should you be so dismayed at this hour of rejoicing? By swerving from the path of duty due to attachment to any beloved object, dear father, one’s honour is lost and disgrace incurred.’

At this the king, still under the spell of love, got up and, holding Raghunatha by the arm, drew him to a seat and said, ‘Listen, my boy; of you the sages say that Rama is the Lord of all creation, animate or inanimate.

God requites our actions according as they are good or bad, weighing them in the scale of his judgment; the doer reaps the fruit of his own doings: such is the Vedic principle and the verdict of mankind.