If, mother, all this has my approval, let me share the awful lot of those who sell the Vedas and traffic in piety, backbiters and informers, who are deceitful, wicked, quarrelsome and irascible, who revile the Vedas and are hostile to the world,

- who are covetous and lascivious and behave as the rapacious do, and who cast an envious eye on another’s wealth or wife.

The hapless wretches who love not the company of the virtuous, who have rejected the path of spiritual wisdom, who worship not Hari even though blessed with a human form, and take no delight in the glory of Hari and Hara,

- who abandon the path of the Vedas and follow a contrary road, swindlers who deceive the world by assuming false appearances – may Shankara allot me a fate like theirs if, mother, I knew of this plot!’

Hearing Bharata’s sincere, artless words, his mother Kausalya said, ‘You, my son, have ever been Rama’s friend in thought and word and deed.

Rama is dearer to you than your own life, and dearer than life are you to Raghunatha. The moon may drop poison, snow emit fire, or an aquatic creature love not water

- or spiritual enlightenment may fail to eradicate error, but you can never be hostile to Rama. Those in this world who say that this plot was contrived with your connivance shall never even in their dream attain happiness or salvation.’