‘Listen beloved wife, beautiful, faithful and amiable; I am about to act an alluring human part; let fire then be your dwelling-place till I have completed the extirpation of the demons.’

No sooner had Rama finished speaking than she impressed the image of the Lord’s feet on her heart and entered into the fire, leaving only her image there, of exactly the same appearance and the same amiable and modest disposition.

Not even Lakshmana knew the secret of what the Lord had done. Rama, the self-absorbed, vile wretch, approached Maricha and bowed his head to him.

When a grovelling, mean creature bends, it is only to give more pain, like an elephant-goad, a bow, a snake, or a cat; and the ingratiating speech of a blackguard, Bhavani, is as portentous as flowers that bloom out of season.

After doing him reverence, Maricha respectfully asked him why had had come: ‘Why, sire, are you so disturbed in mind and why have you come all the way alone?

The wretched Ravana boastfully repeated the whole story to him and added, ‘Do you assume the deceptive form of a deer, so that I may (trick him and) carry off the princess.’

To this Maricha replied, ‘Listen, O Ten-headed; though disguised as a man, he is the Lord of all animate and inanimate creation; be not at enmity with him, sire; we die when he would have us die and live only by his sufferance.