Having impressed Rama’s beauteous image upon her heart as he appeared while running in pursuit of the false deer, Sita incessantly repeated the name of Hari.

When Raghunatha saw his brother coming, he felt, or appeared to feel, much concern. ‘Brother,’ he cried, ‘have your left Janaki all alone and come here in defiance of my instructions?

The forest is full of roaming monsters and I suspect Sita is not in the hermitage!’ Lakshmana clasped Rama’s lotus feet and cried with folded hands, ‘Listen, my lord, it is no fault of mine!’

Accompanied by his younger brother, the Lord went to his hermitage on the bank of the Godavari, and when he saw the hermitage beret of Janaka’s daughter, he was as agitated and afflicted as any ordinary mortal.

He wailed, ‘Aas! Janaki, my divinely pure Sita, the very mine of virtues, of such flawless beauty, amiability, austerity and devotion!’ Lakshmana comforted him in many ways, but he questioned all the creepers and trees as he went along (in search of her):

‘O ye birds and beasts, O ye swarms of bees, have you seen the fawn-eyed Sita? The wagtails, parrots and pigeons, the deer and fish, the swarming bees and clever cuckoos,

- the jasmine buds and pomegranates, the lighting flash, the lotus and the autumn moon, the serpent, Varuna’s noose, Kama’s bow, the swan, the elephant and the lion can now hear themselves praised;