- is, O lady, very dear to me; and you have them all in the highest degree. The blessed state which ascetics scarcely attain is today within your easy reach.

The most incomparable reward of seeing me is that the individual soul attains to its own original state. But tell me, lady, have you any news of that lady blessed with a graceful, carefree gait – Janaka’s daughter?’

‘Go to Lake Pampa, O Raghunatha,’ said Shabari; there you will make friends with Surgriva. He will tell you all, divine Raghubira. Though you know everything, yet you ask me, O steadfast of soul!’

Bowing her head before the Lord’s feet again and again, she lovingly related the whole story (of what the sage Matanga had told her and how eagerly she had waited for his approach all the time).

After repeating the whole story of her life, she gazed on the Lord’s face and imprinted the image of his lotus feet on her heart; and relinquishing her body in the fire of yoga (the sacrificial fire), she became absorbed in Hari’s beatific state beyond return. ‘O men,’ says Tulasidasa, ‘abandon your varied activities, sins and your many creeds, which yield only sorrow, and in full confidence be devoted to the feet of Rama.’

The Lord conferred final beatitude on a woman like Shabari, of such low descent and so altogether born in sin. O exceedingly stupid soul! Do you expect happiness, though you have forgotten such a Lord?

Rama left that forest and went on his way, he and his brother, both lions among men, possessed of immeasurable strength. The Lord lamented like one bereaved of his love and discoursed in various legends instinct with pathos: