The eighteen kinds of countless trees and shrubs are the hairs on his body; the hills are his bones and the rivers represent the network of his veins; the sea is his belly and hell his lower organs. In short, the universe is a manifestation of the omnipresent Lord and it is no use going into further details.

Lord Shiva is his self-consciousness, Brahma his reason, the moon his mind and the great Vishnu his intelligence. It is the same Lord Rama, who has assumed the form of this animate and inanimate creation and come to dwell with us as man.

Here me then, O lord of my life; consider this and cease to contend with the Lord and devote yourself to the feet of Rama that my wedded happiness may never end!’

Ravana laughed when he heard his wife’s admonition and said, ‘Oh, mighty indeed is the power of infatuation! Truly have the poets said of a woman’s nature that eight evils ever abide in her heart:

- recklessness, falsity, fickleness, deceit, timidity, indiscretion, impurity and cruelty. You have proclaimed the enemy’s cosmic form and given me a terrible account;

But all this universe, my beloved, whether animate or inanimate, is absolutely under my control; it is by your kind favour that I understand it all now. I recognize your cleverness, my dear, for it is but your way of exalting my glory.

Your words, O fawn-eyed lady, are profound, they afford delight when understood and dispel all fear even heard.’ Mandodari was inwardly assured that her husband’s infatuation was the fated fore-runner of his ruin.