I cannot describe, Garuda, the beauty of the scene, the uniqueness of the assembly and the delight of the occasion. Sarasvati, Shesha and the Vedas recount them, but Shiva alone knows all the sweetness of them.

Having severally hymned the Lord’s praises, the gods returned each to this own sphere. Then came the Vedas, in the form of bards, into the presence of Rama.

The omniscient Lord of grace received them with all honour, though no once else could penetrate the mystery. The Vedas began to hymn his excellent virtues:

‘O you’ who are personal and impersonal, incomparable in beauty, crest-jewel of kings, you have slain by the might of your arm Ravana and all the other dread demons, monsters of iniquity! Appearing in human garb, you rid the world of its burdens and put an end to its tormenting woes. Hail, merciful Lord, protector of the suppliant! You, omnipotent Lord, and your consort, Sita, we adore!

‘Subject to your relentless illusion, O Hari, gods and demons, serpents and men and all creation, animate and inanimate, wearily wander night and day on the unending path of birth and death, impelled by fate and karma (destiny) and the gunas (modes of material nature); but they whom you regards, O Lord, with compassion have been rid of the threefold affliction. Protect us, Rama, prompt as you are in putting an end to the weariness of mortality, we adore you!

‘Intoxicated with the pride of wisdom, they who respect not devotion to you, which takes away the fear of rebirth, may reach that goal, O Hari, which even gods may fail to reach; yet we see them fall from that estate; but they who confidently abandon all other hope and with unqualified faith choose to remain your servants, ever repeating your name, O Lord, in prayer, cross the ocean of birth and death without any effort; this is the Lord on whom we fix our thoughts!

‘O Mukunda, Rama, Lakshmi’s lord, we ever adore your lotus feet, which Shiva and Brahma worship, the touch of whose blessed dust redeemed the sage’s wife (Ahalya), from whose nails sprang forth the heavenly stream (Ganga), reverenced by sages and purifying all the three spheres, and the soles of which, while bearing the marks of a flag, thunderbolt, goad and lotus, are further adorned by scars left by the thorns that pierced them in the course of your wanderings in the woods.