Ayodhya Kaanda
86 - Dialogue between Bharata and mother Kausalya and king Dasaratha's cremation
Chaupais
Description
When mother Kausalya saw Bharata, she sprang up and ran to meet him; but she felt giddy and dropped unconscious on the ground. Bharata was deeply moved to see her plight and threw himself at her feet forgetting the condition of his own body. "Mother, show me my father. Where is Sita and the two brothers, Sri Rama and Laksmana? Why was Kaikeyi born into this world at all? And if born, why did she not remain barren instead of bearing me, a blot on my family, a very sink of infamy and an enemy of near and dear ones? Who in the three spheres is so wretched as I, on whose account, mother, you have been reduced to such a plight. My father is in heaven and Sri Rama, the Chief of Raghu's line, is in the woods; it is I who like a shooting star am responsible for the whole trouble. Woe be to me, who have proved to be for my family a very fire among the bamboos and a victim of terrible agony, suffering and censure."