Ayodhya Kaanda
91 - Bharata's arrival at Prayaga and dialogue between Bharata and the sage Bharadvaja
Chaupais
Description
"Let Sri Rama take me for a wicked fellow, and let the people call me an enemy of my preceptor and master. All the same by your grace may my devotion to the feet of Sita and Sri Rama grow day by day. The cloud may neglect the Cataka bird all its life and on its asking water may discharge thunderbolt and hail. But the bird will fall in the estimation of others if it ceases to call out to the cloud. It will gain in everyway only by intensifying its love for the latter. Just as gold gets brighter by being put into the fire, even so the lover shines by sticking to his vow of devotion to the feet of his most beloved lord." In response to Bharata's prayer there came a sweet and benedictory utterance from the midst of the Triveni: "Dear Bharata, you are pious in everyway and your love for Sri Rama's feet is unbounded. In vain do you harbour depressing thoughts in your mind; there is no one so dear to Rama as you are."