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word and I cannot go back. They said,
'You are our refuge,' and I have given my
word to protect them. A pledge thus given
cannot be withdrawn. What I have spoken
cannot now be unsaid. You and I must
tread together the path of dharma. How
can we differ?" Talking thus, they went
along the forest path.
This conversation occurs in the poem
like the cloud that precedes the storm. It is
the
artistic
creation
of
a
changing
atmosphere and not a random casting up
of facile verses.
For ten years, Rama, Lakshmana and
Sita lived quietly among the rishis. In the
great Dandaka forest, there were a number
of
ashramas
where
the
rishis
lived
practising their austerities and living their
lives of abnegation. The princes spent a
month in one ashrama, three months in a
second and perhaps a year in a third as
welcome and happy visitors.
The forest was indescribably beautiful,
with deer and bison, boars and elephants.
The birds, the trees, the creepers, the blue
waterlilies, all live again in the beauty of
Valmiki's poetry.
Rama was very happy these ten years,
the joy of association with great and holy
men being added to his joy in the quiet
companionship of Lakshmana and Sita.
These ten years are disposed of in a small
chapter. Time happily spent seems short
and needs no length in recording.
When after ten years had thus passed,
the
end
of
their
forest
life
was
approaching,
Rama
wished
to
have
darshan of the sage Agastya who lived in
the
south.
The
sage
was,
like
Vishwamitra, famous through the three
worlds. It used to be said that if all the
wisdom and spiritual merit between the
Himalayas and the Vindhyas were put on
one scale and Agastya sat on the other, the
southern scale would go down by his
weight.
There is also the story of Agastya's
service during the wedding of Siva and
Parvati. All the rishis had gone to Mount
Kailas for the great event. Agastya alone,
staying
in
the
south,
maintained
the
balance of the earth. Once the Vindhya
Mountain
steadily
grew
towards
the
heavens and threatened to obstruct the
sun's passage between the northern and
southern hemispheres.
The
gods
grew
frightened
and
approached Agastya for help. The Sage
stood before the mountain which bent low
in reverence before him. Then he blessed
it saving: "May you ever remain thus",
and so the mountain stretches low and