Chapter 61 - Queen Kaushalya reproaches the king

The virtuous Rama, the upholder of dharma, having departed, Queen Kaushalya weeping bitterly, addressed her royal consort: “O King, Your fair name is known throughout the three worlds; you are esteemed compassionate, charitable and of gentle speech. Yet, O Great One, tell me, how will your two sons, brought up in ease together with Sita, be able to endure the forest life? How will the young and tender Sita, worthy of happiness, endure heat and cold? How will that large-eyed princess, who lived on dishes prepared by skilful cooks, sustain life on the wild lentils of the forest? How will she, accustomed to the sweet strains of music, be able to bear the roaring of man-eating lions? How will the two mighty princes, whose arms resemble the rainbow, sleep on the ground, pillowing their heads on their arms. O When will I again behold the lotus face of Rama, framed in beautiful locks, whose eyes are like the water-lily and whose breath is fragrant as the nymphoea? Surely my heart must be as hard as a diamond that it does not break into a thousand pieces, bereft of Rama. O King, in banishing your children, you have been merciless. Worthy of every comfort, they are now wandering aimlessly in the forest. Should Rama return, after fourteen years, will Prince Bharata restore the kingdom and the treasure to him? If those inviting the pious and learned brahmins to the funeral sacrifice, first serve their poor and deserving relations and subsequently the brahmins these will not accept the food of that sacrifice, renouncing it like wine. The learned brahmins regard it as a mark of disrespect to be served even with that in which other brahmins have already participated, which is like a bull shorn of its horns, of lesser worth. O Master of your People, will not Rama even thus disdain the kingdom enjoyed by his younger and undeserving brother? A lion will not eat the food killed by another, neither will Rama accept that which has already been enjoyed by others. As the libations, butter, kusha grass and pillars employed in the sacrifice, are not used again, so will Rama not accept a kingdom which resembles a sacrifice without soma.

Shri Rama will never suffer this indignity, as a lion will not suffer the twisting of its tail. Do not all fear Rama as he appears on the battlefield? He, himself, is righteous, indicating the path of virtue to others, never will he seize the kingdom by force! Is not the mighty-armed Rama with his golden shafts, able to destroy all living beings and dry up the sea? Yet to-day, that Rama, powerful as a lion, is rendered impotent at the king’s command, as the spawn of fishes is devoured by their parents? O King, hadst you regarded the scriptures and the eternal laws, observed and inculcated by the learned sages, your virtuous son had not been exiled by you. O Lord, the first support of a woman is her husband, the second is her son, the third her relatives, but a fourth she has not! You have ceased to regard me as thine, you have banished my son Rama, and I may not follow him and leave you desolate. O Lord, you have destroyed me utterly! O King, you have brought disaster on your counsellors, the whole kingdom, the ministers and thyself, and I with my son and all the citizens of Ayodhya are utterly ruined.”

Hearing the bitter reproaches of his consort, the king, reflecting on the cause of this calamity, overwhelmed with grief, fell senseless, drowned in the sea of sorrow.