Chapter 110 - Rama ascends to Heaven with the other Beings

When he had proceeded about six miles, the Pride of the Raghus beheld the sacred waters of the Sarayu flowing westwards, eddying and rippling in their course, and he went on further to the Goprataraka Ghata, his subjects thronging round him on all sides.

At that moment, as Kakutstha was preparing to ascend to heaven, Brahma, the Grandsire of the World, surrounded by the Gods and the illustrious Rishis adorned with jewels, appeared seated in their aerial chariots, and the whole firmament glowed with a transcendent splendour, a marvellous radiance emanating from the lustre of those heavenly beings of virtuous deeds. Pure, balmy and fragrant breezes blew, whilst shower upon shower of blossom was scattered by the Gods. Thereafter to the sound of a myriad instruments and the singing of the Gandharvas and Apsaras, Rama stepped into the waters, where.-upon the Grandsire, from on high, uttered these words:—

“Hail O Vishnu! Hail O Raghava! With your God-like brothers, now enter thine eternal abode 1 Return to thine own body if you so desirest, O Long-armed Warrior! Occupy the realm of Vishnu or the shining ether, O Mighty God! You are the support of the world, though there are some who do not recognize You without the large-eyed Maya, thine ancient Consort! You are the Inconceivable One, the Great Being, the Indestructible, the Ageless One. Enter into your real body if You so desirest.”

Hearing these words of the Grandsire, the supremely virtuous Rama formed his resolution and entered Vishnu’s abode in his body with his younger brothers.

Thereupon Immortals began to worship that God who had returned to His form as Vishnu, and the Sadhyas, the hosts of Maruts with Indra and Agni at their head, the celestial companies of Rishis, the Gandharvas and Apsaras, Supamas, Nagas, Yakshas, Daityas, Danavas and Rakshasas and all the dwellers in heaven felt a supreme delight, their desires fulfilled, their sins washed away, and they cried out “Hail! All Hail!”

Then the all-resplendent Vishnu said to the Grandsire:—

“Grant to each of these my subjects a suitable abode. They are my devotees and truly deserving, having sacrificed their lives for me!”

Thus spoke Vishnu, and the God Brahma, Guru of the Worlds, answered saying:—

“All those who have assembled here shall go to the region called Santanakas! Yea, even the beasts who die meditating on Your holy Feet shall live in the vicinity of Brahmaloka where I have united all pleasurable things. The monkeys and the bears, the manifestations of various Deities have already returned to the worlds of the Gods, from whence they came forth, and Sugriva has entered the disc of the sun!”

Even as the great God was speaking, the monkeys and the bears, having assumed their pristine forms, came to Goprataraka Ghata before the eyes of the assembled Gods. At that time, whosoever entered the waters of the Sarayu River, yielded up their lives gladly, their eyes suffused with tears of ecstasy, and, having abandoned their bodies, took their places in a celestial chariot. As for those in animal form, who entered the waters of the Sarayu in hundreds, they ascended to the Third Heaven in divinely resplendent bodies and they appeared as effulgent as the Gods in their celestial lineaments. All beings, whether animate or inanimate, who entered those waters attained to the region of the Gods, and, in their turn, the bears, monkeys and titans, abandoning their bodies in the river, also attained heaven.

Having granted them all a place in paradise, the Grandsire of the World accompanied by the Gods, in the height of felicity, returned to the Third Heaven, his supreme abode.