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Bharata hears the sage’s words and finds Rama‘s bent, and he sees the whole weight on his own head. He stands up in the council, his body thrilling and love’s water flooding his eyes. Rama’s answer, when it comes, is that he will do today whatever Bharata says. Bharata makes three requests, and he swears that there is one way for the world’s blessing.
In this episode Bharata tells the council that even when he lost at play, Rama made him win. He says the Creator came between, with his low mother as a pretext, and that even saying so does not become him. His ill fortune, he says, is a fathomless sea, and he is the root of every wrong. What he heard of Rama’s going he has now seen with his own eyes. Rama says that Bharata’s self-reproach is for nothing, and that all sins end when Bharata’s name is remembered. Indra and the gods are afraid, and in their minds they all go to Rama’s refuge. Their guru names love for Bharata’s feet as the root of every fine blessing. Bharata settles in his mind that Rama’s order is his own good. He speaks again, of a sun that is not at fault when the direction is mistaken, and of a tree whose shade ends all worry. He asks that the things for the tilak, the mark of kingship, be made fruitful if Rama’s mind agrees. He asks to be sent to the forest with his younger brother. Or he asks that the two brothers be turned back and he go with Rama, or that all three brothers go to the forest and Rama return with Sita. The gods rain flowers, Rama stays silent, and Janaka’s messengers tell Vasishtha that welfare went with the king.
Bharata in the council, and the gods in their fear
The main figures in this episode
- Bharata who stands up in the council and says that the lord of sages has carried his saying through. He speaks of his master’s nature and says that from childhood he never left Rama’s side. He names his ill fortune a fathomless sea and himself the root of every wrong. He knows the weight to be on his own head and makes ten million kinds of reckoning. He speaks again and makes three requests. He says that whatever order Rama gives with a glad mind, each will take on his head and carry out, and every trouble and tangle will end.
- Rama who, after the sage has consoled Bharata, speaks fitting words. He says that Bharata reproaches himself in his heart for nothing, and that the virtuous of the three times and the three worlds are below Bharata. He says that only the dull blame Bharata’s mother, and that the earth stays kept by Bharata. He speaks of a fix in his heart, of the king’s words, which it worries him to undo, of Bharata’s hesitation, and of the guru’s order. He tells Bharata to make his mind glad, give up hesitation, and speak, and he will do that today. At the gods’ worry he is embarrassed. After Bharata’s second speech Rama stays silent, embarrassed.
- Vasishtha the guru, the sage and a man of knowledge, who consoles Bharata with old tales of many kinds. When Janaka’s messengers come, he sends for them at once and asks them of Janaka’s welfare.
- Indra and the gods who are afraid and worry that their work is about to be spoiled, and who go to Rama’s refuge in their minds. They say to one another that Rama is in the sway of his devotees’ bhakti, and recalling Ambarisha and Durvasa they lose all hope. They say the gods’ work is now in Bharata’s hands, and they tell one another to remember Bharata with love in their hearts. At Bharata’s pure words they are glad, and they rain flowers.
- Brihaspati the gods’ guru, who hears the gods’ counsel and says their fortune is great. He calls love for Bharata’s feet the root of all fine blessings in the world. He tells Indra to see Bharata’s power, and he tells the gods to steady their minds, knowing Bharata as Rama’s shadow.
- Janaka’s messengers who come at that moment, when Rama is silent and the council has fallen to worrying. They salute, look at Rama, and are utterly sorrowful at the sight of his dress. Asked of Janaka’s welfare, they are embarrassed and bow their heads to the ground. They say that the chief sage’s asking with respect has become the cause of welfare. Otherwise, they say, welfare went with the king, and the whole world has become masterless, Mithila and Ayodhya above all.
The brother who made him win at play
Hearing the sage’s words, Bharata found Rama’s bent, with guru and master wholly kind. Seeing the whole weight on his own head, he could say nothing. He was thinking.
His body thrilling, he stood up in the council. Love’s water flooded his eyes. “The lord of sages has carried my saying through. What more than this shall I say?”
“I know my master’s nature. He is never angry, even with a wrongdoer. On me his grace and love are special. Even at play I never saw his vexation. From childhood I never left his side, and he never broke my heart. I have seen in my heart the way of the Lord’s grace. Even when I lost at play, he made me win.”
“I too, in the power of love and hesitation, never spoke a word to his face. To this day my eyes, thirsting for love, are not filled with the sight of him.”
His mother as a pretext, and his own ill fortune
Bharata went on. “The Creator could not bear my being cherished. With my low mother as a pretext, he came between. Even saying this does not become me today. Who became good and pure by his own understanding?”
“To bring into the heart that my mother is bad and I am good and well-behaved is ten million ill deeds. Does a stalk of kodo bear fine rice? Does a black snail shell give birth to a pearl?” Kodo is a coarse grain.
Bharata went on. “Not even in a dream is there a speck of fault in anyone. My ill fortune is a fathomless sea. Without understanding the ripening of my own sins, I burned my mother for nothing, saying harsh words.”
“Searching my heart, I am beaten on every side. In one way alone is my good surely assured. The guru is my master, and so are Sita and Rama. The end seems good to me.”
“In the assembly of sadhus, near the guru and the Lord, in a holy place, I speak my true feeling. Is it love or pretense, false or true? The sage and Rama know.”
Sorrows he had heard of, now before his eyes
Bharata went on. “Of the king’s death, keeping his vow of love, and of my mother’s ill thinking, the whole world is witness. The distraught mothers cannot be looked at. The men and women of the city burn with an unbearable fever.”
“I am the root of all these wrongs. Hearing and understanding it, I have borne every pang. Rama went to the forest in a sage’s dress, with Lakshmana and Sita, without sandals, on foot. Hearing that, Shiva is witness, I stayed alive through this wound. After that, as I looked at Guha’s love, this heart, hard as a thunderbolt, did not split.”
“Now I have come and seen it all with my eyes. This dull soul, living, will bear it all. Gazing at them, the she-snakes and scorpions of the road give up their cruel poison and sharp fury. Those same three, Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita, seemed foes to my mother. Leaving her son, whom would fate make bear this unbearable sorrow?”
Hearing Bharata’s fine speech, utterly distraught and mixed of distress, love, entreaty, and policy, all were absorbed in grief. Dejection spread through the council. It was as if frost had fallen on a forest of lotuses.
Telling old tales of many kinds, the sage, a man of knowledge, consoled Bharata. Rama spoke fitting words.
Rama’s answer to the self-reproach
Rama said to Bharata, “Dear one, you reproach yourself in your heart for nothing. Know the course of the soul to be under the Lord’s power. In my view, dear one, the virtuous of the three times and the three worlds are below you.”
“Bringing crookedness against you into the heart, one loses this world and the next. Only the dull blame your mother, those who never served the guru and the assembly of sadhus. All sins and pretense and the whole weight of ill will end, with fine fame in this world and happiness in the next, when your name is remembered.”
“I speak by nature and truly. Shiva is witness. Bharata, the earth stays kept by you. Dear one, do not make ill reasonings for nothing. Enmity and love are not hidden by hiding. Birds and beasts go near the sages, and they flee at the sight of the hunters who harm them. Even beasts and birds know friend from foe. The human body is a treasure of virtue and knowledge.”
“Dear one, I know you well. What shall I do? There is a fix in my heart. The king kept truth, leaving me. He gave up his body for his vow of love. Undoing his words brings worry to my mind. More than that is your hesitation. On top of that, the guru has given me an order. Surely, whatever you say, that I want to do.”
“Making your mind glad and giving up hesitation, say it. I will do that today.” Hearing the words of Rama, true to his word, the company was happy.
The gods’ worry, and their word to remember Bharata
Indra with the hosts of gods was afraid. They worried that their work was about to be spoiled. No way could be made. In their minds they all went to Rama’s refuge.
After that, considering, they said to one another, “Rama is in the sway of his devotees’ bhakti.” Recalling Ambarisha and Durvasa, the gods and Indra wholly lost hope.
The gods had borne grief for a long time, and Prahlada had made Narahari, the man-lion, appear. Mouth to ear, beating their heads, they said: “Now the gods’ work is in Bharata’s hands. Gods, no other way is seen. Rama honors the service of good servants. All of you, remember with love in your hearts Bharata, who brings Rama into his sway by his own virtue and conduct.”
Hearing the gods’ counsel, Brihaspati, the gods’ guru, said: “It is well. Your fortune is great. Love for Bharata’s feet is the root of all fine blessings in the world. The service of Rama’s servant is as handsome as a hundred wish-cows. Bharata’s bhakti has come into your minds. Give up worry. The Creator has made the thing.”
“See, Indra, Bharata’s power. By his own nature Rama is wholly in his sway. Steady your minds, gods, knowing Bharata as Rama’s shadow. There is no fear.” The commentary reads the shadow as one who follows Rama as a shadow does.
Hearing the gods’ guru and the gods’ agreement and worry, Rama, who knows what is within, was embarrassed. Bharata knew in his heart the weight on his own head. He was making ten million kinds of reckoning in his heart.
The tree’s shade that ends all worry
Considering, Bharata settled this in his mind: “Rama’s order is my own good. Giving up his own vow, he kept mine. That was no small kindness and love. In every way Rama has shown grace, boundless and beyond measure.”
Saluting, Bharata spoke, joining both hands. “What shall I say or have said now, master, you who know what is within? The guru is glad, and the master is kind. The imagined pang of my soiled mind has gone.”
“I feared a groundless fear. My worry had no root. The sun is not at fault, lord, when one mistakes the direction. My ill fortune, my mother’s crookedness, the Creator’s cruel course, and the hardness of the times, all of these, planting their feet, crushed me together. You, the keeper of those who bow, kept your own vow.”
“This is no new way of yours. It is known in the world and the Veda, nothing hidden. Should the whole world do ill and the master alone do good, say, by whose goodness does good come? Your nature, lord, is like the gods’ tree. It is never for or against anyone. For one who goes near and recognizes the tree, its shade ends all worry. Asking, one gets what one wishes in the world, king or pauper, good or bad.”
“At the sight of the guru’s and the master’s love in every way, my agitation has gone. No doubt is in my mind. Now do that by which your thought, Lord, has no agitation for the servant’s good.”
Three requests, and Rama’s glad mind
Bharata went on. “A servant who puts his master in embarrassment and wants his own good has a low wit. The servant’s good is to serve his master, leaving all happiness and greed. Master, in your return is everyone’s worldly good. In carrying out your order is good in ten million ways. This is the essence of the worldly good and the highest good, the fruit of all merit and the ornament of the good end.”
“Hearing one entreaty of mine, lord, afterwards do what is fitting. Readied, all the things for the tilak have been brought. Make it fruitful, Lord, if your mind agrees.”
“Send me to the forest with my younger brother, and make everyone secure with their master. Or else, master, let the two brothers be turned back, and let me go with you. Or else let all three brothers go to the forest, and return with Sita, Rama. Do that by which your mind, Lord, is glad.” The younger brother here is Shatrughna. The commentary names the two brothers as Lakshmana and Shatrughna.
Whatever order each one is given
Bharata went on. “You, lord, have put the whole weight on me. In me there is no thought of policy or dharma. I say all these words out of self-interest. No sense stays in the thought of those in distress.”
“At the sight of a servant who answers back on hearing his master’s order, shame is ashamed. Such a fathomless sea of defects am I. And the master, out of love, praises me as good.”
“Now the counsel that pleases me is the one by which the master’s mind does not come into embarrassment. I swear by your feet, Lord, and speak my true feeling. For the world’s blessing there is one way. With your mind glad, Lord, and hesitation given up, whatever order you give to each one, each will take it on his head and carry it all out. Every trouble and tangle will end.”
Rama’s silence, and Janaka’s messengers
Hearing Bharata’s pure words, the gods were glad. Praising him with cries of “well done,” they rained flowers. The people of Ayodhya were in the power of a fix. The ascetics and forest dwellers were delighted in their minds. In the commentary’s reading the people waited to see what Rama would say, and the forest dwellers hoped that Rama would stay in the forest.
Rama, embarrassed, stayed silent. Seeing Rama’s state, the whole council fell to worrying. At that moment Janaka’s messengers came. Hearing of it, the sage Vasishtha sent for them at once.
Saluting, they looked at Rama. At the sight of his dress they were utterly sorrowful. The chief sage asked the messengers for the news. “Tell me of Janaka’s welfare.”
Hearing it, embarrassed, and bowing their heads to the ground, the fine envoys spoke with joined hands. “Your asking with respect, master, has become the cause of welfare. Otherwise welfare went with the lord of Kosala, master. Mithila and Ayodhya above all, the whole world has become masterless.”
The course of the episode
Bharata heard the sage and found Rama’s bent, and the whole weight, he saw, was on his own head. He stood up in the council with love’s water in his eyes and said that the lord of sages had carried his saying through. He told of Rama’s nature, of a childhood at his side, and of games he lost and was made to win. Love and hesitation, he said, had kept him from a word to Rama’s face.
He said the Creator had come between, his mother the pretext, and that even saying so did not become him. He called the thought that his mother was bad and he was good ten million ill deeds. He said there was no speck of fault in anyone and that his own ill fortune was a fathomless sea. He named the guru, Sita, and Rama as his masters, and he left the truth of his feeling for the sage and Rama to know. He told of the king’s death, his mother’s ill thinking, the distraught mothers, and the burning city, and he called himself the root of it all. He told what he had heard of Rama’s going and what he now saw. The council sank in grief, and the sage consoled him with old tales.
Rama answered that the self-reproach was for nothing and that the soul’s course is under the Lord’s power. He set Bharata above the virtuous of three times and three worlds, and he laid the blaming of Bharata’s mother on the dull alone. He said the earth stayed in Bharata’s keeping and that enmity and love cannot be hidden. He spoke of the fix in his heart, and of the king who had kept truth and given up his body for the vow of love. He said the guru had given him an order and that he would do that very day whatever Bharata said. The company was happy.
Indra and the gods were afraid, and in their minds they went to Rama’s refuge. They recalled Ambarisha and Durvasa, and they said the gods’ work was in Bharata’s hands. Brihaspati called their fortune great and spoke of Bharata as Rama’s shadow. Rama was embarrassed at their worry. Bharata settled in his mind that Rama’s order was his own good.
Bharata spoke again. He said his fear had been groundless, and he spoke of a mistaken direction and the sun. He said Rama had kept his own vow as the keeper of those who bow, and he likened Rama’s nature to the gods’ tree and its shade. He asked Rama to do what left Rama’s thought without agitation. He said the things for the tilak had been brought, and he asked for them to be made fruitful if Rama’s mind agreed. He asked for one of three things. He and his younger brother might be sent to the forest. Or the two brothers might be turned back, and he would go with Rama. Or the three brothers might go, and Rama return with Sita. He swore by Rama’s feet that the one way for the world’s blessing was Rama’s glad mind, with each one carrying out whatever order was given.
The gods praised Bharata and rained flowers. A fix held the people of Ayodhya. The ascetics and the forest dwellers were delighted. Rama stayed silent, embarrassed, and the council worried. Janaka’s messengers came, and Vasishtha sent for them and asked of Janaka’s welfare. They answered that his asking had become the cause of welfare. Welfare, they said, had gone with the king. The whole world was masterless, Mithila and Ayodhya above all.
The same story, elsewhere: Valmiki’s Ramayana, chapter 10, part 2: Bharata meets Rama at Chitrakuta.
Source: the Gita Press edition of Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas, Ayodhyakand, doha 260 to 270, read with Hanuman Prasad Poddar’s Hindi commentary.