The Lord, whom thoughts and words and deeds can never comprehend, played about in Dasharath’s courtyard. If the king, when at dinner, called him, he would not turn up, loath as he was to leave the company of his playmates.

When Kausalya went to call him, the Lord would run away toddling. Him whom the Vedas call ‘Not thus’ and whose end even Shiva could not find, the mother would run to catch by force.

With his body covered with grime and dust, he would come, and the king would smilingly take him on his lap.

Even while the Lord sat at his meals, his mind was restless, so that as soon as he found a chance he would run away this way or that with a scream of joy, his mouth besmeared with curd and rice.

Sharada, Shesha, Shiva and the Vedas have sung of his most innocent, charming, childish sports, and he whose heart does not warm to them has been brought into the world by God to no purpose.

As soon as the brothers were all grown up, the guru as well as their parents invested them with the sacred thread. The lord of Raghus then proceeded to his guru’s house to study and in a short time mastered all the branches of knowledge.

What a great fun that Hari, whose natural breath stands crystallized in the form of the four Vedas, should go to school! They became proficient in scholarship and modesty and virtue and decorum, and practised all princely sports.