In this terrible age the Name is the wish-yielding tree, and when one think on it, it puts an end to all the illusions of the world. It is the name of Rama that grants one’s desired object in the Kaliyuga, one’s father and mother in this world and a friendly guide in the world to come.

In the Kaliyuga no action (karma) avails nor devotion (bhakti) nor knowledge (gyana), the Name of Rama is the only resort. The Kaliyuga is like Kalanemi, a demon full of deceit, and the Name the wise mighty Hanuman to slay him.

(To use another metaphor,) the Name of Rama is, as it were, Narasimha, the Kaliyuga the demon Hiranyakashipu; the faithful who repeat the Name are Prahlada; these the Name will protect, but it will slay the foes of the gods, i.e. the Name will protect the devotees repeating it, even as the man-lion protected Prahlada.

Whether one repeats the Name in love or enmity, in an angry mood or even while yawning, it brings felicity in every quarter. Remembering that Name, I bow my head to Raghunatha and proceed to recount the story of Rama’s virtues.

He will mend all my errors, for his grace never tires of showing its grace. So noble a master as Rama, and so wicked a servant as I! Yet, true to his own disposition, that storehouse of compassion has fostered me.

It is the way of a good master to recognize one’s devotion to him when he hears a humble prayer – so say the world and the Vedas. Rich and poor, rustic and urban, wise and foolish, of good repute and bad.

-good poets and inferior, men and women everywhere extol the king as best they can; and the king who is pious, sensible and amiable, sprung from a part of God Himself and very gracious.