Shiva received her most courteously as his own dear wife and assigned her a seat on his left. Parvati gladly sat down beside Shiva and recalled all that had happened in her former life.

Parvati felt that her lord cherished in his heart greater love for her than before, and smilingly addressed him in affectionate terms; for Himalaya’s daughter sought to hear from her lord the story that brings blessing to the whole world.

‘O Lord of the universe,’ she said, ‘my master Tripurari! Your glory is known to all the three spheres. All things, animate as well inanimate, serpents, men and gods, all do reverence to your lotus feet.

My lord, you are Shiva the all-powerful, all-wise and all-blissful, repository of all arts and virtues and a storehouse of ascetic practice, wisdom and detachment, and your name is a wish-yielding tree (a tree of Paradise) to the suppliant.

O essence of bliss, if you are pleased with me and know me to be your faithful servant, then, my master, dispel my ignorance and tell me the various stories of Raghunatha.

Why should be whose dwelling is beneath a wish-yielding tree suffer pain born of poverty? Bearing this in mind, O Lord with the crescent moon on the forehead, dispel the sore confusion of my mind.

Those sages, Lord, who discourse on the supreme reality speak of Rama as the Absolute that has no beginning; Shesha and Sharada, as well as the Vedas and the Puranas all sing of Raghunatha’s perfection.