Our days and nights are spent in sinful pursuits, and yet we have no clothes to cover our loins, no food to fill our belly. How, then, could we ever have dreamt of entertaining pious sentiments but only by the virtue of having seen Raghunatha?

Ever since we beheld our Lord’s lotus feet our intolerable woes and wickedness have disappeared.’ When they heard these words, the citizens were immersed in love and broke out into praises of their good fortune.

All began to praise their good fortune and addressed them lovingly; everyone rejoiced to hear their talk and mark their courteous manners and their devotion to the feet of Sita and Rama. Men and women thought little of their own love when they heard the talk of the Kols and the Bhils; it was by the grace of the jewel of the house of Raghu, says Tulasidasa, that a block of iron could float with a boat loaded on it.

Day after day they roamed the forest in all directions, as joyful as frogs and peacocks reinvigorated by the early showers of the rains.

The men and women of the city remained so deeply immersed in love that the days passed like moments. Sita, assuming as many forms as she had mothers-in-law, waited reverently upon each with equal attention.

No one but Rama knew the mystery behind it; for all delusive potencies form part of Sita’s delusive power. Sita won over all the queens by her services, and they being pleased gave her both instruction and benediction.

Perceiving Sita and the two brothers straight in their dealings, the wicked queen bitterly repented and prayed to earth and the god of death: ‘Why does earth not open up and swallow me, and why does God refuse me death?’