Armed with a beauteous bow and arrows and quiver, with eyes resembling a rose-red lotus, king of kings, home of bliss, Lakshmi’s lovely consort, subduer of arrogance and lust and the false sense of mineness,

You are free from blemish, indivisible and imperceptible to the senses. Though manifest in all forms, you never transmuted yourself into them all-so declare the Vedas, it is no mere cock-and-bull story-like the sun and the sunshine, which are separate and yet not separate!

Blessed are all these monkeys, O all-pervading Lord, who reverently gaze on your countenance; while accursed, O Hari, is our (so-called) immortal existence and our ethereal bodies, wherein we have neglected your worship and are lost in worldly pleasures.

Now, O you who are compassionate to the afflicted, have mercy upon me and take away that differentiating sense which causes me to do what I should not and to pass my days in merriment, mistaking woe for happiness.

Destroyer of the wicked and beauteous jewel of the earth, your lotus feet are worshipped even by Shiva and Parvati. O king of kings, grant me this boon, that I may ever cherish loving devotion to your lotus feet and so be blessed!’

With his whole body quivering with excess of devotion, Brahma made his humble prayer; his eyes did not tire of gazing at Rama, the ocean of beauty.

At that moment Dasharath arrived, and when he saw his son, his eyes were flooded with tears. The Lord and his younger brother made obeisance and their father gave them his blessings.