Then Vibhishana proceeded to the palace and had his car loaded with jewels and raiment in abundance. He then brought the aerial car, Pushpaka, and set it before the Lord, whereupon the all-merciful Rama said with a smile,

‘Listen, Vibhishana, my friend, step into the car and ascending to the sky, shower down the clothes and ornaments.’ Vibhishana at once mounted aloft into the air and rained down all the jewels and garments.

Each picked up anything that pleased him best, cramming the jewels into his mouth (thinking them to be some edible substance) but throwing them down again (the moment monkeys realized their mistake). Rama and his brother and Sita felt amused at the sight; so sportive is the All-merciful.

That Lord of grace, whom sages are unable to reach even in meditation and whom the Vedas describe only in negative terms, saying, ‘Not that, not that,’ amused himself with the monkeys in diverse ways.

O Uma, ascetic practice and prayer, charity and penance, performance of sacrifice, vows and other religious observances fail to evoke Rama’s compassion to the same degree as unalloyed devotion does!

Having thus picked up the clothes and the jewels, the bears and the monkeys adorned themselves with them and appeared before Raghunatha. The king of Kosala laughed again and again when he saw the monkeys, a motley host indeed.

Raghunatha looked upon them all and was moved with pity. Then he said in gracious tones: ‘It was by your might that I succeeded first in slaying Ravana and then in setting Vibhishana on the throne.