There is none so miserable as I, and none, O Raghubira, so gracious to the miserable as you, Remember this, O jewel of the house of Raghu, and rid me of the awesome cycle of birth and death.

As a lustful man loves his mistress and as one given over to greed loves his money, so, O Raghunatha, O Rama, may you for ever and ever be beloved by me!

While in former days the blessed Lord Shankara, that excellent poet, composed a Ramayana, full of obscruity, for the attainment of unceasing fiath in the lotus feet of the blessed Lord Rama, Tulasidasa, considering that poem to be alive with the name of Rama, has composed this Manasa in the vulgar tongue in order to disperse the gloom of his own inner selt.

This Holy Lake of Rama’s Acts is a lake of merit, a lake that destroys all defilements and ever blesses the soul and grants wisdom and faith, washing away the filth of ignorance and illusion by its pure, clear waters brimful with love. Those who plunge with faith into it are never burnt by the scorching rays of the sun of birth and death.