THE FOREST. 341 queller of violence, wrangling and pain; the conqueror of death; the delight of the company of heaven : the home of compassion, may he ever protect us. At once bodiless and embodied, like and unlike, endowed with form and formless ; transcending all thought, speech and perception; pure, all-pervading, faultless, illimitable, Ráma, the loosener of earth's burdens, him I adore. A forest of trees of Paradise for his faithful people; the dispeller of passion, avarice, pride and lust; the All-beautiful ; the bridge to eross the ocean of life, the champion of the solar race, may he ever protect us. With unlimited might of arm, the home of strength; the true disperser of the manifold impurity of this iron age; the shield of righteousness; the giver of delights, the assemblage of all good qualities; may he, my Ráma, ever grant us prosperity. Though he be passionless, all-pervading, eternal, and ever dwelleth in the hearts of all ; yet in his character of the wood-roaming conqueror of Khara, with his brother and bride, may he abide in my thoughts. They who understand, know him to be the Lord, though embodied, the bodiless ruler of the soul, the lotus-eyed sovereign of Kosala ; then make thy abode in my heart, O Ráma. Never be this sentiment forgotten : I am his servant and Raghupati is my Lord." Ráma was pleased at heart on hearing the saint's specch, and in his delight pressed him again to his bosom : "Know, O Saint, that I am highly gratified : ask any boon and I will grant it you." Said the saint: "I have never begged a boon nor can I discern between true and false. Whatever seems good to you, O Raghurái, that bestow upon me, for you are your servant's benefactor." " I give you steadfast faith, self-control, and wisdom, and make you a storehouse of all virtue and knowledge." "I have received, my lord, the boon that you have given, now grant me my own wish. Dohá 8. O my lord Ráma, with your brother and Jánaki, yourself cquipt with bow and arrows, for ever and ever abide like the moon in the heaven of my soul."1 1 Tulsí Dás's theory as to the principle that shonld regulate man's prayers to Heaven is enforced by the example of the famous sages and ascetics, whom he so frequently brings before his readers and whose aspirations refer exclusively to spiritual blossings. An exact parallel is afforded by the teaching of the great English moralist of the last century as inculeated in the following lines :- « Yet when the scene of sacred presence fires, And strong devotion to the skies aspires, Pour forth thy forvour for a healthful mind, Obedient passions and a will resigned, For love, which scarce collective man can fill, For patience, sovereign o'er transmuted ill, For faith, that-panting for a happier seat- Counts death kind nature's signal of retreat." Detachment from the world, snbjugation of the passions, love for the divinity, patience under suffering and, to crown all, an unhesitating faith are the highest boons that man can secure ; the last being followed after death by the beatific vision of the godhead, a joy for all eternity. 86
