THE FOREST. 335 Charpái. Ráma stayed on at Chitra-kút and performed many acts that were like the scriptures or ambrosia for excellence. At last, he thought to himself-There will be a crowd here, now that every one knows of me." So the two brothers with Síta took leave of all the saints and went on their way. When tho Lord drew near to Atri's hermitage, the holy man was rejoiced at the news and quivering in every limb he sprang up and ran to meet him. On seeing him, Ráma advanced hurriedly and was falling to the ground before him, but the saint took him to his bosom. Both wept tears of affection. At the sight of Ráma's beauty his eyes were gladdened and he reverently conducted him to his cell, where doing him every honour he addressed him in gracious terms and offered him roots and fruits such as his soul relished. Sorathá 3. As the Lord took his seat, the great saint supremely wise, gazed with stream- ing eyes upon his beauty, and joining his hands in supplication he thus hymn- ed his praise. Chhand 1. "I reverence thee, the lover of the devout ; the merciful, the tender-heart- ed; I worship thy lotus feet, which bestow upon the unsensual thine own abode in heaven. I adore thee, the wonderously dark and beautiful ; the mount Mandar to churn the ocean of existence ; with eyes like the full-blown lotas ; the dispeller of pride and every other vice; the long-armed hero of im- measurable power and glory; the mighty Lord of the three spheres, equipped with quiver and bow and arrows; the ornament of the solar race; the breaker of Siva's bow; the delight of the greatest sages and saints; the destroyer of all the enemies of the gods; the adored of Kámadev's foe (i.e., of Siva) ; the rever- enced of Brahma and the other divinities; the home of enlightened intel- ligence ; the dispeller of all error; Lakshmi's lord; the mine of felicity ; the salvation of the saints. I worship thee with thy spouse and thy brother, thyself the beloved younger brother of Sachi's lord. Men, who unselfishly worship thy holy feet, sink not in the ocean of existence, tost with the billows of controversy. They who in the hope of salvation, with subdued passions, ever delightedly worship thee, having discarded every object of sense, are advanced 1 This epithet is a peculiar one ; but it would seem to be intended simply as a periphrasis for Upendra, the lesser Indra,' a well-known title of Vishnu, who, in the dwarf incarnetion, was born as a son of Kasyapa; Indra, here called 'Sachi's lord,' being accounted the eldest of Kasyupu's sons. 2 Mudá here the instrumental case of mud, 'delight.'
