Passage 3

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In plain words

Only when you recognise what is dear to that God, what gives Him joy, what gives Him delight, and act by it, will your wish be fulfilled. So we must develop a life that recognises God's wish and acts by it. We cannot go to schools and study this learning. Nor can we inquire into any book and bring it into experience. This holy feeling is formed only by one's own experience. At one time the Rāmāyaṇa bowed to the command of the parents, held this to be the divine path, and laid it down for the world. To fulfil the promise given to His father, Rāma, the son, gave up even His right to the kingdom and entered the forests. ‘Father! I have no objection whatever to going to the forests. To keep your Satya is My chief duty. To fulfil the father's wish is the son's duty. So I am going to the forest with joy,’ He said. The son who had such Prema and faith took shape as an ideal power for the world. While Rāma was in the forest, Bharata entered the forest with his retinue, took hold of Rāma's feet, and begged Him in many ways to come back to Ayodhyā. Recognising Bharata's grief, the sage Vasiṣṭha gave Rāma many teachings: ‘You have fulfilled your father's command. Now your father is no longer in the body. So you must come to Ayodhyā and take up the kingdom,’ he said. Then Rāma folded His hands: ‘Revered Guru! Rāma does not know how to break the word He has spoken. So I will live in the forest these fourteen years, fulfil My father's command, and after that return to Ayodhyā,’ He said. ‘Forgive me. This is not going against the Guru's command. I am keeping My Satya. To fulfil My father's wish I will offer up even My life,’ He said. Before that, when He broke Śiva's bow in the city of Mithilā, Janaka came: ‘My son! I had resolved to give my daughter Sītā in marriage to whoever would break this bow of Śiva. By my good fortune, you have broken Śiva's bow. Here, I will give my daughter to you in marriage,’ he said.