Passage 14

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In plain words

Do not take it otherwise; go to such-and-such a place and build the āśrama,” He said. Then, leaving Sītā in the leaf hut, Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa went wandering through the places around.

Lakṣmaṇa, who held that Rāma's feet alone were his Śaraṇāgati, that the feet alone were his refuge, came to a certain spot, and Lakṣmaṇa's mind changed. “Brother! I cannot stay in this forest any longer. I cannot bear these hardships. I am going to Ayodhyā,” he said. With a smile Rāma said, “Don't be hasty, don't be hasty,” and taking his hand, “Let us walk to a certain place; come.” “Let us go to the leaf hut and look into this,” He said. Lakṣmaṇa came some distance and sat down under a tree with cool shade. By then Lakṣmaṇa's mind had changed. “Well, Lakṣmaṇa! When are you going to Ayodhyā?” Rāma asked. “Rāma! What have I to do with Ayodhyā? You alone are everything. To leave such a Rāma and go to Ayodhyā: even in my dreams I have no such thought,” he said. Going a little further, He said, “You did say you would go to Ayodhyā, didn't you?” I do not know the reason for that. Then Rāma explains. Lakṣmaṇa! There is also the power of place. Along with the power of place, one must also look a little to one's own strength. Going away from God was the very influence of that place. Because that place is a place where Śūrpaṇakhā roamed. There we walked in the place where Śūrpaṇakhā lives. So those very feelings of Śūrpaṇakhā arise in the body. We left that place behind and came into another. The Citrakūṭa mountain is the place where all the maharṣis live; when we came here, all the feeling of the maharṣis came.

So our place too must be a sacred place. It must not be a place where the wicked and the evil roam. That is why ‘Tyaja durjana saṃparkaṃ’. If this evil comes to us, we must get away from it. That is why, remember: ‘Bhaja sādhu samāgamaṃ’, ‘Kuru puṇya mahorātraṃ’.