Passage 13

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In plain words

“My lord! My mother-in-law bore you and your brother Śatrughna only for service. You were born only to serve Rāma. Śatrughna was born only to serve Bharata. So carry out your duty. But you must give me one promise. In the fourteen years you will be in the forest, you must not think of me for a single moment. If you think of me, it will hinder your service to Sītā and Rāma. So remember them alone, without ceasing, and see that no trouble of any kind comes to them. For these fourteen years forget me completely,” she said. Would any wife speak like this? No one would. At her broad feelings Lakṣmaṇa himself melted and shed tears. “Ūrmilā! I did not think you had such broad feelings. I shall keep your broad feelings in my heart,” he said. Then Ūrmilā: “Do not dwell even on my feelings. Keep the broad feelings of Sītā and Rāma in your heart. Take their command upon your head. See that no hardship of any kind comes to them,” she asked of him. No one can describe the wealth of virtue of Sumitrā and Ūrmilā. A wife as virtuous as Ūrmilā, a mother as exemplary as Sumitrā, are nowhere to be seen today.

When Lakṣmaṇa fell senseless in the battle, Rāma: “Lakṣmaṇa! If I search this world, I may find even a wife like Sītā. But a brother like you I shall not find. Having lost you, why should I go on living?” He lamented. The physicians there said that Lakṣmaṇa could be brought back to life through the sañjīvanī herb. At once Hanumān went through the sky to the mountain where the sañjīvanī herb is found. But because he did not know what the herb looked like, he uprooted that whole mountain and set off with it. As he was passing over Nandigrāma, Bharata saw him, took him for some demon, and loosed his arrows. At once Hanumān fell to the ground, mountain and all. The people of Nandigrāma and the dwellers of Ayodhyā came running and crowded round Hanumān. Hanumān bowed to everyone and looked towards Bharata: “Bharata!