Verse 15
Ketumala, and what Rama asks for· Verses 15–23
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15And in Ketumala the Bhagavan stands in the form of Kamadeva, wanting to do what pleases Laksmi, for the daughters of Prajapati and for his sons who are lords of that region and who make the count of the days and nights in a man's lifetime. The minds of those daughters are shaken by the fire of the great Person's great weapon, and their wombs are broken open, and at the end of the year the children fall out of them dead. 16With a walk of the greatest grace and charm, with the play of a glance and a trace of lovely laughter, with the beauty of a lotus face made fortunate by the fine arch of the brows a little raised, he gives Fortune her pleasure and gives the senses theirs.
17That form of the Bhagavan made of maya the goddess Fortune worships by the highest yoga of a gathered mind, in the nights of the year with the daughters of Prajapati and in the days with their husbands; and she says this. 18Om hram hrim hrum om. Homage to the Bhagavan, the lord of the senses, whose self is marked out by every particular quality, the ruler of intentions, of thoughts, of minds and of their particulars, who has sixteen parts, who is made of the metres, made of food, made of the drink of the deathless, made of everything: to force, to vigour, to strength, to the beloved, to desire, homage to you. May it hold in both.
19Women worship you yourself, the lord of the senses, with vows, and then ask in this world for some other husband. Those husbands cannot guard the children they love, nor their wealth, nor their lives, because they are not their own masters. 20He alone could be a husband who fears nothing from any side and guards on every side people sick with fear. He alone; otherwise there is fear on both sides, and he counts nothing higher than the winning of the self. 21A woman who longs for the worship of your lotus feet, greedy though she is for every desire: give her that very thing she longs for, you who are longed for and worshipped; for one whose asking is broken burns, Bhagavan.
22The unborn one and the Lord, gods and antigods and the rest, whose minds are on the senses, do fierce austerity to get me; but except for the man given over to your feet they do not find me, since my heart is in you, Unconquered one. 23Unfallen one, that lotus hand of yours which was laid on the Satvatas is honoured on my head too; and still, choicest one, you carry me by maya as a mark upon you. Who has the power to work out what the Lord means to do?