Dwelling in heart on Sita’s beauty and reflecting on his own good fortune, the pure-souled god thus addressed his brother in terms appropriate to the occasion:—
“Brother, this is the very daughter of king Janak, for whom the tournament has been ordained. She has come with her attendants to worship Gauri, and a train of light marks her path through the garden. At the sight of her divine beauty, my ordinarily placid bosom is agitated; God alone knows the cause, but of a truth, brother, my lucky side is throbbing as though for coming good fortune. It has always been a mark of the race of Raghu that they never set their heart on evil courses; and thus I am confidently assured that all will be well; for I have never even in a dream looked upon another man’s wife to long after her. And rare, indeed, in the world are the men who neither turn their back upon the foe in battle nor covet their neighbour’s wife, and from whom no beggar meets a rebuff.”
“Brother, this is the very daughter of king Janak, for whom the tournament has been ordained. She has come with her attendants to worship Gauri, and a train of light marks her path through the garden. At the sight of her divine beauty, my ordinarily placid bosom is agitated; God alone knows the cause, but of a truth, brother, my lucky side is throbbing as though for coming good fortune. It has always been a mark of the race of Raghu that they never set their heart on evil courses; and thus I am confidently assured that all will be well; for I have never even in a dream looked upon another man’s wife to long after her. And rare, indeed, in the world are the men who neither turn their back upon the foe in battle nor covet their neighbour’s wife, and from whom no beggar meets a rebuff.”