Having thus reflected, Guha cried to his kinsmen: “Be on the alert, up and sink the boat and close the ferry.”
Make ready and blockade the pass, equip yourselves with every instrument of death. Take up arms against Bharat, and never let him cross the Ganges alive. To die in the battle and on the Ganges bank; in Rama’s cause to lay down this frail body; and mean as I am to join battle with a king like Bharat; all this is a great gain for me, even if I meet my death. If I war and fight on my lord’s behalf, I reap brilliant renown throughout the fourteen spheres. If I lose my life for Raghunath, I shall have both hands full of luscious sweets. Whoever is not numbered among the just, nor counted among Rama’s votaries, is all the time that he lives only a burden to earth, and an axe at the foot of the tree of his mother’s youth.
Make ready and blockade the pass, equip yourselves with every instrument of death. Take up arms against Bharat, and never let him cross the Ganges alive. To die in the battle and on the Ganges bank; in Rama’s cause to lay down this frail body; and mean as I am to join battle with a king like Bharat; all this is a great gain for me, even if I meet my death. If I war and fight on my lord’s behalf, I reap brilliant renown throughout the fourteen spheres. If I lose my life for Raghunath, I shall have both hands full of luscious sweets. Whoever is not numbered among the just, nor counted among Rama’s votaries, is all the time that he lives only a burden to earth, and an axe at the foot of the tree of his mother’s youth.