RAMA'S VAIRAGYA 5

The monarch saw and bent low till his forehead touched
those holy feet, and meekly led them in, and, offering service,
begged for task to do, and said he would perform.

And Vishvamitra asked that Rama should be given to
him, for a space, to help in the performance of high sacrifices,
wherein Kshattriya help was indispensable to Brahmana.

Then the king- told Vishvamitra how his son was listless
with an unknown malady ; and sent for him and placed him
there before the Sage.

CHAPTER III
The Questioning and Prayer

Vishvamitra asked the prince, "What ails thee?" And
the prince replied in words, slow with their weight of meaning,
but flowing in a stayless stream of stores long gathered ;

^Bhagavan !, Great and Holy One!, since thou askest
me I answer thee, for none, however mannerless, may dare
gainsay the Great Ones. Here in my father's mansions was
I born, and brought up here, and here I studied what was
taught to me. Thereafter, following carefully the ways of
truth and virtue, I travelled over all the ocean-girdled earth.
And by the time I brought my travels to a close, reflection
rose within me strongly, and swept away my interest in the
world, and, ever since, I take no pleasure in the things of life,
and always I am pondering within myself—What is this that
men call pleasure? What is pain? What is this expanse
and series of Samsara, endless World-Procession ?

^The world is born to die, and dies to reappear, and
everything but passes, nothing stays. And all the world is
but the play of mind ; and that, we see, is false. Who, then,
has cast this glamour on our eyes and made blind plaything's
of us ? Always are we running as the deer run for the