Hari Om.
Let us begin the forty seventh sarga of the ayOdhyA kAnDam by offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.
rAma and the citizens kept walking towards the forest with the citizens pleading with rAma to stop and he moving along undeterred. Everyone knew that rAma was sticking to dharma and yet no one wanted him to go to the forest away from them. The river tamasa that was flowing across their way halted them for the day. The fatigued citizens slept under the trees and so did rAma and sItA. lakshmaNa stayed up all night narrating rAma’s virtues to sumantra. As the day broke, rAma saw the citizens still fast asleep. He thought that was the best time to leave them behind and proceed. Both lakshmaNa and sumantra approved of the idea and they all proceeded after creating some confusing trails of the chariot in the opposite direction. What happens next. Onwards…
rAma, sIta, lakshmaNa and sumantra at the bank of river tamasa along with the citizens. Pic from here.
As the morning dawned, the citizens woke up and were shocked out of senses to not find rAma there. They were disconsolate and with teary eyes looked for rAma everywhere but didn’t find a trace of him. Those citizens with long faces and grief stricken minds were distraught at the disaster that sleep has brought up on them! They lamented how the ever grateful rAma could desert the devoted followers and leave. They wondered how rAma who cared for them like a father could abandon them thus. They wanted to meet their end right there unwilling to be alive bereft of rAma. They wanted to set a pyre with the plenty of dry woods available there and enter into the fire as they saw no point in their life without rAma.
They wondered how they can face the women and children back home and tell them that they couldn’t stop rAma from going to the forest. They shuddered to think of their terrible reaction and shrunken faces upon learning that the sweet spoken rAma has gone to the forest. They were reluctant to return to ayOdhyA without the valiant rAma and wailed bitterly like the cow separated from its calf.
They still wanted to follow the trail of the chariot and reach where rAma was and went some distance. But then they were totally confused about which way the chariot went and could proceed no further. They understood that they have been tricked upon! Aghast at this trickery, they blamed their fate. they were too tired to think of anything else and retraced their way to ayOdhyA.
They beheld the city of ayOdhyA bereft of rAma and it looked unimpressive like a sky without the moon or an ocean without water. Overpowered with the grief of separation from rAma, they slowly dragged their feet into their lofty mansions, unable to recognize their own kin, occupied totally in the thoughts of rAma.
Here we conclude the forty seventh sarga of the ayOdhyA kAnDam of SrImath vAlmiKi rAmAyaNam and humbly offer it at the lotus feet of SrIrAma. Hari: Om!
jAi SrIrAma.
Click on the book for word by word meaning from IITK website
Click on the bow to listen to the audio by SrIrAma ghanApATi
Next: 2.48. A valuable lesson in desperate devotion
Previous: 2.46. Citizens let down by sleep!
rAmabhaktisAmrAjyam 
