PREPARING FOR THE EXILE 1

Sita said, "If I am with you, the discomfort of the forest won't bother me. Near you. I shall dwell in the forest as though it was the royal palace itself. I shall come with you to the forest, as heaven itself would be unacceptable to me without you."

So now Lakshmana and Sita were to go with Rama to the forest for fourteen years.

All the people of Ayothya were shocked to hear the news of Rama's exile.

The entire city of Ayodhya was plunged into the depths of extreme gloom and despair. Rama was loved by all his subjects, and nobody could imagine him being expelled from the state into the forest.

Before going away, Rama bestowed gifts on various Brahmins, scholars and servants. Rama accorded a gift of cows filling up the space of miles and miles to Trijata, a poor Brahmin.

Rama, Sita and Lakshmana changed into simple clothes and bid farewell to their father and mothers.

Dashratha was grief-stricken and could barely speak. Dashratha, Kaushalya, Sumitra and everyone else in the palace tried to stop them, but Rama was firm in his resolve to fulfill his father's promise.

When they went through the streets of Ayodhya on the chariot, all the citizens followed them, weeping and wailing for their dear Rama and begging him not to leave Ayodhya.

King Dashratha also followed Rama's chariot like a commoner. But soon, out of extreme gloom and depression, he fainted and fell on the ground.