Ramayan Part 20 - Kaikeyi's Fruitless Efforts Poem by Rajaram Ramachandran

“How can you now set aside,
The rule, also custom beside,
And crown the younger son,
Overlooking the eldest son? ”

“Why Ram was banished?
You ought to be banished.
You’re a cruel woman,
Dharma having forsaken.”

“Your husband you murdered,
Kausalya’s grief you caused,
You sent her only child
To the forest far and wild.”

“I’m ashamed to call you
My mother; you shall too
Stop calling me your son,
From this moment on.”

“The obsequies I shall do,
To the Ram’s place go,
To beg his pardon
And seek his early return.

“To cleanse myself of the sin,
And the shame you brought in,
The life of an ascetic I’ll lead,
Ram shall be the King indeed.”

In so many words he blasted,
Like this, his accusations lasted
Till his mother wept and cried,
While in his anger she was fried.

It was like “In haste act,
Later at leisure regret.”
She was a victim of her haste,
Her husband and son having lost.

He went to Kausalya mother,
And prostrated before her.
He told her, he became a victim
Of his mother’s heinous crime.

Kausalya told him
As a son to perform
His father’s rites last,
No more time to waste.

She asked him a boon
To let her join
His noble father
In the funeral pyre.

These words hurt him,
As a helpless victim,
He clung to her feet firm,
Until she exonerated him.

Kausalya was proud of him,
As one more son beside Ram,
She consented to accept him
Like the dear son of earlier time.

Then things moved fast
The king’s rites last,
Bharata did it at last,
With all due respect.

Bharata hastened an army,
For them to accompany,
In his march to the forest,
To bring back Ram fast.