10. Then after returning home and performing his bath and other rites with his friends, he took his meal with them, and passed the night in company with his beloved companions. 11. In these and similar practices did he pass his days with his brothers at his father’s house, after his return from the pilgrimage. 12. Oh sinless (Bharadwája), with his conduct becoming a prince, Ráma passed his days with giving delight to the good men that surrounded him, in the manner of the moon that gladdens mankind with his soothing ambrosial beams. CHAPTER V. OF RÁMA’S SELF-DEJECTION AND ITS CAUSE. Válmíki said:— Afterwards Ráma attained the fifteenth year of his age, and so also Satrughna and Lakshmana who followed Ráma (in birth), attained also the same age. 2. Bhárata continued to dwell with joy at the house of his maternal grandfather, and the king (Dasaratha) ruled the whole earth as usual. 3. The most wise king Dasaratha (now) consulted his ministers day after day about the marriage of his sons. 4. But as Ráma remained at home since his return from pilgrimage, he began to decay day by day as the translucent lake in autumn. 5. His blooming face with its out-stretched eyes, assumed by degrees a paleness like that of the withering petals of the white lotus beset by a swarm of bees. 6. He sat silent and motionless in the posture of his folded legs (_Padmásana_), and remained absorbed in thought with his palm placed under his cheek and neck. 7. Being emaciated in person, and growing thoughtful, sad and distracted in his mind, he remained speechless as a mute picture in painting. 8. On being repeatedly requested by the anxious inmates of the family to perform his daily rites, he discharged them with a melancholy countenance (literally—with his faded lotus-like face). 9. Seeing the accomplished Ráma—the mine of merits in such a plight, all his brothers likewise were reduced to the same condition with him. 10. The king of the earth observing all his three sons thus dejected and lean, gave way to anxiety together with all his queens. 11. Dasaratha asked Ráma repeatedly and in a gentle voice (to tell him) what his anxiety was, and what was the cause of his thoughtfulness; but he returned no answer to it. 12. Then being taken up in his father’s lap, the lotus-eyed Ráma replied, that he had no anxiety whatever, and held his silence. 13. Afterwards the king Dasaratha asked Vasishtha, the best of speakers and well informed in all matters, as to the cause why Ráma was so sorrowful. 14. The sage Vasishtha thought over the matter (for a while), and then said, “There is Oh king! a cause of Ráma’s sadness, but you need not be anxious about it. 15. “Wise men, Oh king! never entertain the fluctuations of anger or grief, or a lengthened delight from frivolous causes, just as the great elements of the world do not change their states (of inertness) unless it were for the sake of (some new) production.”