Maricha Sees Rama Everywhere and Begs Ravana to Turn Home
Aranya Kanda, Chaupai 23
Doha 25 · Movement 1 of 2
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Ravana tells the entire tale with the pride of one already claimed by misfortune. He commands Maricha to become a deceptive deer so that the king may carry away Rama's wife. Maricha answers that the two brothers only wear human form. They are the lords of everything moving and unmoving. No one should make an enemy of them, for whoever they kill dies and whoever they preserve lives.
Memory returns Maricha to Vishvamitra's sacrifice. The young Raghupati struck him with an arrow that bore no metal head, yet the force carried him a hundred yojanas in a moment. That single merciful shaft has never left his mind. Since then fear has changed his sight. Like an insect held beneath the circling wasp, he looks in every direction and sees the two brothers before him.
Even if Ravana insists they are merely human, Maricha says, their valor is beyond measure and opposition to them cannot end well. His warning rises from the body that has already felt Rama's bow. Before the sea and the impatient king, he tries to turn the coming deception back toward Lanka while there is still time.
A hundred yojanas away from the old arrow, Maricha still sees Rama wherever he turns.
Read the passage from the Manas
दसमुख सकल कथा तेहि आगें। कही सहित अभिमान अभागें।। होहु कपट मृग तुम्ह छलकारी। जेहि बिधि हरि आनौ नृपनारी।। तेहिं पुनि कहा सुनहु दससीसा। ते नररुप चराचर ईसा।। तासों तात बयरु नहिं कीजे। मारें मरिअ जिआएँ जीजै।। मुनि मख राखन गयउ कुमारा। बिनु फर सर रघुपति मोहि मारा।। सत जोजन आयउँ छन माहीं। तिन्ह सन बयरु किएँ भल नाहीं।। भइ मम कीट भृंग की नाई। जहँ तहँ मैं देखउँ दोउ भाई।। जौं नर तात तदपि अति सूरा। तिन्हहि बिरोधि न आइहि पूरा।।
The ten-headed one narrated the entire tale before Maricha, brimming with pride and ill fortune. "Become a deceptive deer, you master of illusion, so that I may carry away the king's wife." Maricha replied: "Listen, O ten-headed one! Those two appear in human form, but they are the lords of all that moves and all that stands still. Do not make enmity with them, dear one. If they kill, one dies. If they grant life, one lives. When the young prince went to protect the sage's sacrifice, Raghupati struck me with a blunt arrow, without even a metal tip. I was flung a hundred yojanas in an instant. It is not wise to court a quarrel with them. I have become like the insect before the wasp. Wherever I look, I see those two brothers. Even if they are merely human, dear one, they are warriors of surpassing might. No one who opposes them can hope to prevail."