Chapter 113 — Lakshmana's Path

Lakshmana looked at Rama, downcast as the moon when an eclipse has covered it, and spoke gently.

“Do not grieve for my sake,” he said. “The course of Time is bound to what was shaped before. Keep your promise. Let me go.”

He did not deny the cost. He asked Rama to abandon him without hesitation, saying that a person who breaks a pledge falls away from dharma. If Rama held any affection or favor for him, Lakshmana said, then Rama should keep the vow and let him bear the consequence.

Rama's composure failed. He called together his ministers and his family priest, then told them what had happened: the arrival of Durvasa, the private condition made with Time's messenger, and Lakshmana's interruption.

The council listened in silence. Vashishta, the elder priest and teacher, answered that a terrible end long foreseen had come upon Rama. The promise must not be made false, he said. If dharma failed through a broken vow, the order of the three worlds would fail with it. Rama must let Lakshmana go.

A king's pledge bore a cosmic weight. That weight did not make the separation easy, and it did not make Lakshmana's life a small thing.

Before the council, Rama addressed his brother. “I release you, Lakshmana,” he said, so that dharma would not be overturned. Among the righteous, to abandon and to put to death were held equivalent in such a case.

There was no farewell at Lakshmana's home. He did not go to see Urmila, his sons, or any member of the court. His eyes were full of tears, but he went swiftly away and did not enter his house.

He came to the Sarayu, the river that had marked the world of Ayodhya from the beginning. At its bank he touched the water, joined his hands, and restrained every channel of breath. He stood without exhaling, gathered in discipline.

Then gods, Indra among them, came with apsaras and rishis. They covered Lakshmana with flowers. Indra took him up, still in his body, beyond the sight of human beings and entered heaven with him.

The gods recognized in Lakshmana a fourth portion of Vishnu returned to them. They honored him with the rishis, glad at his arrival.

Lakshmana had chosen exile, guarded the forest dwelling, crossed the sea for Sita, fought beside Rama in the war, and at the end kept the palace door. To keep a vow, Rama had declared him abandoned. He left the human world at the Sarayu, and Ayodhya did not see him again.