तेषां मध्ये स राजर्षिर्मरुतामिव वासवः।
प्रासादस्थो रथगतं ददर्शायान्तमात्मजम्॥
गन्धर्वराजप्रतिमं लोके विख्यातपौरुषम्।
दीर्घबाहुं महासत्त्वं मत्तमातङ्गगामिनम्॥
चन्द्रकान्ताननं राममतीवप्रियदर्शनम्।
रूपौदार्यगुणैः पुंसां दृष्टिचित्तापहारिणम्॥
teṣāṁ madhye sa rāja-rṣir marutām iva vāsavaḥ
prāsādastho ratha-gataṁ dadarśāyāntam ātmajam
gandharva-rāja-pratimaṁ loke vikhyāta-pauruṣam
dīrgha-bāhuṁ mahā-sattvaṁ matta-mātaṅgagāminam
candra-kāntānanaṁ rāmam atīva-priya-darśanam
rūpaudārya-guṇaiḥ puṁsāṁ dṛṣṭi-cittāpahāriṇam
teṣām = the; madhye = amidst; saḥ = the; rāja-ṛṣiḥ = saintly King Daśaratha; marutām = maruts; iva = was like; vāsavaḥ = Indra; prāsādasthaḥ = sitting in his palace; ratha-gatam = on a chariot; dadarśa = he saw; āyāntam = approaching him; ātmajam = his son; gandharva-rāja-pratimam = Rāma resembled a figure of the king of the gandharvas; loke = all over the world; vikhyāta-pauruṣam = His manly strength was famous; dīrgha-bāhum = His arms were long; mahā-sattvam = and He possessed great strength; matta-mātaṅgagāminam = His gait was like that of an intoxicated elephant; candra-kānta-ānanam = His face was more charming than the moon; rāmam = Rāma; atīva-priya-darśanam = and He was extremely pleasing to see; rūpa-audārya-guṇaiḥ = by His beauty, magnanimity and qualities; puṁsām = of men; dṛṣṭi-citta-apahāriṇam = He stole the vision and hearts.
The saintly King Daśaratha was like Indra sitting in his palace amidst the maruts. He saw his son Rāma approaching him on a chariot. Rāma resembled a figure of the king of the gandharvas. His manly strength was famous all over the world. His arms were long and He possessed great strength. His gait was like that of an intoxicated elephant. His face was more charming than the moon and He was extremely pleasing to see. He stole the vision and hearts of men by His beauty, magnanimity and qualities.
NOTE. As quoted in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.2.301-402), the Padma Purāṇa describes that when the sages in Daṇḍakāraṇya saw Lord Rāma, they developed the desire to become the Lord’s consorts to serve Him intimately and relish His beauty. In their next lives, they were born as gopīs in Kṛṣṇa-līlā to pleasingly serve Him in mādhurya-prema-bhakti-rasa.
1 The original text corresponding to these two sentences actually occurs at the end of the commentary to text 28. This incident of Draupadī’s bathing is referred to by Śrī Vedānta-deśika in his Dramiḍopaniṣad-tātparya-ratnāvalī (3).
Śrī Rāmacandra resembled a figure of the king of the gandharvas, that is, He was like the king of the gandharvas among those whose beauty was inclined towards a stream of enjoyment. And yet, it is not that He was inexperienced in the rasa of heroism—His manly strength was famous all over the world. And He was sufficiently hard to exhibit such a strength, for His arms were long. Again, it is not that because His arms were long, they were very tender like Śirīṣa flowers and devoid of strength, for He possessed great strength. And therefore His gait corresponded to His strength and so on—He had the gait of an intoxicated elephant.
The sage has referred to Lord Rāma’s face as candra-kāntānanam (“His face was more charming than the moon”) instead of candrānanam (“His face was like the moon”) to point out that His face brings forth abundant delight [to the onlookers] and that every part [of His face] was beautiful. Rāmam indicates that He pleased [all] by His beauty and qualities. He was also beautiful in the overall sense—He was extremely pleasing to see, that is, seeing Him uninterruptedly revealed His newer beauty at every moment. His magnanimity was in distributing this [to the onlookers]. As stated in the Śruti, the Supreme Being distributes Himself 4.
Guṇaiḥ indicates that His feature of accessibility was constantly and repeatedly meditated upon 5. [The onlookers] constantly thought about Him, “Oh, this person is so great that He even mixes with us who are so insignificant.”
Puṁsām. His beauty and qualities stole the vision and hearts of even the men, who are hard-hearted, what to speak of the women, [who are soft-hearted]. In fact, the men developed the desire to become women in order to relish His beauty. Authorities state that this is similar to the ladies bathing with Draupadī who desired to be born as men to enjoy her beauty 6.1
Puṁsām can also mean “of every soul” [instead of “of men”] because such a usage is found in Śrī Viṣṇu Purāṇa (2.13.91) that states samasta-deheṣu pumān eko vyavasthitaḥ: “There is a soul situated in every body.” This indicates that Lord Rāma’s beauty and qualities such as magnanimity stole the vision and hearts of all souls irrespective of their divisions into demigods, humans, animals and other species, or female, male and neuter. It will be stated [in this Canto] that every moving and nonmoving creature faded out of love for Rāma upon being separated from Him.
1. The original text corresponding to these two sentences actually occurs at the end of the commentary to text 28. This incident of Draupadī’s bathing is referred to by Śrī Vedānta-deśika in his Dramiḍopaniṣad-tātparya-ratnāvalī (3).