Canto 2: Ayodhyā-kāṇḍa ()Chapter 64: Daśaratha Gives up his Life in Remembrance of Lord RāmaText 2.64.47
Canto 2 -
Ayodhyā-kāṇḍa
Chapter 64: Daśaratha Gives up his Life in Remembrance of Lord Rāma
Text 2.64.47
एवं स कृपणं तत्र पर्यदेवयतासकृत्।
ततोऽस्मै कर्तुमुदकं प्रवृत्तः सह भार्यया॥
evaṁ sa kṛpaṇaṁ tatra paryadevayatāsakṛt
tato ’smai kartum udakaṁ pravṛttaḥ saha bhāryayā
evam = thus; saḥ = he; kṛpaṇam = and sorrowfully; tatra = in that place; paryadevayata = lamented; asakṛt = continuously; tataḥ = then; asmai = for his son; kartum = to perform the final rites; udakam = to offer him ritual water; pravṛttaḥ = he began; saha bhāryayā = along with his wife.
Thus he continuously and sorrowfully lamented in that place. Along with his wife, he then began to perform the final rites for his son to offer him ritual water.
1 From this it is clear that this saint was a great Vaiṣṇava.
NOTE. In Bhakti-sandarbha (106), Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī Prabhu quotes the following verse from Agni Purāṇa in the section describing the lamentation of this sage whose son had been killed by Daśaratha:
śilā-buddhiḥ kṛtā kiṁ vā pratimāyāṁ harer mayā
kiṁ mayā pathi dṛṣṭasya viṣṇu-bhaktasya karhicit
tan-mudrāṅkita-dehasya cetasānādaraḥ kṛtaḥ
yena karma-vipākena putra-śoko mamedṛśaḥ
“Have I considered Lord Hari’s Deity to be a stone or have I, at any time, intentionally disrespected a Vaiṣṇava whose body is marked with the sacraments of initiation that as a result of such action I have to experience such distress about my son as this?”1