कृतातिथ्योऽथ रामस्तु सूर्यस्योदयनं प्रति।
आमन्त्र्य स मुनीन्सर्वान्वनमेवान्वगाहत॥
kṛtātithyo ’ tha rāmas tu sūryasyodayanaṁ prati
āmantrya sa munīn sarvān vanam evānvagāhata
kṛta-ātithyaḥ atha = having been fully honored as a guest; rāmaḥ tu = Rāma; sūryasya udayanam prati = at sunrise; āmantrya = took permission; saḥ1 munīn = sages; sarvān = from all; vanam eva = the forest; anvagāhata = and entered.
Having been fully honored as a guest, Rāma took permission from all sages at sunrise and entered the forest.
1 Technical note: saḥ rāmaḥ.
1 There are two persons involved in the process of surrender: the person surrendering and the person who is being surrendered to. The latter is the object of surrender. For surrender to be fruitful, the object of surrender has to be both compassionate upon the person who has surrendered and be sufficiently capable of fulfilling the desire of the person who has surrendered.
2 This translation is derived from Prabhupāda’s Sanskrit-English equivalents to this verse.
In the first chapter [of this Canto], the author has described the special forms of services rendered by sages to Rāmacandra. These sages were desirous of liberation and were perfect in their spiritual practices. Śrī Vālmīki desires to describe the surrender of the sages who desired that Khara and his associates be killed, and he begins this chapter in order to inform [us] of Rāma’s ability to be a worthy object of surrender for these sages.1 He does this by describing the killing of Virādha. Therefore, he had briefly stated [in the beginning]:
praviśya tu mahāraṇyaṁ rāmo rājīva-locanaḥ
virādhaṁ rākṣasaṁ hatvā śarabhaṅgaṁ dadarśa ha
“Having entered the great forest of Daṇḍaka, the lotus-eyed Rāma killed the rākṣasa Virādha and saw Śarabhaṅga.” (Rāmāyaṇa 1.1.39)
And the following was stated in the commentary to that verse:
Prior to meeting Śarabhaṅga, as a gift to the sage, Rāmacandra enthusiastically killed the rākṣasa Virādha [in accordance with the following injunction from the Smṛti:
agnihotraṁ gṛhaṁ kṣetraṁ garbhiṇīṁ vṛddha-bālakau
rikta-hastena nopeyād rājānaṁ devatāṁ guruṁ
“One should not approach the sacred fire, a house, a field, a pregnant woman, an old man, a child, a king, a deity or
a guru with empty hands.”]
Tu (literally “but”) in this verse indicates that the sages’ hospitality was distinct from that extended by Atri and others because offerings made to Him by those who have no need for anything apart from the Lord’s pleasure are a source of delight to Him:
patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ
yo me bhaktyā prayacchati
tad ahaṁ bhakty-upahṛtam
aśnāmi prayatātmanaḥ
“I accept a leaf, a flower, a fruit [or] water offered in devotion by one in pure consciousness who offers [them] unto Me with devotion.”2 (Bhagavad-gītā 9.26)
After completing His early morning duties such as bathing, [He took permission from the sages] at sunrise and entered the forest. [Eva indicates that] He had no desire to stay on in the āśrama of these sages.