इहैव सह वैदेह्या मुहूर्तं तिष्ठ लक्ष्मण।।
यावज्जानाम्यहं व्यक्तं क एष द्युतिमान्रथे॥
ihaiva saha vaidehyā muhūrtaṁ tiṣṭha lakṣmaṇa
yāvad jānāmy ahaṁ vyaktaṁ ka eṣa dyutimān rathe
iha eva = here; saha = with; vaidehyā = Vaidehī; muhūrtam = for a moment; tiṣṭha = wait; lakṣmaṇa = Lakṣmaṇa; yāvat = until; jānāmi = find out; aham = I; vyaktam = directly; kaḥ = who [is]; eṣaḥ = this; dyutimān = splendorous person; rathe = on the chariot.
Lakṣmaṇa, wait for a moment here with Vaidehī until I directly find out who this splendorous person on the chariot [is].1
1 Muhūrtam has been translated here as “for a moment.” Technically, a muhūrta can also refer to a duration of about 45 minutes. But that would be inapplicable here—it wouldn’t take Lord Rāmacandra that long, even in His pastime as a human being, to find out the identity of the splendorous person talking to the sage. Notice that in text 17, Śrī Rāma has immediately recognized that the associates of that splendorous person are devas.
Rathe (“on the chariot”) indicates that [Indra] was standing on his chariot after he noticed Rāma.
[Even after receiving this instruction,] when Lakṣmaṇa followed Rāma out of His inability to tolerate separation from Rāma, Rāma again ordered Lakṣmaṇa [to stay there] and walked [towards Śarabhaṅga’s āśrama]. This is stated in the next verse.