तत्र तापसमासीनं मलपङ्कजटाधरम्।
रामः सुतीक्ष्णं विधिवत्तपोवृद्धमभाषत॥
tatra tāpasam āsīnaṁ mala-paṅka-jaṭādharam
rāmaḥ sutīkṣṇaṁ vidhivat tapo-vṛddham abhāṣata
tatra = there; tāpasam = the ascetic; āsīnam = was seated; mala-paṅka-jaṭādharam = his matted hair was dirty and dusty; rāmaḥ = Rāma; sutīkṣṇam = Sutīkṣṇa; vidhivat = duly; tapaḥ-vṛddham = enhanced by austerities; abhāṣata = spoke [the following].
Enhanced by austerities, the ascetic Sutīkṣṇa was seated there. His matted hair was dirty and dusty. Rāma duly spoke [the following].
1 It appears that in varṇāśrama-dharma, inferiors are not meant to speak to superiors unless they are permitted by the superiors or the circumstance so demands. Here the circumstance warranted that Rāmacandra, who played the role of a kṣatriya, speak to the ascetic sage Sutīkṣṇa absorbed in meditation.
The ascetic’s hair had become dirty and dusty because of constant and unshaken austerities and meditation.
Rāma spoke to the ascetic because the sage’s eyes were closed [due to meditation] and therefore he would not [be able to] see Rāma offering him obeisances [on the ground].1
GLOSS. [The glossator reads tāpasam āsīnam as a single word tāpa-samāsīnam and indicates that the sage Sutīkṣṇa] was firmly situated in the austerity of the five fires and so on.
NOTE. The austerity of the five fires is one of the austerities to be practiced by the vānaprastha. It mentioned by Lord Kṛṣṇa in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.18.4:
grīṣme tapyeta pañcāgnīn varṣāsv āsāra-ṣāḍ jale
ākaṇtha-magnaḥ śiśira evaṁ vṛttas tapaś caret
“Thus engaged as a vānaprastha, one should execute penance during the hottest summer days by subjecting oneself to burning fires on four sides and the blazing sun overhead; during the rainy season one should remain outside, subjecting oneself to torrents of rain; and in the freezing winter one should remain submerged in water up to one’s neck.”