इह त्वं भव सन्नद्धो यन्त्रितो रक्ष मैथिलीम्।
अस्यामायत्तमस्माकं यत्कृत्यं रघुनन्दन॥
iha tvaṁ bhava sannaddho yantrito rakṣa maithilīm
asyām āyattam asmākaṁ yat kṛtyaṁ raghu-nandana
iha = here; tvam bhava sannaddhaḥ = get ready; yantritaḥ = without delay; rakṣa = take care; maithilīm = of Maithilī; asyām = on her; āyattam = depends; asmākam = We; yat = everything that; kṛtyam = need to accomplish; raghu-nandana = O beloved child of the Raghus.
Get ready without delay! Take care of Maithilī here. O beloved child of the Raghus, everything that We need to accomplish depends on her.
1 We will come across a detailed description of this in the Seventh Canto of the Rāmāyaṇa. Vedavatī had resolved to bring about the death of Rāvaṇa and so on. The current verse of Rāmāyaṇa is a clear indication of Lord Rāma’s conscious decision to accomplish His mission, which was to destroy Rāvaṇa.
“Get ready” means “Get ready with Your bow, armor and so on.” Everything that Lord Rāma wanted to do was primarily for Sītā-devī’s protection [because] she was meant to bring about Rāvaṇa’s death and so on. This is an indication that she had resolved in this manner in her previous life as Vedavatī.1