“I removed the arrow and held him as he breathed his last. The regret and grief in my heart was terrible. But the deed was done,” said Dasharatha, “I took the water to them. Just the sight of those two blind and helpless people shook my soul! I fell at their feet and sought their forgiveness, telling them the terrible deed I had committed. They wept and wept and begged me to take them to their son. I took them to the bank and performed their son’s last rites. They died on the funeral pyre of their son and as they died, they cursed me, ‘O king, you too shall die grieving at the separation from your son like us!’ Today I am facing the sorrow of separation from my beloved Rama as a result of my past misdeed! I don’t think I have long to live, Kaushalya,” said Dasharatha.
Dasharatha’s Regret
