Shabari

1. 3.75. Book 3, Canto 75: Savarí

   3.75.1Following the advice of Kabandha, a demon Rama had freed, the princes travel east through the forest toward Lake Pampa. On the way, trees full of honey-sweet fruit delight them.
2. 3.75.2Tired, the brothers rest for the night on a forested mountain. At dawn they reach the west side of Lake Pampa and see the lovely, quiet home of Shabari, a holy woman living in the forest.
3. 3.75.3The princes reach Shabari's holy grove, full of beautiful trees. The old, devoted woman comes to meet them with joined hands, bows low, and touches their feet in welcome.
4. 3.75.4Shabari gives them water to drink and to wash their feet, as a good host should. Rama then speaks to this pure woman who never broke a rule of right living.
5. 3.75.5Rama kindly asks Shabari if she is at peace, if her spiritual practice is growing, and if she has conquered anger while living on little food. He asks if she keeps her vows, has peace of mind, and has been rewarded for serving her teachers.
6. 3.75.6Shabari, pure and honored by all the sages, stands beside Rama and gently answers. She says that meeting him today is the full reward of all her years of spiritual effort.
7. 3.75.7Shabari says that today her life has found its purpose and her service to the sages was not wasted. By honoring Rama, whom she sees as divine, she has earned heaven.
8. 3.75.8Shabari tells Rama that his kind look makes her soul pure and that through his grace she will find bliss. She says her teachers, the sages, went up to heaven in shining chariots back when Rama was living at Chitrakuta mountain.
9. 3.75.9Shabari says that as her teachers rose to heaven, they told her that Rama and Lakshmana would soon visit her grove. They told her to honor them well as guests.
10. 3.75.10Shabari says the sages promised that after seeing Rama she would go to heavenly worlds that never end. She tells Rama she has gathered a big store of all kinds of forest fruit for him from around Lake Pampa.
11. 3.75.11After Shabari, an old forest devotee, offers Rama her stored fruits, Rama answers her kindly. He says Danu, a spirit he met earlier, told him about the great power of her teachers, and he would like to see their holy places for himself.
12. 3.75.12Shabari stands up and leads Rama and his brother Lakshmana through the forest around her home. She shows them the grove of Matanga, her teacher, which is famous everywhere.
13. 3.75.13Shabari describes the dark, thick forest full of deer and happy birds. She shows them the altar where her old teachers, with shaking hands, offered flowers every day while she served them.
14. 3.75.14Shabari says the holy power the sages earned through their self-discipline still makes their altar glow with light. She points to seven lakes that the sages, too weak from age and fasting to walk to them, pulled close by the power of their minds.
15. 3.75.15Shabari shows Rama the bark clothes the sages hung on trees after bathing, which are still wet after many days. The flowers they used in worship have also stayed fresh and never faded, because of the sages' power.
16. 3.75.16Having shown Rama everything, Shabari asks his permission to leave her body. She wants to go and live with the great sages she served so faithfully in this forest.
17. 3.75.17Rama and Lakshmana are amazed and filled with joy at Shabari's request, and they praise her. Rama tells her, "Go, lady, wherever you wish, for you have honored me well."
18. 3.75.19Through deep meditation, Shabari reached the holy heavenly world where pure-hearted sages live in joy that never ends.