Chapter XII: Section II: Brahmá’s Behest

9. Brahmá said:—“Go ask diligently of thy preceptor Válmíki, to complete the faultless Rámáyana that he has undertaken (to write).

10. “By the hearing of which men will get over their manifold errors, in the same manner as they pass over the sea by the bridge built over it by the great Ráma, who was fraught with all good qualities.”

11. Válmíki said:—Saying this to Bharadwája, the supreme maker of all beings (Brahmá) accompanied him to my hermitage.

12. In right earnest was the god welcomed by me with the _argha_ and offerings of water and the like, when the lord of truth spoke to me for the good of all creatures.

13. Brahmá spake to me saying:—“Do not Oh sage! give up your undertaking until its final completion. No pains ought to be spared to make the history of Ráma as faultless as it ought to be.

14. “By this work of yours men will forthwith pass over this hazardous world, in the same manner as one crosses the sea in a vessel.”

15. Again said the increate Brahmá to me:—“I come to tell this very thing to you, that you complete the work for the benefit of mankind.”

16. Then Oh king, the God disappeared from my sacred hermitage in a moment, just as the wave subsides in the water no sooner it has heaved itself.

17. I was struck with wonder at the disappearance of that (deity), and then being composed in my mind, I inquired of Bharadwája, saying:—

18. Tell me, Bharadwája, what Brahmá spoke (to me) in the hermitage; to which he answered saying:—

19. “The God commanded you to complete the Rámáyana for the good of men, and as a means of their crossing over the gulf of the world.”