“Your ways, your noble disposition and your greatness are known throughout the world and have been glorified in the Vedas and other sacred books. Even the cruel, the perverse, the vile, the evil-minded and the censured, nay, the low-minded, the impudent, the godless and the unscrupulous are known to have been accepted by you as your own as soon as you heard that they had approached you for shelter and if they merely bowed to you only once. You have never taken their faults to heart even if you saw them with your own eyes; while you have proclaimed their virtues in the assembly of holy men if you but heard of them˚. Where is the master, so kind to his servant, who would provide him with all his necessaries himself and, far from reckoning even in a dream what he has done for his servant would feel troubled at heart over any embarrassment caused to 620 * ÝR” RMACARITAMNASA* him? He is my lord (yourself) and no other; with uplifted arms I declare this on oath. A beast would dance and a parrot may attain proficiency in repeating what it is taught; but the proficiency of the bird and the rhythmic movements of the beast depend on the teacher and the dancing-master.” (1—4)