Rama Mourns Lakshmana

The battlefield froze as Lakshmana fell. Rama dropped his bow - something he had never done - and ran to his brother's body. Cradling Lakshmana's head in his lap, he released a cry that silenced both armies.

"Lakshmana! Brother! Open your eyes! Look at me!"

But Lakshmana lay still, the terrible Shakti weapon still protruding from his chest, his breath seemingly stopped.

Rama's grief poured out in an anguished torrent. "I came to this forest to fulfill dharma, and you followed me. I did not ask you to come, but you insisted - because you could not bear to be separated from me. And now... now..."

Hanuman approached, but Rama did not see him. His entire world had collapsed to the body in his arms.

"What good is victory without you to share it? What good is rescuing Sita if I must tell her that her brother-in-law, who protected her for fourteen years, is gone? She loved you like her own brother. She will blame me. And she will be right to blame me."

Tears fell freely from eyes that had remained dry through a hundred other sorrows.

"I could find another wife. I know this sounds terrible, but it is true - a king can remarry. But a brother like you? Never again in a thousand lifetimes could I find a Lakshmana. You who slept at my feet in the forest though you were a prince. You who gave up your own happiness without a single complaint. You who loved me so completely that you never thought to save anything for yourself."

Vibhishana stepped forward. "Lord Rama, there may be hope. Hanuman—"

But Rama continued as if no one had spoken. "I cannot go on without you. I will not go on. Let Ravana keep Sita. Let him rule the three worlds. Without my Lakshmana, nothing matters. Nothing."

Hanuman knelt beside Rama. "Lord, please listen. There is a herb on Mount Dronachala called Sanjeevani. It can restore life even from the edge of death. If I leave now, I can return before dawn. Lakshmana still has faint breath - I can hear it. He lives, but barely. Let me go!"

Rama looked up, a desperate hope entering his eyes. "He lives? You are certain?"

"I am certain. But every moment matters. Let me go!"

"Then go, Hanuman. Go faster than you have ever traveled. Bring back my brother. And if the mountain will not yield the herb, bring back the mountain!"

Hanuman leaped into the sky, faster than thought.

Rama sat vigil through the night, holding Lakshmana's hand, whispering to him. "Stay with me, brother. Do not leave me alone in this world. You are not just my brother - you are my heart walking outside my body. Come back. For my sake, for Sita's sake, for the sake of all who love you - come back."

And when dawn came, when Hanuman arrived carrying an entire mountain peak, when the herb restored breath and color to Lakshmana's face, Rama's joy was as limitless as his grief had been deep. He embraced his returned brother with tears that had transformed from sorrow to relief.

"Never frighten me like that again," he whispered. "Whatever else we face, we face it together. Always together."