URMILA

Urmila:
The chants still echo, the garlands bloom,
The Sindoor fresh, not touched by gloom.
Just yesterday, I was your bride—
With stars in eyes and love inside.

Today you stand with bow in hand,
The forest calls, the royal command.
You speak of Vanvas, of sacred trail...
But my heart breaks, my limbs grow frail.

Lakshmana:

My Urmila, my light, my grace,
I see the storm upon your face.
But Prabhu Shri Ram, my guiding flame,
Has been wronged, stripped of His name.

He walks the woods, with Devi Sita near,
And I must guard them, shed all fear.
How could I rest in golden walls,
While He bears pain and forest calls?

I choose this path with heart and soul,
To walk with Him—that is my goal.
No force commands what love decrees—
I go, because His sorrow grieves.

Urmila:
And what of me? This wedded bond?
Of dreams we dreamt and life beyond?
Is love so frail, so soon denied?
Can I not walk right by your side?

Let me serve Maa Sita, too,
Let me share this exile with you.
What joy remains in palace walls,
When in your absence, silence falls?

Lakshmana:
Your tears, beloved, cut me deep,
But there’s a vow I swore to keep.
To shield Shri Ram, through day and night,
To walk as shadow, without respite.

And if your eyes should fall on pain,
Or if fatigue becomes your chain—
I fear my heart will turn its gaze,
And falter in its sacred ways.

Urmila:
Then bid me sleep and turn away,
And I shall wait each dying day.
But know this truth I hold inside—
No throne or gold can match my pride.

To walk behind you was my dream,
But fate has torn that living seam.
Still, if your burden I can share,
Then I shall do so, here or there.

Lakshmana:
Then hear, my love, one final plea—
The goddess sleep has come to me.
She says that rest I must not take,
For fourteen years, I must not break.

But nature will not let this stand,
Unless another lends her hand.
She asked if there was one so true…
And all I thought, my love, was you.

Urmila:
Then take my dreams, my rest, my time—
I’ll close my eyes, and make it mine.
Let me sleep while you stay wake,
So none may fall for dharma's sake.

Let every breath I do not take,
Be strength for you when shadows quake.
My love is not in forests wide—
It lives in you, it walks beside.

Lakshmana:
Then sleep, my queen, while time shall test,
And carry all I can’t digest.
Your sacrifice will light my way,
Through dusky nights and battles gray.

You are not absent, though you stay,
You are the dawn in every day.
No words may hold what you have done—
But through your sleep, the war is won.

Urmila:
Go then, my Lakshman, duty calls,
While silence fills these palace halls.
And when the years have run their flight,
Return to me in morning light.

And I shall wake, with love still whole—
No time can break a tethered soul.
For though the world forgets my part,
I carry you within my heart.

----------------------------

She walked no path through jungle wild,
Yet bore the weight, so meek, so mild.
While others fought with bow and flame,
She conquered time—unknown to fame.

For Lakshmana’s love, she chose to sleep,
A vow in silence, fierce and deep.
And for Shri Ram and Devi Sita’s grace,
She held her pain with folded face.

The world may sing of war and kings,

Of golden thrones and mighty wings—

But in her stillness, pure and true,

A greater strength the cosmos knew.