Vibhishana and the Queens Mourn Ravana

Seeing his elder brother fallen on the earth, Vibhishana in his anguish reaches for a dagger to end his own life, then faints. Each time he recovers he again prepares to die, until Rama steps down from his chariot, takes his hand, holds him to his heart and steadies him with patience and comfort.

Casting his weapons and armour on the ground, Vibhishana weeps: he had given Ravana words for his own good, which Ravana never heeded. He calls him lord of the Vidyadharas and lord of Lanka, asks why one who enjoyed every pleasure now lies on the bare earth, and begs him to rise and teach his younger brother, who is drowning in an ocean of sorrow.

When the news reaches the inner palace, Mandodari, Rambha, Chandramandala, Mahadevi, Rupini, Rukmini, Shila, Ratnamala, Mrigavati, Shrimala, Manavi, Lakshmi, Anangasundari, Vasundhara, Padma, Sukhadevi, Kanti, Priti, Manovega, Manovati and the rest of Ravana's eighteen thousand queens stumble onto the battlefield with their households. Some faint, some cling to his limbs, some beat their breasts, and some hold his hands and face in their laps.

The queens cry out that he was like Indra, king of the kings of Bharata, and ask what wrong they have done that he will not speak. They remember that Indrajit and Meghanada, who came down from heaven and enjoyed heavenly pleasures in his house, now lie in bonds together with Kumbhakarna, and beg him to rise, make friends with Rama and free his son and brother.

Rama, Lakshmana, Bhamandala, Sugriva and the other kings embrace Vibhishana with tears. Rama tells him that weeping cannot bring back the dead: his brother was wise, devoted to the welfare of beings, skilled in statecraft and master of every science and weapon, yet the great power of moha (delusion) brought him to sorrow and death, for when ruin approaches the mind turns to ignorance.

Bhamandala adds that Ravana died a hero's death in battle and lost nothing, since warriors who fall bravely keep their names. He then tells of King Aridamana of Akshayapura, who came home unannounced and found his queen adorned for him. She explained that the sage Kirtidhara, who had manahparyaya jnana (knowledge of others' minds), had come for alms and foretold his sudden return.

Jealous, Aridamana went to test the sage, who told him the question in his mind and its answer: on the seventh day he would die by a lightning strike and be reborn as a worm in filth. The king told his son Pritikara to kill that worm, but when the time came the worm, terrified of death, kept burrowing back into the filth. The sage explained that every being clings to whatever birth it gains and each reaps his own karma, and Pritikara, seeing the nature of the world, became a muni.

Hearing the story of Pritikara, the sun of Vibhishana's mind comes out from behind the clouds of grief. The chapter teaches that wailing and grief bind asata vedaniya karma (karma that brings pain), that birth, death, parting from the loved and meeting the unloved last as long as samsara lasts, and that equanimity in joy and sorrow is the true ornament of human life.