Dasaratha continued with the narration of his harrowing tale, "By slaying an ascetic, I committed a crime that no man should ever have. Alone, shattered by a disaster, beyond description and afraid of its consequences, I stood stunned. Finally taking some water I wended my way to the cottage where I beheld an old couple, who were blind. With none to help them they were like birds, whose wings had been severed. They sat talking of their son not knowing he would no more fetch them water, for a fault of mine. My grief doubled at the thought, hearing my footsteps, the old father said, "Why the delay my son? Your mother waits for you impatiently. Give us the water. To us who are blind you are our eyes and our very life. We have no other refuge other than you. Speak my child, why are you silent?" As I looked at him my heart filled with dread, my voice felt strangled and my words came garbled, but I managed to say, "I am a Kshatriya, Dasaratha is my name. I am not your son but the cause of a great calamity. Noble sire, as I stood on the banks of the Sarayu I shot an arrow at what I thought was an elephant. To my horror, I soon found out, that my arrow had not struck an elephant but had fatally wounded your son."

"Grieving for you, who would no longer have any refuge, he breathed his last on the shores of the holy Sarayu, committing me to tend to your needs. My sin though unpardonable was not intentional; I implore you to forgive me." Devastated at the news of his son's death, the sage's eyes streamed with tears. Sighing he said, "In your ignorance you have transgressed. If you had not confessed to it, you would not be alive; your head would have shattered into a thousand pieces. The race of the Ikshvakus, will also now continue, which would otherwise have been destroyed." Crying piteously for a son, who was their every thing they wailed, saying, "Who will now protect us, feed us and look after us as honored guests? Without your shelter we too will soon follow you to that abode of death. There I will request Yama to give you back to us and the righteous lord, will surely grant my wish."

The old couple tearfully performed the funeral rites of their son, who by merit of his penance and service to his parents immediately ascended the heavens. He then came back to console his parents, assuring them that they would soon be with him and the sage said, "Slay me now, with a single arrow you snuffed out my son's life. What can surpass that pain? May the grief that now consumes me befall you too, causing your death, as it now causes mine! Since you sinned unwittingly, instead of reducing you to ashes here and now, I curse you to die like me, grieving for a son."

Musing over those past events Dasaratha said, "Sorrowing for my son, I too will die now and the curse of the sage will come to pass. Banishing Rama was an injustice and does not befit me. No greater grief can befall me than that of not seeing him. It was my destiny to banish Rama as dictated by Kaikeyi. "If only Rama can touch me once, or appear before me, I may still live. Once a person goes to the land of the dead, they can no longer see any one. Kausalya! I cannot see you, my faculties are deserting me, and the messengers of death hurry me. My life flickers as a flame in a lamp whose oil is soon to be over, my body feels like the banks of a river, being washed away, by the force of its waters." As death approached and drove away his hopes of ever seeing Rama, a cry of torment escaped Dasaratha who called out "O Rama! Where are you my son and my protector?Kausalya! Sumitra! Kaikeyi you are my enemy, the destroyer of my race!" Remorseful and above all anguished beyond endurance at Rama's separation, the noble Ikshvaku Dasaratha, fated to die away fromRama, gave up the last breath of life, a little after midnight.