The Road Ram Walked, the Distance the Name Crossed
Bala Kanda, Chaupai 24
Doha 24 · Movement 1 of 2
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Ram takes a human body and walks the long earth for his devotees. Dust gathers upon his feet. Forest nights close around him. Hardship enters the Leela by choice. Yet wherever the Name is loved, joy arises without waiting for the body to cross the intervening miles. The Lord undertakes the road. His Name reaches the heart in an instant.
Ahalya awakens beneath Ram's touch, restored from stone to living grace. Beyond that single clearing, the Name moves through multitudes, straightening lives bent by error. Tataka falls before Ram's arrow and her army is scattered. Within the unseen battlefield, the Name rises like the sun and drives the night of sin and consuming desire from countless minds.
The bow of Shiva breaks in Janaka's hall. The deeper bow of worldly fear breaks wherever the Name is held. Dandaka grows beautiful beneath Ram's steps, while innumerable hearts become sacred forests through remembrance. Ram destroys companies of demons. The Name enters the dark age and destroys its hosts of sin without sword, dust, or cry.
One pair of feet crosses the forest, while the Name crosses every distance at once.
Read the passage from the Manas
AI-created devotional illustration · Chaupai 24
Dawn light reaches a lotus pond, evoking the source's comparison of the Name dispelling darkness.
Source reference and artistic choices
Gita Press code81 undated · PDF pages 47, 48 · printed pages 45, 46. Reader passage: bala-kanda-chaupai-024. Printed numbering may differ.
Source facts
- Group compares Rama's deeds for devotees with benefits of the Name
- Name dispelling faults, sorrow and poor hopes compared to sun destroying night
- Other comparisons mention ascetic's wife, Suketu's daughter, Shiva's bow, Dandaka and night-wanderers
Artistic choices
- Dawn landscape selects the explicit sun/night comparison; no visible purification or named episode
- Sun, hills, pond, lotus, flowering branch, light and distant temple imagined
An imaginative interpretation, not a historical portrait or documentary evidence.
राम भगत हित नर तनु धारी। सहि संकट किए साधु सुखारी।। नामु सप्रेम जपत अनयासा। भगत होहिं मुद मंगल बासा।। राम एक तापस तिय तारी। नाम कोटि खल कुमति सुधारी।। रिषि हित राम सुकेतुसुता की। सहित सेन सुत कीन्ह बिबाकी।। सहित दोष दुख दास दुरासा। दलइ नामु जिमि रबि निसि नासा।। भंजेउ राम आपु भव चापू। भव भय भंजन नाम प्रतापू।। दंडक बनु प्रभु कीन्ह सुहावन। जन मन अमित नाम किए पावन।।। निसिचर निकर दले रघुनंदन। नामु सकल कलि कलुष निकंदन।।
Ram took a human body for the sake of His devotees, enduring hardships to bring joy to the saints. But the Name, chanted with love and without effort, makes devotees into abodes of joy and auspiciousness.