The Lord Who Appears to Grieve
Bala Kanda, Chaupai 49
Doha 49 · Movement 1 of 2
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Shiva remembers the hidden design. Ravana had asked that death come through a human hand, and Ram has descended to make Brahma's word true. While Shiva wrestles with the longing for darshan, the ten headed king moves through another part of the forest with Maricha. The golden deception takes form, Sita is carried away, and Ravana fails to recognize the power whose Leela he has entered.
Ram returns after killing the false deer. The empty hermitage meets him like a wound. Tears fill his eyes, and he and Lakshman search through the wilderness with the desperation of men overwhelmed by separation. Trees, paths, birds, and riverbanks receive their cries.
The One beyond all union and separation has made the anguish of separation fully visible. Wisdom does not deny the tears. It beholds the infinite choosing to inhabit human love so completely that even grief becomes sacred.
The unborn Lord moves between the trees, calling for Sita with tears in his eyes.
Read the passage from the Manas
AI-created devotional illustration · Chaupai 49
Rama and Lakshmana stand sorrowfully beside the empty forest hermitage after Sita has been taken.
Source reference and artistic choices
Gita Press code81 undated · PDF pages 72, 73 · printed pages 70, 71. Reader passage: bala-kanda-chaupai-049. Printed numbering may differ.
Source facts
- Ravana deceitfully takes Vaidehi; Rama slays the deer and returns with his brother
- Seeing the hermitage, Rama's eyes fill with tears; the brothers wander distressed by separation
Artistic choices
- Select return to the empty hermitage, without depicting abduction or killing
- Rama's blue-grey appearance follows approved imaginative art, dressed for exile rather than royal crowned form; Lakshmana's tan appearance is imaginative
- Poses, bows, quivers, simple tunics/drapes, hut architecture, mats, flowers, river and hills added
An imaginative interpretation, not a historical portrait or documentary evidence.
रावन मरन मनुज कर जाचा। प्रभु बिधि बचनु कीन्ह चह साचा।। जौं नहिं जाउँ रहइ पछितावा। करत बिचारु न बनत बनावा।। एहि बिधि भए सोचबस ईसा। तेहि समय जाइ दससीसा।। लीन्ह नीच मारीचहि संगा। भयउ तुरत सोइ कपट कुरंगा।। करि छलु मूढ़ हरी बैदेही। प्रभु प्रभाउ तस बिदित न तेही।। मृग बधि बन्धु सहित हरि आए। आश्रमु देखि नयन जल छाए।। बिरह बिकल नर इव रघुराई। खोजत बिपिन फिरत दोउ भाई।। कबहूँ जोग बियोग न जाकें। देखा प्रगट बिरह दुख ताकें।।
Ravana had asked for death at the hands of a human. The Lord wished to make Brahma's word come true. "If I do not go, regret will remain. Yet as I deliberate, no plan seems to work."