The Making of Aparna
Bala Kanda, Chaupai 74
Doha 74 · Movement 1 of 2
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Uma enters the forest holding the feet of her life's Lord within her heart. Her body is exceedingly tender, unsuited to severe austerity, yet remembrance of Shiva makes every former comfort easy to abandon. Love grows new each day until awareness of the body recedes behind the vow.
For a thousand years she lives on roots and fruit. A hundred years pass with only leaves and herbs. Then come water, air, and complete fasts. For three thousand years she eats dry bel leaves fallen upon the earth, taking nothing green from the tree.
At last she renounces even the fallen leaf and receives the name Aparna, the one who takes no leaf. Her form grows thin beneath the immeasurable tapas. Then a deep voice crosses the sky, descending toward the solitary ascetic whose whole being has become one act of love.
The final dry leaf remains upon the ground, and the forest begins to call her Aparna.
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AI-created devotional illustration · Chaupai 74
Uma sits in quiet forest meditation, inwardly remembering her beloved husband's feet.
Source reference and artistic choices
Gita Press code81 undated · PDF pages 92, 93 · printed pages 90, 91. Reader passage: bala-kanda-chaupai-074. Printed numbering may differ.
Source facts
- Uma goes into forest for tapas, inwardly holding her beloved husband's feet in her heart
- Her love for those feet grows daily and her mind becomes absorbed in tapas
Artistic choices
- Initial forest meditation selected; later penance methods, time spans and physical decline outside chosen scene
- Approved imaginative adult Uma appearance reused; seated meditation posture with resting hands, mat, flowering tree, stream, mountains, natural healthy appearance, precise age/clothing/face added; remembrance inward without literal Shiva apparition
An imaginative interpretation, not a historical portrait or documentary evidence.
उर धरि उमा प्रानपति चरना। जाइ बिपिन लागीं तपु करना।। अति सुकुमार न तनु तप जोगू। पति पद सुमिरि तजेउ सबु भोगू।। नित नव चरन उपज अनुरागा। बिसरी देह तपहिं मनु लागा।। संबत सहस मूल फल खाए। सागु खाइ सत बरष गवाँए।। कछु दिन भोजनु बारि बतासा। किए कठिन कछु दिन उपबासा।। बेल पाती महि परइ सुखाई। तीनि सहस संबत सोई खाई।। पुनि परिहरे सुखानेउ परना। उमहि नाम तब भयउ अपरना।। देखि उमहि तप खीन सरीरा। ब्रह्मगिरा भै गगन गभीरा।।
Holding the feet of her Pranapati in her heart, Uma went into the forest and began her tapasya. Her body was surpassingly tender, not at all suited for austerities. Yet, remembering her Lord's feet, she renounced every comfort.