Rivers Rush Toward the Sea
Bala Kanda, Chaupai 85
Sortha 85 · Movement 1 of 3
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Madana's longing rises in every heart. Tree branches bend toward young creepers. Rivers swell and race toward the ocean, while ponds overflow into one another as though even water has forgotten separation.
If the unmoving world behaves so, the conscious world cannot be described. Animals and birds of sky, water, and land fall under desire without regard for proper season. Cuckoos call through day and night while every realm grows blind and restless.
Gods, asuras, humans, kinnaras, nagas, spirits, ghosts, and night wandering beings yield. Even accomplished sages, renunciants, great munis, and yogis lose composure. The landscape has become the visible body of a longing no creature can contain.
Every river surges seaward, and every heart believes the flood to be its own.
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AI-created devotional illustration · Chaupai 85
Tree branches incline toward vines
Source reference and artistic choices
Gita Press code81 undated · PDF pages 101, 102 · printed pages 99, 100. Reader passage: bala-kanda-chaupai-085. Printed numbering may differ.
Source facts
- The poet describes desire in all hearts and tree branches inclining toward vines
Artistic choices
- Only botanical inclination selected, no entire animals/beings/yogis montage or literal universal agency claim
- Imagined sturdy tree with arcing branch toward separate flowering vine on stone support, exact plant species/forms/colours/natural gap, stream/forest floor/hills/sky added; no authenticated geography, anthropomorphic plant faces or breakage
An imaginative interpretation, not a historical portrait or documentary evidence.
सब के हृदयँ मदन अभिलाषा। लता निहारि नवहिं तरु साखा।। नदीं उमगि अंबुधि कहुँ धाई। संगम करहिं तलाव तलाई।। जहँ असि दसा जड़न्ह कै बरनी। को कहि सकइ सचेतन करनी।। पसु पच्छी नभ जल थलचारी। भए कामबस समय बिसारी।। मदन अंध ब्याकुल सब लोका। निसि दिनु नहिं अवलोकहिं कोका।। देव दनुज नर किंनर ब्याला। प्रेत पिसाच भूत बेताला।। इन्ह कै दसा न कहेउँ बखानी। सदा काम के चेरे जानी।। सिद्ध बिरक्त महामुनि जोगी। तेपि कामबस भए बियोगी।।
In every heart arose the longing of Madana, the god of love. Tree branches bent low, gazing at the creepers below. Rivers swelled with passion and rushed toward the ocean. Ponds and pools mingled freely with one another.