Each Moment Becomes an Age for Sita
Bala Kanda, Chaupai 255
Doha 258 · Movement 1 of 2
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Sita fills her eyes with Ram's beauty, then remembers her father's vow and falls again into anguish. The bow is harder than a thunderbolt. Ram's dark youthful body appears soft. How, she wonders, can a flower petal pierce a diamond?
She laments Janaka's harsh resolve and the silence of ministers who offer no counsel. The wisdom of the assembly seems to have deserted it, leaving her alone to bear the fate of Shiva's weapon in her heart.
Yet she also knows that those who project their own dullness upon Ram will be ashamed when his nature is revealed. Hope and fear pull against one another so fiercely that time loses its ordinary measure. Each brief instant, each fall of an eyelid, passes for Sita like an age of the world.
Between Ram and the bow lies only a short walk, but Sita crosses centuries while she waits.
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AI-created devotional illustration · Chaupai 255
All eight retained; select Sita inward appeal toward cropped bow section; no physical weight transfer/breaking.
Source reference and artistic choices
Gita Press code81 undated · PDF pages 251, 252 · printed pages 249, 250. Reader passage: bala-kanda-chaupai-255. Printed numbering may differ.
Source facts
- 1 Sita fills eyes with Rama beauty then remembers FATHER VOW and mind troubled; not merely remembering father.
- 2 Father harsh stubborn resolve ignores gain/loss.
- 3 Fear stops ministers advising father; silence itself improper in wise assembly, not advice improper.
- 4 Bow harder than thunderbolt vs dark tender-bodied youthful Rama; comparison.
- 5 How keep courage O Vidhi: sirisa flower particle/petal piercing diamond? Analogy, no diamond love.
- 6 Assembly judgment foolish; Sita ADDRESSES SHAMBHU BOW as remaining refuge: now I depend on you.
- 7 Sita asks BOW transfer its own inertness/heaviness to people and become light seeing Raghupati; not others becoming ashamed.
- 8 Great anguish in Sita heart; smallest moment/blink seems a HUNDRED AGES/YUGAS, not hundred years.
Artistic choices
- PASS one foreground Sita head two connected own arms two natural hands each grips own victory Uloop end; received headgarland distinct, WHITE earflower visible. OPEN eyes DOWNRIGHT toward cropped decorated goldbrown bow SECTION resting supports REDPLINTH RIGHT; worried closed lips inward appeal, no contact. Bow full shape/string/material/dimensions not certified. Soft unnamed background assembly no exact head/limb/seat identities/counts certificate; frame distance spatial placement artist choice.
- Canonical Sita artist model: warm wheatgold slender oval brown eyes black sidepart low braid rustcoral gold veil pearls bindi gold hoops bangles; white earflower on covered side may not be visible. Received headgarland distinct from ONE held victory Uloop each own hand one end. Exact ages pose gaze materials flower species/counts/placement garland wearing-time architecture are artist choices, not source biography. Other participants outside crop not denied; soft silhouettes no identity/head/limb/seat census.
- Source analogies not physical literal events. Bow old partial artist design only, no full shape/string/dimensions/weight/material certificate. No actual weight transfer, cosmic feat or completed bowbreaking.
An imaginative interpretation, not a historical portrait or documentary evidence.
नीकें निरखि नयन भरि सोभा। पितु पनु सुमिरि बहुरि मनु छोभा।। अहह तात दारुनि हठ ठानी। समुझत नहिं कछु लाभु न हानी।। सचिव सभय सिख देइ न कोई। बुध समाज बड़ अनुचित होई।। कहँ धनु कुलिसहु चाहि कठोरा। कहँ स्यामल मृदुगात किसोरा।। बिधि केहि भाँति धरौं उर धीरा। सिरस सुमन कन बेधिअ हीरा।। सकल सभा कै मति भै भोरी। अब मोहि संभुचाप गति तोरी।। निज जड़ता लोगन्ह पर डारी। होहि हरुअ रघुपतिहि निहारी।। अति परिताप सीय मन माही। लव निमेष जुग सब सय जाहीं।।
Sita fills her eyes with his beauty, drinking it in deeply. Then, remembering her father's vow, her mind grows troubled once more. Alas, father has taken such a harsh and stubborn resolve, giving no thought to what may be gained or lost. No minister dares to offer fearful counsel, for in this assembly of the wise, such a thing would be most improper. On one side stands the bow, harder than Indra's thunderbolt. On the other stands this dark-complexioned, tender-bodied youth. O Vidhi, how shall I hold courage in my heart? Can a diamond be pierced by the petal of a flower? The wisdom of the entire assembly has turned foolish. Now only I must bear the fate of Shambhu's bow. They have cast their own dullness upon others. Let them be put to shame when they behold Raghupati. Sita's heart burns with great anguish. Each moment, each blink of her eye, passes like an age, like a hundred years.