The Cool Wind That Feeds the Flame
Bala Kanda, Chhand 5
Doha 86 · Movement 2 of 3
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The forest reaches a beauty beyond telling. Cool, fragrant, gentle wind moves between the blossoms, soothing the skin while secretly feeding the fire of Kama.
Lotuses open across lakes, and clusters of bees hum above them. Swans glide through the water. Cuckoos and parrots pour liquid calls into the air, while celestial dancers answer the season with movement and song.
Every element that usually brings serenity has joined the assault. Coolness becomes fuel, fragrance becomes an arrow, and beauty gathers around Shiva as a vast, exquisite pressure. Even silence carries the pulse of spring.
A cool breeze touches the blossoms, and the fire of longing climbs higher.
Read the passage from the Manas
AI-created devotional illustration · Chhand 5
Forest lotus-pond and birds from lines2-4; apsara singing/dancing outside chosen landscape crop.
Source reference and artistic choices
Gita Press code81 undated · PDF pages 103 · printed pages 101. Reader passage: bala-kanda-chhand-005. Printed numbering may differ.
Source facts
- The forest beauty could awaken Manobhava/Kama even in a lifeless mind, an emphatic literary comparison rather than a pictured dead person.
- The cool, fragrant and gently blowing breeze is called a true companion of Kama's fire, a metaphor rather than a literal forest fire.
- Many lotuses bloomed in pools and beautiful swarms of bees hummed.
- Swans, cuckoos and parrots made sweet calls, while apsaras sang and danced.
Artistic choices
- Bird and lotus counts, pond geometry, colors, bough and plant species are artistic choices; one representative of each bird class, not a complete census. Apsaras remain outside the selected landscape crop; metaphors are not literalized.
- Complete source facts retained in metadata; source and existing translations unchanged.
- One cream swan, one green parrot, one dark bird and several small bee-like shapes appear; exact bird species, beak colors, lotus/bee counts, curved leaves, pond layout and breeze direction are artist choices.
An imaginative interpretation, not a historical portrait or documentary evidence.
जागइ मनोभव मुएहुँ मन बन सुभगता न परै कही। सीतल सुगंध सुमंद मारुत मदन अनल सखा सही।। बिकसे सरन्हि बहु कंज गुंजत पुंज मंजुल मधुकरा। कलहंस पिक सुक सरस रव करि गान नाचहिं अपछरा।।
The beauty of that forest could awaken desire even in a lifeless heart; no words can describe its loveliness. The cool, fragrant, gently blowing breeze was truly the companion of Kama's fire.