Ravana Hunts Every Flame of Austerity
Bala Kanda, Chhand 18
Doha 183 · Movement 2 of 3
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News reaches Ravana whenever japa begins, a yogi gathers the mind, vairagya takes root, tapasya deepens, or a yajna fire is kindled anywhere in the worlds.
The ten headed king does not leave such work to distant armies. He rushes there himself, following sacred discipline as a hunter follows a trail. Chant, posture, offering, and silence become signs by which violence finds its victims.
In fury he seizes those who practise and destroys the gathering. The empire recognizes inward freedom as its enemy, for one who remembers the Lord cannot belong completely to fear. Ravana therefore moves from altar to cave, trying to extinguish the unseen source of resistance.
Where one mantra rises, Ravana follows its sound with destruction.
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AI-created devotional illustration · Chhand 18
Last line: a representative unnamed Veda/Purana reciter banished under Ravana's terror; all four lines retained.
Source reference and artistic choices
Gita Press code81 undated · PDF pages 186 · printed pages 184. Reader passage: bala-kanda-chhand-018. Printed numbering may differ.
Source facts
- Dasasisa Ravana himself rushes on hearing japa, yoga, renunciation, austerity and sacrifice offerings, does not let them remain and seizes/destroys them.
- The world has corrupt conduct and dharma is not heard.
- He terrorizes in many ways and banishes those who recite Vedas and Puranas.
- No named single reciter, Ravana battle or claim to destroy every speaker about God occurs in these lines.
Artistic choices
- One representative adult reciter, his appearance, manuscript symbol, clothes, sanctuary gateway and path are imagined; the source gives no exact individual census or physical manuscript.
- Complete source facts retained in metadata; source and existing translations unchanged.
- Actual landscape includes distant mountains, trees and small architecture; all illustrative scenery. Manuscript bundle physical form and ordinary man's appearance are imagined.
An imaginative interpretation, not a historical portrait or documentary evidence.
जप जोग बिरागा तप मख भागा श्रवन सुनइ दससीसा। आपुनु उठि धावइ रहै न पावइ धरि सब घालइ खीसा।। अस भ्रष्ट अचारा भा संसारा धर्म सुनिअ नहि काना। तेहि बहुबिधि त्रासइ देस निकासइ जो कह बेद पुराना।।
Whenever the ten-headed one heard that japa, yoga, vairaagya, tapas, or yagna was being performed anywhere, he would rush there himself. He would find them, seize them all, and destroy them in his fury.