Under One Moon, Every Being
Bala Kanda, Sortha 7
Sortha 7 · Movement 2 of 2
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Planets, medicines, water, wind, and cloth pass through changing conjunctions. In one arrangement they heal or shelter; in another they harm. The wise look beyond the isolated thing and see the company, timing, and use that shape its power.
Above them, the moon crosses bright and dark fortnights. Light and shadow belong to both, yet the world gives one fame and the other blame because the moon appears to grow in one and diminish in the other. Names divide what moves within a single celestial rhythm.
Tulsidas then widens his bow until nothing remains outside it. Every inert and conscious life is pervaded by Ram. Gods, demons, human beings, nagas, birds, spirits, ancestors, gandharvas, kinnaras, and night wanderers stand beneath the same moon of awareness. The poet joins both hands before all of them and asks for grace.
Across the bright half and the dark, his folded hands remain raised to the whole creation.
Read the passage from the Manas
AI-created devotional illustration · Sortha 7
Joined hands amid leaf, bird, water and paired lunar motifs symbolize respectful salutation to all beings.
Source reference and artistic choices
Gita Press code81 undated · PDF pages 29, 30 · printed pages 27, 28. Reader passage: bala-kanda-doha-008. Printed numbering may differ.
Source facts
- Associations can change the effects of planets, medicine, water, wind and cloth
- Lunar fortnights compared in light/dark and names/reputation
- All animate and inanimate beings revered as Rama-pervaded; all enumerated classes of beings respectfully saluted
Artistic choices
- Two joined hands, leaf, bird and wave form a symbolic universal salutation; no actual episode
- Two identical mirrored crescent motifs evoke source lunar comparison without depicting a literal sky
An imaginative interpretation, not a historical portrait or documentary evidence.
ग्रह भेषज जल पवन पट पाइ कुजोग सुजोग। होहि कुबस्तु सुबस्तु जग लखहिं सुलच्छन लोग।।7(क)।। सम प्रकास तम पाख दुहुँ नाम भेद बिधि कीन्ह। ससि सोषक पोषक समुझि जग जस अपजस दीन्ह।।7(ख)।। जड़ चेतन जग जीव जत सकल राममय जानि। बंदउँ सब के पद कमल सदा जोरि जुग पानि।।7(ग)।। देव दनुज नर नाग खग प्रेत पितर गंधर्ब। बंदउँ किंनर रजनिचर कृपा करहु अब सर्ब।।7(घ)।।
Planets, medicines, water, wind, and cloth all become harmful or helpful depending on the company they keep. The wise perceive this truth clearly. Both fortnights, the bright and the dark, hold equal measures of light and shadow, yet Vidhi (the Creator) gave them different names. The moon nourishes in one and diminishes in the other; so the world bestows yash (fame) upon the bright fortnight and apyash (infamy) upon the dark.