The Two Rains of Devotion
Bala Kanda, Doha 19
Doha 19 · Movement 2 of 2
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The sky of devotion grows heavy with monsoon cloud. Across the waiting fields stand the servants of Ram, tender as young rice plants, rooted in the dark soil and lifted toward the rain. Without water they would pale beneath the heat. With it, every blade deepens into green.
Then the two syllables descend like the rains of Shravan and Bhadrapad. Ra falls upon the leaves. Ma sinks into the roots. The field drinks without argument, and life travels silently through each narrow stem.
Bhakti is not cultivated by strain alone. The Name comes as the season in which the hidden crop can grow.
Ra and Ma fall together, and the field of servants turns green.
Read the passage from the Manas
AI-created devotional illustration · Doha 19
Gentle monsoon rain nourishes a rice field, illustrating the source's comparison of devotion and its servants.
Source reference and artistic choices
Gita Press code81 undated · PDF pages 43 · printed pages 41. Reader passage: bala-kanda-doha-020. Printed numbering may differ.
Source facts
- Devotion to Raghupati compared with monsoon season, good servants with rice crop
- Two syllables of Rama's name compared with Shravan and Bhadon
Artistic choices
- Rice paddy and gentle rain select the seasonal comparison
- Field stages, hills, cloud bands and flower arrangement imagined
An imaginative interpretation, not a historical portrait or documentary evidence.
बरषा रितु रघुपति भगति तुलसी सालि सुदास।। राम नाम बर बरन जुग सावन भादव मास।।19।।
Devotion to Raghupati is the monsoon season, and Tulsidas declares that faithful servants are the rice crop it nourishes. The two radiant syllables of Ram's name are Shravan and Bhadrav, those blessed months whose rains bring the harvest to fullness.