Four Lotuses of Childhood
Bala Kanda, Doha 40
Doha 40 · Movement 2 of 2
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Across the Manas open four abundant lotuses, each alive with the childhood play of one royal brother. Ram, Lakshman, Bharat, and Shatrughna rise in distinct colours from the same deep water. Their small hands, early steps, laughter, and mutual nearness make the whole lake bloom.
Dasharatha, the queens, and the royal household gather among them as bees and water birds. They move from one blossom to another, drawn by a fragrance earned through immeasurable merit. Palace rank dissolves into the simple wonder of beholding the children.
The lake holds the princes lightly, and Ayodhya circles their play in delight.
Four childhoods open upon the water, and the royal house becomes a humming garden.
Read the passage from the Manas
AI-created devotional illustration · Doha 40
Four differently coloured lotus blossoms evoke the childhood stories of the four brothers.
Source reference and artistic choices
Gita Press code81 undated · PDF pages 65 · printed pages 63. Reader passage: bala-kanda-doha-041. Printed numbering may differ.
Source facts
- Childhood stories of four brothers compared to abundant multicoloured lotuses
- Merits of king, queens and family compared to bees and waterbirds
Artistic choices
- Select the lotus comparison only; no literal childhood scene or transformation
- Four focal lotus blossoms artistically echo four brothers; source says abundant lotuses, not an exact count of four flowers
- Rose ivory saffron and crimson blossom colours, stems, round leaves, ripple rings, imagined pond, crimson background and sage ochre banks added
An imaginative interpretation, not a historical portrait or documentary evidence.
बालचरित चहु बंधु के बनज बिपुल बहुरंग। नृप रानी परिजन सुकृत मधुकर बारिबिहंग।।40।।
The childhood exploits of the four brothers are the many-colored, abundant lotuses of this lake. The king, the queens, and their dear ones are the bees and waterbirds who delight among them, drawn by the fragrance of their own good deeds.