Permission for the Father's House
Bala Kanda, Doha 61
Doha 61 · Movement 2 of 2
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Sati speaks gently before Shiva. A great celebration is unfolding at her father's home, and she longs to witness it with reverence. Yet she does not presume upon the journey.
She calls Shiva the abode of compassion and asks his permission. The request holds the remembered daughter, the estranged wife, and the divine Mother within one voice.
Nothing in her words suggests the humiliation waiting at the yajna. Across the sky the final processions continue, and the hope of a homecoming still appears innocent beneath their light. Love has not yet learned to fear the omitted invitation.
Sati waits before the abode of compassion while her father's fires burn in the distance.
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AI-created devotional illustration · Doha 61
Sati respectfully asks Shiva for permission to visit her father's celebration; Shiva listens quietly.
Source reference and artistic choices
Gita Press code81 undated · PDF pages 83 · printed pages 81. Reader passage: bala-kanda-doha-062. Printed numbering may differ.
Source facts
- Sati asks Shiva for permission to go respectfully see the great celebration at her father's home
Artistic choices
- Select respectful request before assent, counsel or departure
- Conventional imaginative appearances, seated positions, Sati's open hand and hopeful gaze, Shiva's resting hands, separate mats, drapery, banyan shade, flowering sprigs and mountain scenery added; no claim earlier vow annulled
An imaginative interpretation, not a historical portrait or documentary evidence.
पिता भवन उत्सव परम जौं प्रभु आयसु होइ। तौ मै जाउँ कृपायतन सादर देखन सोइ।।61।।
"There is a grand celebration at my father's house. If my lord permits, O abode of compassion, I would go and witness it with reverence."