What Household Can a Solitary Yogi Offer?
Bala Kanda, Doha 79
Doha 79 · Movement 2 of 2
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The test sharpens into domestic mockery. Shiva sleeps without concern, begs what he eats, and wanders through the world. No roof awaits him, no wealth accumulates, and no ordinary household claims his attention.
What work could a wife find in the home of one solitary by nature? The question assumes that happiness must be built from possession, routine, status, and mutual dependence.
Parvati hears another truth beneath it. She does not seek a house around Shiva. She seeks the one whose freedom makes the whole universe his dwelling. Love itself will be the household she enters.
The sages point toward an empty house, while Parvati beholds a Lord at home in every world.
Read the passage from the Manas
AI-created devotional illustration · Doha 79
Two representative sages continue their taunting argument while Uma listens quietly; the other five are outside the close view.
Source reference and artistic choices
Gita Press code81 undated · PDF pages 97 · printed pages 95. Reader passage: bala-kanda-doha-080. Printed numbering may differ.
Source facts
- Testing sages mock Shiva as sleeping without worry and eating begged alms
- They question whether women remain in a naturally solitary household; these are the sages' argument, not certified source facts about Shiva
Artistic choices
- Close crop shows two representative speakers of seven, five outside view; Uma and sage imaginative appearances reused
- Whitebearded sage low questioning palm/wry face, darkbearded sage restrained amused/resting hands, Uma attentive lowered gaze, simple forest/stream/hills/mats added; no actual sleeping/begging/wandering/cremation-ground scene
An imaginative interpretation, not a historical portrait or documentary evidence.
अब सुख सोवत सोचु नहि भीख मागि भव खाहिं। सहज एकाकिन्ह के भवन कबहुँ कि नारि खटाहिं।।79।।
Now he sleeps in comfort, free of all worry, begging his food and wandering through the world. Do women ever toil in the homes of those who are solitary by nature?