When Delusion Refuses the Story
Bala Kanda, Doha 114
Doha 114 · Movement 2 of 2
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Shiva speaks of those swallowed by the ghost of delusion. Turned away from Hari's feet, they reject both the telling and the hearing of Ram Katha. Their refusal does not arise from clear discernment, for truth and falsehood have already become indistinguishable within them.
The sacred assembly remains open, but a mind governed by denial stands outside it like a traveller who mistakes the lamp at the doorway for danger. Argument circles in the dark while the story's living presence goes unreceived.
The warning is severe because the loss is severe. To turn from Katha is to turn from the very medicine that could expose the possession of confusion and restore the power to see.
The story shines at the threshold while delusion persuades the wanderer not to enter.
Read the passage from the Manas
AI-created devotional illustration · Doha 114
Shiva's serious spoken response to preceding another-Rama claim
Source reference and artistic choices
Gita Press code81 undated · PDF pages 129 · printed pages 127. Reader passage: bala-kanda-doha-115. Printed numbering may differ.
Source facts
- Such claims refers to preceding suggestion that Rama praised by Vedas is another Rama
- Shiva condemns those saying or hearing such claims as delusion-swallowed, turned from Hari and unable to distinguish false/true; polemical terms attributed to his narrated speech
Artistic choices
- Approved adult rosecream braided Uma and ivoryash Shiva blue only throat/crescent/Ganga short wave-symbol/serpent/rudraksha reused; exact ages/faces/robes/jewels/gestures imagined unauthenticated
- Uma viewer-right at front-facing Shiva's anatomical left quietly resting hands in lap; source banyan/mats/floral accents/imagined mountains exact artist setting not historical/botanical/geographical reconstruction
- Shiva firm measured brows/open speaking mouth with index raised at own chest, not threatening or accusing Uma; no actual heretic/possessed person, ghost scene or diagnostic neutrality claim
An imaginative interpretation, not a historical portrait or documentary evidence.
कहहि सुनहि अस अधम नर ग्रसे जे मोह पिसाच। पाषंडी हरि पद बिमुख जानहिं झूठ न साच।।114।।
Those degraded souls who are swallowed by the ghost of delusion, who are heretical and turned away from the feet of Hari, who know neither truth nor falsehood: they alone speak against this story and refuse to hear it.