Shiva Smiles at the Names Wise and Foolish
Bala Kanda, Sortha 124
Sortha 124 · Movement 2 of 2
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Maheshvara smiles before answering Parvati. Wisdom and foolishness appear to belong securely to particular people, as though one soul could own clarity and another be sealed forever inside confusion.
Shiva loosens those labels with a single teaching. No one is independently wise, and no one independently foolish. When Raghupati causes a person to become a certain way, the change can occur in that very instant. The confident sage may stumble, and the bewildered heart may awaken.
The smile upon Shiva's face is neither mockery nor dismissal. It prepares the listener for Narada's Leela, where spiritual attainment will stand beside pride and the Lord's grace will take the severe form of exposure.
Shiva smiles, and the boundary between the sage and the fool begins to move.
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AI-created devotional illustration · Sortha 124
Shiva smiles/laughs and answers Uma, source Doha124ka; grouped Soratha124kha remains separate narrative/poet frame
Source reference and artistic choices
Gita Press code81 undated · PDF pages 138 · printed pages 136. Reader passage: bala-kanda-doha-125. Printed numbering may differ.
Source facts
- Shiva laughing replies: none is fixed wise/fool; whoever Raghupati makes what at what time becomes so then; first part selected
- Second part addresses Bharadvaja from narrative frame to hear Rama qualities respectfully; poet Tulsidas exhorts worship Raghunath abandoning pride; these frames not collapsed into Shiva speaking to extra sages
Artistic choices
- Approved ivory-ash Shiva blue only throat, small crescent/short symbolic Ganga hair-wave/serpent/rudraksha and warmbrown braided rosecream Uma retained; exact faces ages clothing jewels artist conventions
- Shiva seated artist lowstoneledge kneesbent feetdown gentle openmouth smile and open teaching palm, Uma quiet attentive kneeling/seated at anatomicalleft ownhandslap; specific gestures art choices
- Antique flowering banyan boughs floral ground distant mountains/water/pavilion imagined setting not authenticated; no literal transformation, extra Bharadvaja/Tulsidas figure, Narada or wife curse
An imaginative interpretation, not a historical portrait or documentary evidence.
बोले बिहसि महेस तब ग्यानी मूढ़ न कोइ। जेहि जस रघुपति करहिं जब सो तस तेहि छन होइ।।124(क)।। कहउँ राम गुन गाथ भरद्वाज सादर सुनहु। भव भंजन रघुनाथ भजु तुलसी तजि मान मद।।124(ख)।।
Then Maheshvara smiled and spoke: "No one is truly wise, and no one truly foolish. When Raghupati makes someone be a certain way, that person becomes so in that very instant."