The Boatman Guards His Boat from Grace
Ayodhya Kanda, Chaupai 100
Doha 100 · Movement 1 of 3
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If animals are so shattered by Ram's absence, Guha wonders, how will citizens, mothers, and fathers survive? Yet Sumantra must go. Ram sends him firmly away and comes to the Ganga, where the next servant of love is already devising his own impossible condition.
The boatman refuses to bring his craft. He has heard the secret of the dust upon Ram's feet. A stone became a beautiful woman at their touch, and wood is surely no harder than stone. If the boat turns into a sage's wife and departs, what will become of the family sustained by his only trade?
Rustic wit shelters a precise longing. The boatman asks for no assurance, coin, or royal favor. If the Lord truly wishes to cross, he must first permit those lotus feet to be washed. Devotion has found a playful argument strong enough to hold the boundless at the water's edge.
Before the Ganga can be crossed, a poor ferryman arrests the Lord with a story about stone, wood, and transforming grace.
Read the passage from the Manas
जासु बियोग बिकल पसु ऐसे। प्रजा मातु पितु जिइहहिं कैसें।। बरबस राम सुमंत्रु पठाए। सुरसरि तीर आपु तब आए।। मागी नाव न केवटु आना। कहइ तुम्हार मरमु मैं जाना।। चरन कमल रज कहुँ सबु कहई। मानुष करनि मूरि कछु अहई।। छुअत सिला भइ नारि सुहाई। पाहन तें न काठ कठिनाई।। तरनिउ मुनि घरिनि होइ जाई। बाट परइ मोरि नाव उड़ाई।। एहिं प्रतिपालउँ सबु परिवारू। नहिं जानउँ कछु अउर कबारू।। जौ प्रभु पार अवसि गा चहहू। मोहि पद पदुम पखारन कहहू।।
When even animals grow distraught at separation from Him, how shall the people, the mothers, the fathers go on living? Rama firmly sent Sumantra away, then came Himself to the banks of the Ganga. He asked for a boat, but the Kevat would not bring one. 'I know your secret, Lord,' the boatman said. Everyone speaks of the dust of your lotus feet and its power to transform. Who knows what it might do to me? By your touch, a slab of stone became a beautiful woman. Wood is not harder than stone, after all. If my boat were to become a sage's wife, it would fly away and leave me stranded on the shore. This boat is all I have. With it I feed my whole family. I know no other trade. If you must cross, O Lord, then grant me this: let me wash your lotus feet first.