Ram's Foot-Darshan Transforms the Forest Dwellers
Ayodhya Kanda, Chaupai 251
Doha 251 · Movement 1 of 3
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The forest people call the visitors beloved guests and confess that their means of service are only firewood, leaves, and friendship. Their old measure of restraint was simply not stealing a traveller's vessel or cloth.
They describe themselves as ignorant hunters, crooked in conduct, hungry and poorly clothed, passing day and night without any dream of righteous wisdom. Then one sight divides the old life from the new.
Since beholding Raghunandan's lotus feet, unbearable sorrow and fault have fallen away. The citizens hear the plain confession and overflow with love, praising the fortune they once might have overlooked. Ram's darshan has not erased the speakers' history. It has turned their history into testimony.
Those who once counted not stealing as their highest service now speak with transformed hearts because Ram's feet entered their sight.
Read the passage from the Manas
तुम्ह प्रिय पाहुने बन पगु धारे। सेवा जोगु न भाग हमारे।। देब काह हम तुम्हहि गोसाँई। ईधनु पात किरात मिताई।। यह हमारि अति बड़ि सेवकाई। लेहि न बासन बसन चोराई।। हम जड़ जीव जीव गन घाती। कुटिल कुचाली कुमति कुजाती।। पाप करत निसि बासर जाहीं। नहिं पट कटि नहि पेट अघाहीं।। सपोनेहुँ धरम बुद्धि कस काऊ। यह रघुनंदन दरस प्रभाऊ।। जब तें प्रभु पद पदुम निहारे। मिटे दुसह दुख दोष हमारे।। बचन सुनत पुरजन अनुरागे। तिन्ह के भाग सराहन लागे।।
You are our beloved guests who have set foot in the forest. We are not worthy enough to serve you. What can we offer you, O Lord? Only firewood, leaves, and the simple friendship of forest dwellers. This is our greatest act of service: that we do not steal your vessels or garments. We are ignorant creatures, slayers of living beings, crooked in conduct, dull of mind. Our days and nights pass in wrongdoing; we have no cloth at our waist, no fullness in our belly. How could we ever dream of righteous wisdom? This is the power of beholding Raghunandan. Ever since we beheld the lotus feet of the Lord, our unbearable sorrows and faults have been destroyed. Hearing these words, the citizens were flooded with love and began praising the forest dwellers' good fortune.