When Sorrow Enters Ayodhya
Ayodhya Kanda, Doha 46
Doha 46 · Movement 2 of 2
Keep this contemplation
Preserve, print, or share
The city that had prepared for celebration falls beneath another power. Garlands still hang across gateways. Auspicious colours remain upon the streets. Yet mouths have gone dry, and no one can summon the words that filled Ayodhya only hours before. Tears move freely down faces turned toward one another in disbelief.
Sorrow has become too great for any single heart to contain. It passes from palace chamber to market road, from elders to children, until the whole city seems to breathe with one wounded chest. Tulsidas does not compare this grief to mist or rain. He gives it banners, ranks, weapons, and drums. The sovereign rasa of compassion enters Ayodhya like a conquering army.
No gate closes against it. No wall holds. Its march is heard wherever love for Ram has made a dwelling. The city is not defeated because its love is weak. It is overcome because that love is everywhere.
Across the silent streets, the drums of Karuna Rasa continue.
Read the passage from the Manas
मुख सुखाहिं लोचन स्त्रवहि सोकु न हृदयँ समाइ। मनहुँ करुन रस कटकई उतरी अवध बजाइ।।46।।
Mouths go dry, eyes stream with tears, and sorrow cannot be contained in the heart. It is as though the army of Karuna Rasa (the spirit of pathos) has marched into Ayodhya, drums beating.