The Citizens Begin Vows for Ram's Darshan
Ayodhya Kanda, Doha 86
Doha 86 · Movement 2 of 2
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Men and women return without Ram, but longing does not collapse into mere despair. They begin vows and disciplines directed toward seeing him again.
They resemble chakravaka birds separated through night and lotuses deprived of the sun, forlorn because the answering light is absent.
Separation becomes sadhana. Each household gives longing a disciplined form. The city waits. The city cannot follow Ram's body farther, so attention follows through restraint, prayer, and remembrance. Hope receives form in daily practice, keeping the absent darshan alive as the horizon toward which each vow turns.
Unable to follow the chariot, Ayodhya sends vows and disciplines down the road toward Ram's future darshan.
Read the passage from the Manas
राम दरस हित नेम ब्रत लगे करन नर नारि। मनहुँ कोक कोकी कमल दीन बिहीन तमारि।।86।।
For the darshan of Rama, men and women began observing vows and disciplines. They were like the chakravaka bird and the chakravaki, like the lotus bereft of the sun, forlorn and without light.