Worldly Pleasure Falls Away Like Grass
Ayodhya Kanda, Doha 140
Doha 140 · Movement 2 of 2
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Devotees who remember Ram release the fascinations of worldly pleasure as lightly as one drops a blade of grass. Remembrance changes weight: what once appeared precious becomes easy to set down.
Sita is Ram's beloved and the mother of the world. Her freedom from royal luxury therefore requires no astonishment. What seekers approach through practice is native to her love.
The forest does not conquer desire by presenting superior objects. Ram's presence changes the scale upon which every object is measured. Before the fullness of the beloved, enjoyment separated from him loses substance, while bark, roots, and a leaf hut become radiant because they participate in remembrance.
In the fullness of Ram's remembrance, palace pleasure becomes lighter than grass and forest simplicity becomes enough.
Read the passage from the Manas
-सुमिरत रामहि तजहिं जन तृन सम बिषय बिलासु। रामप्रिया जग जननि सिय कछु न आचरजु तासु।।140।।
Remembering Rama, devotees cast off worldly pleasures like blades of grass. Sita is Rama's beloved and the mother of the world; for her, such renunciation is no marvel at all.