Sumantra Prepares to Answer with a Thunderbolt Within
Ayodhya Kanda, Doha 145
Doha 145 · Movement 2 of 2
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Sumantra imagines men and women running from every quarter of the city. Distress will carry them toward the chariot before courtesy or royal order can restrain their questions.
Each voice will ask where Ram is. The minister must answer everyone, repeating the fact of exile until words themselves become an instrument of injury.
He prepares by placing a thunderbolt within his heart. Only something harder than living flesh could survive the duty awaiting him. The image does not promise numbness. It reveals the terrible firmness required to speak truth when every truthful answer will break the listener and strike the speaker again.
Approaching Ayodhya, Sumantra sets a thunderbolt inside his heart so it can endure telling the same sorrow to every door.
Read the passage from the Manas
-धाइ पूँछिहहिं मोहि जब बिकल नगर नर नारि। उतरु देब मैं सबहि तब हृदयँ बज्रु बैठारि।।145।।
When the distressed men and women of the city come running to question me, I shall answer them all with a thunderbolt lodged in my heart.