Take Me Wherever Ram Is
Ayodhya Kanda, Doha 149
Doha 149 · Movement 2 of 2
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Dasharatha gives Sumantra a plea stripped of palace formality. Wherever Sita, Ram, and Lakshmana now dwell, the minister must take him there.
Distance no longer matters, nor forest hardship, nor the weakness overtaking his body. The father asks only to be carried toward the living center from which he has been separated.
If reunion cannot happen, his breath is ready to leave. He insists that this is truth, not the exaggeration of grief. The king stands inwardly at a final fork: the road must bring him to Ram, or life itself will travel beyond the body in search of him.
Dasharatha sees only two roads before him, one leading to Ram and the other carrying his last breath away.
Read the passage from the Manas
सखा रामु सिय लखनु जहँ तहाँ मोहि पहुँचाउ। नाहिं त चाहत चलन अब प्रान कहउँ सतिभाउ।।149।।
O friend, wherever Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana may be, take me to them. Otherwise, know that my life-breath is preparing to depart. I tell you this in all truth.