What Cure Remains after Calamity upon Calamity
Ayodhya Kanda, Doha 180
Doha 180 · Movement 2 of 2
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A person is first seized by hostile planets, then overpowered by an incantation, then stung by a scorpion. As if these were not enough, wine is forced upon the already afflicted mind.
Bharata asks what remedy could remain after calamity has been compounded at every level. Each attempted condition makes the next more dangerous.
He sees himself in this impossible patient: birth, plot, death, exile, guilt, and now an offered crown arriving one after another. Coronation is not medicine in his vision. It is the final intoxicant given to someone already robbed of balance by every preceding blow.
To Bharata, the throne is not a cure but the last draught offered to a soul already struck by planet, spell, and scorpion.
Read the passage from the Manas
ग्रह ग्रहीत पुनि बात बस तेहि पुनि बीछी मार। तेहि पिआइअ बारुनी कहहु काह उपचार।।180।।
One seized by malefic planets, then overpowered by incantation, then stung by a scorpion, then made to drink wine. Tell me, what remedy remains for such a one?