Birth after Birth, Bharata Chooses Ram's Feet
Ayodhya Kanda, Doha 204
Doha 204 · Movement 2 of 2
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At Triveni, Bharata sets aside the four great destinations around which human aspiration is often arranged. Wealth does not draw him, nor the honor of righteousness, nor pleasure, nor even liberation.
He asks for no final escape from birth. If lives continue one after another, let every life carry love for Ram's feet as its inward current.
The prayer is astonishing because it refuses to use devotion as a road toward something else. Ram is neither means to prosperity nor payment for virtue nor doorway out of existence. Love itself is the boon. Bharata stands where rivers meet and chooses a current that may flow through every birth without exhaustion, always returning the heart to the same feet.
Bharata releases wealth, merit, pleasure, and liberation, asking only that every future birth deepen love at Ram's feet.
Read the passage from the Manas
अरथ न धरम न काम रुचि गति न चहउँ निरबान। जनम जनम रति राम पद यह बरदानु न आन।।204।।
I desire neither wealth, nor dharma, nor pleasure, nor do I seek the peace of liberation. Birth after birth, let my love rest at Rama's feet. This alone is the boon I ask; I claim no other.