Indra Searches for a Stratagem against Love
Ayodhya Kanda, Doha 217
Doha 217 · Movement 2 of 2
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Indra understands enough to be afraid. Ram is modest and responsive to love, not armored against it by divine indifference.
Bharata is an ocean of devotion moving steadily toward him. If they meet, love may overturn the arrangement the gods expect to preserve.
Instead of trusting the truth of either brother, Indra considers deceit. He asks for a stratagem subtle enough to keep ocean from beloved shore. The fear exposes the limit of celestial calculation: it can predict consequence but cannot comprehend surrender. To prevent a meeting of pure hearts, power must begin searching for illusion, and in that very search it reveals its weakness.
Indra sees Ram's tenderness and Bharata's oceanic love, then mistakes deceit for a wall strong enough to stand between them.
Read the passage from the Manas
रामु सँकोची प्रेम बस भरत सपेम पयोधि। बनी बात बेगरन चहति करिअ जतनु छलु सोधि।।217।।
Rama is modest, bound by love. Bharat is a boundless ocean of devotion. Their meeting would undo our plans. We must devise some stratagem to prevent it.