Knowledge and Devotion Sit Embodied among the Sages
Ayodhya Kanda, Doha 239
Doha 239 · Movement 2 of 2
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Within the beautiful circle of munis, Sita and Raghuchandra sit radiant beneath the forest shade. The assembly gathers around them like thought around a still center.
The tableau becomes an inward vision. Knowledge has taken a living body, while devotion appears as existence, consciousness, and bliss itself.
No division remains between wisdom and love. Sita and Ram do not illustrate two competing paths, but the meeting in which true knowing becomes devotion and devotion reveals the nature of reality. Bharata enters an ashram and beholds a philosophy made flesh before any word of teaching is spoken.
At the center of the sages, Sita and Ram reveal knowledge alive as form and devotion shining as existence, consciousness, and bliss.
Read the passage from the Manas
लसत मंजु मुनि मंडली मध्य सीय रघुचंदु। ग्यान सभाँ जनु तनु धरे भगति सच्चिदानंदु।।239।।
Radiant in the midst of that blessed circle of sages sit Sita and Raghuchandra, as if Jnana, divine knowledge, had taken a living form, and Bhakti had become Sachchidananda: existence, consciousness, and bliss.