Eyes Still Thirsty after a Lifetime of Seeing
Ayodhya Kanda, Doha 260
Doha 260 · Movement 2 of 2
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Love has kept Bharata close to Rama, but reverence has kept his words restrained. Even face to face, he has never spoken with the freedom of one who believes he has a claim.
His silence is woven from two strands: affection drawing him nearer and humility making him pause. Every meeting deepens both. Rama is brother, Lord, and the inexhaustible beauty before which familiarity never becomes possession.
So Bharata's eyes confess what his voice cannot. They have looked upon Rama since childhood, yet they have never reached satisfaction. Filled with tears and fixed upon the beloved form, they remain thirsty today, as if every sight of Rama only revealed how much more there is to behold.
Bharata has seen Rama all his life, yet love leaves his tearful eyes forever at the beginning of vision.
Read the passage from the Manas
महूँ सनेह सकोच बस सनमुख कही न बैन। दरसन तृपित न आजु लगि पेम पिआसे नैन।।260।।
I too, bound by love and reverence, have never been able to speak freely before him. Even to this day my eyes remain unsatisfied, ever thirsty with the longing of prema.