Without the Lord of Kosala, the World Stands Orphaned
Ayodhya Kanda, Doha 270
Doha 270 · Movement 2 of 2
Keep this contemplation
Preserve, print, or share
The messengers cannot separate the welfare of a kingdom from the presence of its righteous center. Since the lord of Kosala departed, the word well-being has lost its ground.
Ayodhya bears the first wound, but Mithila feels it with equal intimacy. Sita belongs to one city and Rama to the other, and their exile has made both royal houses empty at once.
The sorrow does not stop at palace walls or city gates. The messengers widen their report until the whole world appears as a child without shelter. Rama's forest clothing becomes the visible sign of a universal bereavement, for when dharma walks barefoot away from the throne, every land discovers how deeply it depended upon his presence.
Ayodhya and Mithila name the same loss, and through their grief the whole world recognizes itself as orphaned without Rama.
Read the passage from the Manas
नाहि त कोसल नाथ कें साथ कुसल गइ नाथ। मिथिला अवध बिसेष तें जगु सब भयउ अनाथ।।270।।
Without the lord of Kosal, all welfare has departed, O master. Mithilaa and Ayodhya above all, and truly the whole world, have become orphaned.