The Sun of Raghu's Line Rises to Welcome Janaka
Ayodhya Kanda, Doha 274
Doha 274 · Movement 2 of 2
Keep this contemplation
Preserve, print, or share
The whole assembly is immersed in love when the message arrives: the lord of Mithila is near. Contemplation gives way at once to movement.
Rama rises with his court. Tulsidas sees him as the sun of the solar lineage lifting above a lake of waiting hearts. His haste is not royal display, but reverence moving toward reverence.
Janaka comes as king, sage, father, and father-in-law, carrying the sorrow of Mithila into the sorrow of Ayodhya. Rama does not remain seated to receive him. The Lord who is the center of every pilgrimage becomes a pilgrim of welcome, going forward so that two currents of love may meet upon the road.
Hearing that Janaka is near, Rama rises like the sun and carries the entire assembly forward to meet a second river of love.
Read the passage from the Manas
प्रेम मगन तेहि समय सब सुनि आवत मिथिलेसु। सहित सभा संभ्रम उठेउ रबिकुल कमल दिनेसु।।274।।
All were lost in love at that moment when they heard the lord of Mithila was approaching. The sun of the solar dynasty rose with his entire court in joyful haste.