The Forest Arrives Carrying Its Abundance
Ayodhya Kanda, Doha 278
Doha 278 · Movement 2 of 2
Keep this contemplation
Preserve, print, or share
At the moment when royal societies debate what food is fitting, the forest answers without argument. Its dwellers appear along the paths beneath burdens gathered from the living earth.
Fruits, flowers, tender leaves, and roots fill basket after basket. No palace granary has supplied them, and no cultivated field has been summoned. The wilderness through which Rama accepted exile now opens its own stores for the hungry assemblies.
The carriers come in great numbers, balancing full loads across their shoulders. Their arrival is both provision and welcome. Chitrakoot does not remain a backdrop to royal sorrow. Through the hands of its people, the forest becomes host, offering simple abundance to Mithila and Ayodhya beneath Rama's gaze.
As kingdoms fast beneath the banyan, Chitrakoot itself approaches through forest hands, laden with roots, leaves, flowers, and fruit.
Read the passage from the Manas
तेहि अवसर फल फूल दल मूल अनेक प्रकार। लइ आए बनचर बिपुल भरि भरि काँवरि भार।।278।।
At that very moment, forest dwellers arrived bearing fruits, flowers, leaves, and roots of many kinds. They came in great numbers, carrying full baskets, load upon load, as generous offerings.