राम
Contemplative Interlude

A True Leader Nourishes Every Limb like the Mouth

Ayodhya Kanda, Doha 315

Doha 315 · Movement 2 of 2

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The mouth alone receives food and drink, yet it does not hoard nourishment for itself. Through hidden discernment, what enters one place is distributed to sustain every limb.

A leader should hold resources in the same trust. Treasury, authority, information, and honor converge at the center so they may be sent outward according to the needs of the whole body.

Tulsi makes wisdom essential to this nourishment. Equality does not always mean identical portions, and care cannot be governed by appetite at the top. Bharata must receive for the sake of all, allowing no citizen or member of the royal household to become a neglected limb.

Leadership receives at one mouth only to nourish the whole body, distributing power through discernment rather than hunger.

Read the passage from the Manas

मुखिआ मुखु सो चाहिऐ खान पान कहुँ एक। पालइ पोषइ सकल अँग तुलसी सहित बिबेक।।315।।

A leader (mukhiaa) should be like the mouth, the single organ of eating and drinking, that nourishes and sustains every limb of the body. So says Tulsi: let it be done with vivek (wisdom).