Ayodhya Lives by the Hope of Rama's Appointed Return
Ayodhya Kanda, Doha 322
Doha 322 · Movement 2 of 2
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The people of Ayodhya do not treat Rama's absence as an interval to be filled with distraction. Longing for his darshan, they take vows and keep fasts. Their days become an offering measured against the appointed term of exile.
Ornaments are put away. Pleasures and comforts lose their savor. Homes remain standing, markets open, and duties continue, but the city refuses to decorate its separation. Renunciation spreads quietly from household to household as remembrance gives ordinary time a sacred severity.
They live because hope still has a date. The promise of Rama's return holds breath within the city and keeps grief from becoming final. Each relinquished pleasure says that Ayodhya has not accepted another center. Its true festival waits beyond the remaining years, at the first sight of Rama on the homeward road.
Ayodhya keeps one lamp alive through every fast: the certain hope of seeing Rama return.
Read the passage from the Manas
राम दरस लगि लोग सब करत नेम उपबास। तजि तजि भूषन भोग सुख जिअत अवधि कीं आस।।322।।
All the people, yearning for Rama's darshan, observe vows and fasts without ceasing. Giving up ornaments, pleasures, and comforts, they live on, sustained only by the hope of His return.