An Ant Crosses the King's Bridge
Bala Kanda, Doha 13
Doha 13 · Movement 2 of 2
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A river in flood covers the plain from horizon to horizon. Its current tears at the banks, and even the strongest swimmer cannot see a safe crossing. Before that water, the smallest ant possesses no power at all.
Then a king builds a bridge. Stone meets stone above the torrent until a narrow road joins the separated shores. The ant places its feet upon that road and crosses without struggle, not because its body has grown strong, but because strength greater than its own has prepared the way.
Ram's glory is more boundless than the river. The seeker may remain small. Grace has already laid a passage across the impossible.
Beneath the bridge the great river roars; above it, the ant reaches the farther bank.
Read the passage from the Manas
अति अपार जे सरित बर जौं नृप सेतु कराहिं। चढि पिपीलिकउ परम लघु बिनु श्रम पारहि जाहिं।।13।।
Even the mightiest and most boundless rivers, if a king builds a bridge over them, can be crossed without effort by the tiniest ant. So too the fathomless ocean of Ram's glory can be crossed through the bridge of the saints' grace.