Chitrakoot Within the Heart
Bala Kanda, Doha 31
Doha 31 · Movement 2 of 2
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The mind grows clear and beautiful until it becomes Chitrakoot. Across that inward land runs the Mandakini of Ram's story, cool over stone, bright beneath forest shade, carrying the sound of its passage into every quiet hollow.
Tender love rises along the banks as a deep green wilderness. It is not scenery placed around the Leela. It is the very place in which the divine pair chooses to dwell. Beneath its branches, Sita and Raghuvir walk, rest, speak, and delight in one another.
The sacred geography has drawn inward. A purified heart is no longer merely remembering Chitrakoot. It has become the ground of the eternal play.
Mandakini crosses the heart, and Sita and Ram enter the forest of love.
Read the passage from the Manas
राम कथा मंदाकिनी चित्रकूट चित चारु। तुलसी सुभग सनेह बन सिय रघुबीर बिहारु।।31।।
Ram's story is the holy Mandakini river. The beautiful, pure heart is Chitrakoot. The forest of tender love is its setting. And there, Siya and Raghuvir delight in their eternal play.