A Dialogue Opens Within a Dialogue
Bala Kanda, Doha 47
Doha 47 · Movement 2 of 2
Keep this contemplation
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Yajnavalkya prepares to speak according to the reach of his understanding. Within the conversation at Prayag, another conversation opens upon Kailash: Uma before Shambhu, devotion asking and divine wisdom replying.
The sage promises not only the words but the hour and cause from which they arose. A sacred question has a history, and its sorrow cannot be healed until the listener sees the path by which it entered the heart.
Bharadvaja attends. The outer hermitage remains in winter quiet while an older age begins to unfold inside the telling. The nested Katha becomes a temple of listening.
One pair of sages listens as Uma and Shambhu appear within their silence.
Read the passage from the Manas
कहउँ सो मति अनुहारि अब उमा संभु संबाद। भयउ समय जेहि हेतु जेहि सुनु मुनि मिटिहि बिषाद।।47।।
I shall now narrate, to the best of my understanding, the dialogue between Uma and Shambhu. Listen, O sage: learn when and why it took place, and your sorrow shall vanish.