Celestial Drums Announce the End of Delusion
Bala Kanda, Doha 285
Doha 285 · Movement 2 of 2
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Parashurama departs, and the heavens answer his recognition. Celestial kettledrums sound above Mithila, their resonance no longer carrying alarm but release.
Flowers fall upon Ram, settling around the victory garland and the ground where fury has just surrendered to knowledge. Gods celebrate not a defeated enemy but a veil removed.
The men and women of the city rejoice. Their anguish had been born from delusion, from seeing the axe as separate from the mercy governing the whole encounter and imagining that Ram required protection. That thorn dissolves completely. The same pavilion that trembled beneath threat now receives the gentler rain of petals, and breath returns to thousands together.
The axe-bearer leaves in knowledge, and the city exhales beneath a rain of flowers.
Read the passage from the Manas
देवन्ह दीन्हीं दुंदुभीं प्रभु पर बरषहिं फूल। हरषे पुर नर नारि सब मिटी मोहमय सूल।।285।।
The gods sounded their celestial kettledrums and showered flowers upon the Lord. All the men and women of the city rejoiced, their anguish born of delusion completely dissolved.