Twilight at the Shore of Becoming
Bala Kanda, Shloka 6
Mangalacharan Shlokas 1–7 · Movement 6 of 7
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Twilight lies across a forest path. A traveller stops before the dark coil of a snake and feels fear seize the body. Then a lamp is carried nearer. Light crosses the ground, and the danger vanishes without fleeing. Nothing has moved. A rope lies where the serpent had appeared, lending its reality to an illusion that possessed none of its own.
So the immeasurable pageant of existence rises within the power of Ram's maya. Brahma, the gods, the asuras, stars, creatures, and the changing kingdoms of the mind all appear substantial because His reality shines beneath them. Forms surge and recede, but the supreme cause remains untouched, nearer than every name and beyond every boundary.
Beyond the path roars the ocean of becoming, black beneath a gathering sky. Waves lift like moving walls, and the far shore cannot be seen. Yet upon those waters rests one sure passage, the raft of the Lord's feet. The seeker who longs to cross does not conquer the ocean. He bows, takes refuge, and holds to the One known in love as Ram.
The lamp holds steady. The snake is gone. Across the dark water, the raft waits.
Read the passage from the Manas
यन्मायावशवर्तिं विश्वमखिलं ब्रह्मादिदेवासुरा यत्सत्वादमृषैव भाति सकलं रज्जौ यथाहेर्भ्रमः। यत्पादप्लवमेकमेव हि भवाम्भोधेस्तितीर्षावतां वन्देऽहं तमशेषकारणपरं रामाख्यमीशं हरिम्।।6।।
The entire world, including Brahmaa and all the devas and asuras, moves under the sway of His maayaa. By His reality alone does all this appear as real, just as the illusion of a snake appears on a rope. His lotus feet are the one raft for those who wish to cross the ocean of worldly existence. I bow to that supreme cause of all causes, the Lord known as Raam, who is Hari himself.