Rama Offers Life, but Vali Chooses the Lord Now Visible before His Eyes
Kishkindha Kanda, Chaupai 10
Doha 10 · Movement 1 of 3
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Rama hears Vali's exceedingly tender words and places his own hand upon the wounded king's head. Compassion offers what the arrow seemed to close. Rama can make the body firm and preserve the departing life. Beneath that touch, Vali is asked whether he will remain.
Vali declines the offered future. Birth after birth, sages labor in discipline, yet at the last hour the name Rama may not come to their lips. By the power of that name, Shankara in Kashi gives all the same imperishable destination. What the sages seek through lifetimes now stands within Vali's sight.
He looks upon the dark Lord who touched his head and asks whether such a meeting could ever be fashioned again. To preserve the body would be to exchange this immeasurable hour for uncertain years. Vali chooses the fortune already present: Rama before his eyes, Rama's name near his final breath, and Rama's hand resting above him.
Rama offers another span of life, and Vali chooses the unrepeatable sight of Rama now.
Read the passage from the Manas
सुनत राम अति कोमल बानी। बालि सीस परसेउ निज पानी।। अचल करौं तनु राखहु प्राना। बालि कहा सुनु कृपानिधाना।। जन्म जन्म मुनि जतनु कराहीं। अंत राम कहि आवत नाहीं।। जासु नाम बल संकर कासी। देत सबहि सम गति अविनासी।। मम लोचन गोचर सोइ आवा। बहुरि कि प्रभु अस बनिहि बनावा।।
Hearing Rama's tender, gentle words, Bali placed his own hands upon his head in reverence. 'Make my body still, but spare my life force,' Bali spoke. 'O Kripanidhana, treasure of compassion, hear what I say.' Birth after birth, the munis strive with all their might, yet at the final hour they cannot utter the name of Rama. By the power of whose name Shankara, in Kashi, bestows upon all the same imperishable liberation. That very Lord has now come within the reach of my eyes. O Prabhu, will such good fortune ever be fashioned again?