Wind Scatters the Clouds, and Company Destroys or Restores Knowledge
Kishkindha Kanda, Doha 16क
Doha 16क · Movement 2 of 2
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Sometimes a powerful wind crosses the rain-filled sky and drives the clouds apart in every direction. A vast covering that seemed immovable is broken and dispersed within moments.
Rama compares that ruin to the birth of an unworthy son through whom the noble dharma of a family is destroyed. One arising can scatter what generations had gathered.
At other times dense darkness fills the middle of day, and then the sun suddenly becomes visible. Knowledge undergoes such eclipse and return. In bad company it perishes; in good company it is born again. Sky and understanding alternate between concealment and light according to what moves near them.
As wind rearranges the clouds, company can extinguish knowledge or call its sun forth again.
Read the passage from the Manas
कबहुँ प्रबल बह मारुत जहँ तहँ मेघ बिलाहिं। जिमि कपूत के उपजें कुल सद्धर्म नसाहिं।।15(क)।। कबहुँ दिवस महँ निबिड़ तम कबहुँक प्रगट पतंग। बिनसइ उपजइ ग्यान जिमि पाइ कुसंग सुसंग।।15(ख)।।
Sometimes a fierce wind blows and the clouds scatter in every direction, just as the noble dharma of a family is destroyed when a worthless son (kapoot) is born. Sometimes thick darkness fills the day; sometimes the sun blazes forth. Just so, wisdom (gyaan) is destroyed by bad company (kusang) and born again through good company (susang).