Absorbed in Rama's Work, the Searchers Forget the Body
Kishkindha Kanda, Doha 23
Doha 23 · Movement 2 of 2
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The southern company sets out through a world that offers no single road. They search forests and rivers, lakes and mountains, and every cave that might hide a trace of the captive queen.
Rama's work fills their minds completely. Hunger, weariness, comfort, and the ordinary claim of the limbs begin to fall outside attention as the search continues.
They forget even affection for the body. The same bodies Sugriva sent across stone and wilderness become instruments held inside one remembrance. Sita is unseen, but the work of finding her is now more immediate to the searchers than their own physical care.
Forest, river, lake, mountain, and cave pass beneath feet that have forgotten themselves in Rama's work.
Read the passage from the Manas
चले सकल बन खोजत सरिता सर गिरि खोह। राम काज लयलीन मन बिसरा तन कर छोह।।23।।
They all set forth, searching through forests, rivers, lakes, mountains, and caves. Their minds were so absorbed in Rama's work that all care for the body was forgotten.