Beyond the Cave's Darkness Wait a Lotus Lake and a Woman Made Radiant by Tapas
Kishkindha Kanda, Doha 24
Doha 24 · Movement 2 of 2
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The searchers pass through the hidden way and suddenly behold an exquisite garden. A beautiful lake lies within it, crowded with lotuses in bloom.
After the dry forest and the threat of death by thirst, water, flower, and cultivated shade appear together in the depth of the earth. The cave has opened not into emptiness but into a secret sanctuary.
A lovely temple stands beside the garden. Within it sits a woman described as a very mass of tapas, still and radiant with the force of long spiritual discipline. The exhausted monkeys have entered a place where water and ascetic power wait side by side.
At the heart of the cave, lotuses bloom before a woman whose stillness is filled with tapas.
Read the passage from the Manas
दीख जाइ उपवन बर सर बिगसित बहु कंज। मंदिर एक रुचिर तहँ बैठि नारि तप पुंज।।24।।
Going inside, they beheld a beautiful garden with a lake where many lotuses bloomed. There stood a lovely temple, and within it sat a woman who was the very embodiment of tapas.