The Name That Cuts Worldly Bonds Cannot Be Bound
Lanka Kanda, Doha 73
Doha 73 · Movement 2 of 2
Keep this contemplation
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Shiva turns to Girija while Rama appears enclosed by the serpent noose. Sages repeat this Lord's Name and the bonds of worldly becoming are cut away from them.
Can the one who releases beings from bondage truly come beneath a bond? Can the presence that pervades the whole universe and gives every place its dwelling be confined within coils appearing on one battlefield?
The question loosens the spectator's fear. Form may accept restraint within lila, but the all pervading reality does not become limited by what touches the form. Rama is not freed later from a condition that mastered him. The coming release reveals what was always true: serpent, binding, battlefield, and the sight of captivity arise within the freedom they seem to cover.
The serpents bind what the eyes can see while Rama's Name keeps cutting the deeper bonds of those who behold him.
Read the passage from the Manas
गिरिजा जासु नाम जपि मुनि काटहिं भव पास। सो कि बंध तर आवइ ब्यापक बिस्व निवास।।73।।
O Girija, He whose name, when chanted by sages, cuts through the bonds of worldly existence: can such a one, who pervades the entire universe as its very dwelling, ever truly come under bondage?