When Ravana's Attention Leaves Sita, Rama Will Strike His Heart
Lanka Kanda, Doha 99
Doha 99 · Movement 3 of 3
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Trijata tells Sita how the final opening will appear. As Rama cuts Ravana's heads, anguish and confusion will seize the king. The repeated loss and renewal will at last disturb the fixed attention within him.
In that distress, Ravana's meditation upon Sita will break. The chain of indwelling presences will loosen at its outermost link, and the heart Rama has so far spared will no longer hold Vaidehi through the demon's concentration.
Then wise Rama will strike Ravana in the heart and kill him. The Lord does not fail to know the vulnerable place, nor do the returning heads conceal it from him. He waits until the blow can fall without violating the protection of Sita. Death arrives through perfect discernment, at the instant when the enemy's own agitated mind releases what divine love has refused to wound.
Rama's final arrow waits not from uncertainty, but until Ravana's own broken concentration releases Sita from the place it must enter.
Read the passage from the Manas
काटत सिर होइहि बिकल छुटि जाइहि तव ध्यान। तब रावनहि हृदय महुँ मरिहहिं रामु सुजान।।99।।
When your heads are severed, you will become distressed, and your meditation on Rama will be broken. Then in Ravana's heart, the wise Rama will die.