Rama Shows Sita the Bridge, Rameshvara, and Every Forest Resting Place
Lanka Kanda, Doha 120
Doha 120 · Movement 2 of 2
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Pushpaka passes above the ocean and Rama points out the bridge laid across its waters. Beside it stands the blissful abode of Shiva that he established before the crossing.
Rama and Sita bow together to Shambhu. Victory does not carry them above reverence. The Lord who bridged the sea pauses within the returning journey to honor the Lord whose worship blessed its beginning.
Then every forest dwelling and resting place appears below. Rama shows them all to Janaki and speaks each name. The path of exile is no longer only the geography of separation. Seen together from the northbound chariot, hermitage, riverbank, grove, and clearing become beads upon the story that has brought them home. Rama returns the lost years to Sita as sacred places, naming the ground through which love remained present even when they could not walk it side by side.
Rama names the wilderness beneath them until the road of exile becomes a garland of holy places shared with Sita.
Read the passage from the Manas
इहाँ सेतु बाँध्यो अरु थापेउँ सिव सुख धाम। सीता सहित कृपानिधि संभुहि कीन्ह प्रनाम।।119(क)।। जहँ जहँ कृपासिंधु बन कीन्ह बास बिश्राम। सकल देखाए जानकिहि कहे सबन्हि के नाम।।119(ख)।।
Here the bridge was built, and here was established Shiva's blissful abode. The ocean of compassion, along with Sita, bowed in reverence to Shambhu. Wherever the ocean of grace had made his dwelling and rested in the forest, he showed all these places to Janaki and spoke the names of each location.