After Three Days of Silence, Rama Rises in Righteous Anger
Sundara Kanda, Doha 57
Doha 57 · Movement 2 of 2
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For three days Rama remains upon the kusha grass at the water's edge. His humility faces the tide without answer. Waves arrive, break, withdraw, and return while the ocean gives no sign that it has heard the Lord's request.
The stillness is not weakness, and patience is not without a boundary. When courtesy is met only by insensibility, Rama's inward measure changes. The gentle petitioner rises as the warrior whose arrows can turn the vast sea into dry ground.
Righteous anger enters his voice. Without fear there can be no love, he says. The words do not erase the three days of reverence; they reveal the strength that made such reverence voluntary. The ocean has been offered humility and now must behold the power humility restrained.
Three days of prayer end, and the hand that was folded before the sea reaches toward the bow.
Read the passage from the Manas
बिनय न मानत जलधि जड़ गए तीन दिन बीति। बोले राम सकोप तब भय बिनु होइ न प्रीति।।57।।
The stubborn ocean did not heed the humble entreaty; three days passed in vain. Then Rama spoke with righteous anger: "Without fear there can be no love."