Rama's Own Hands Unbind Bharata's Fourteen Years of Waiting
Uttara Kanda, Chaupai 11
Doha 12 · Movement 1 of 2
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Ayodhya shines beneath a rain of flowers. Before preparing himself, Rama orders that Sugriva and all his companions be bathed. Servants hurry to honor the friends who carried the exile through danger and war.
Then the treasury of compassion calls Bharata close. With his own hands Rama gently untangles the matted locks his brother wore through the long vow of separation. He has all three brothers bathed, and even a hundred million Sheshas could not sing Bharata's fortune or the Lord's tenderness.
Only afterward does Rama loosen his own matted hair. Receiving the Guru's permission, he bathes and adorns his limbs with ornaments until his beauty makes Kamadeva ashamed. The sequence is the revelation. Friends first, brothers next, Rama last. Royal splendor does not erase the ascetic years by hiding them. Love patiently unbinds their visible knots, and the hands soon to hold a kingdom first tend the body of a waiting brother.
Before the crown touches Rama, Rama's hands touch Bharata and loosen every knot in which separation had been kept.
Read the passage from the Manas
अवधपुरी अति रुचिर बनाई। देवन्ह सुमन बृष्टि झरि लाई।। राम कहा सेवकन्ह बुलाई। प्रथम सखन्ह अन्हवावहु जाई।। सुनत बचन जहँ तहँ जन धाए। सुग्रीवादि तुरत अन्हवाए।। पुनि करुनानिधि भरतु हँकारे। निज कर राम जटा निरुआरे।। अन्हवाए प्रभु तीनिउ भाई। भगत बछल कृपाल रघुराई।। भरत भाग्य प्रभु कोमलताई। सेष कोटि सत सकहिं न गाई।। पुनि निज जटा राम बिबराए। गुर अनुसासन मागि नहाए।। करि मज्जन प्रभु भूषन साजे। अंग अनंग देखि सत लाजे।।
Ayodhya was decorated most beautifully, and the gods showered a rain of flowers. Rama called his servants and said, 'First go and bathe my friends.' Hearing his words, the servants hurried in every direction and promptly bathed Sugriva and the others. Then the treasury of compassion called Bharata and with his own hands unmatted Rama's tangled locks. The Lord bathed all three brothers, for Raghuraj is tender toward his devotees and full of grace. Bharata's good fortune and the Lord's gentleness cannot be sung even by a hundred million Sheshas. Then Rama loosened his own matted hair, and with his guru's permission, bathed. After bathing, the Lord adorned himself with ornaments. Seeing his beauty, even Kamadeva felt a hundred times ashamed.