The Child Cries beneath the Healing Hand, but the Mother Does Not Stop
Uttara Kanda, Doha 75
Doha 75 · Movement 2 of 2
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At first the child feels only pain. He cries in distress and cannot understand why the one who loves him has become the source of cutting. The mother's purpose remains invisible from inside the wound.
She does not count that immediate agony as greater than the disease she is removing. Her resolve looks hard because her care reaches beyond the child's present comprehension toward his lasting welfare.
Raghupati acts with the same fierce tenderness when he removes pride from his servants. The devotee may experience loss, exposure, confusion, or the collapse of a cherished spiritual identity. Later, the hand once feared is recognized as mercy. Tulsidas turns the teaching upon himself: why not abandon delusion and worship such a Lord? The question is not sentimental. It asks whether one trusts divine love enough to let it heal the very self-image that believes it already knows what grace should feel like.
The cry belongs to the passing pain; the mother's firm hand belongs to the freedom waiting beyond it.
Read the passage from the Manas
जदपि प्रथम दुख पावइ रोवइ बाल अधीर। ब्याधि नास हित जननी गनति न सो सिसु पीर।।74(क)।। तिमि रघुपति निज दासकर हरहिं मान हित लागि। तुलसिदास ऐसे प्रभुहि कस न भजहु भ्रम त्यागि।।74(ख)।।
Though at first the child suffers pain and cries in distress, the mother does not count the infant's agony when she is removing the disease for his good. Just so, Raghupati removes the mana (pride) of His own servants for their welfare. O Tulsidas, why do you not worship such a Prabhu, casting aside all delusion?