Sri Ashoka Grove
26. There stands the Ashoka grove, before which sorrow itself flees. Many kinds of trees, each like a tree of heaven, reign in splendor.
मूल पाठ 26 कानन तहाँ अशोक शोक तेहि देखत भाजै । विविध भाँति के वृक्ष सबै वृन्दारक राजैं ॥२६॥
Context and commentary
The meditation has so far described Avadh's gardens and Sri Sarayu. The poet now turns to the principal grove.
At the meeting place of Avadh and the Sarayu stands the Ashoka forest, the eternal, stainless pleasure-grove of Sri Sita-Rama. Its qualities match its name: sorrow flees when it beholds the grove. Here sorrow means the pain of doubt about one's own true nature and the Lord's nature. When a saint directly sees the grove in meditation, that sorrowful doubt runs away. Then joy - the bliss of experiencing one's own true nature and the Lord's - arrives. For this reason it is also called Pramoda Vana, the Forest of Delight.
In the Ashoka forest no sorrow prevails. It is the splendid dwelling of throngs of Sita's bee-like companions. Playful hills, rivers, lakes, excellent birds, graceful gardens, rows of heavenly trees, and vine-covered bowers adorn it. Among companies of serpent beings, humans, gods, kings, and countless daughters of Gandharvas, Sita's Lord eternally reigns. On the Sarayu's bank a cool breeze blows, while they sit within beautiful pavilions and pleasure houses.
[From the Rasika Prakasha Bhaktamala. See also Sri Ashoka Vatika Vilasa by Sri Videhajasharan Maharaj and, for ancient scriptural testimony, the Valmiki Ramayana, Uttara Kanda, chapter 42. Vrindaraka means "deity."]
Valmiki Ji calls it the Ashoka Vanika; the Janaki Gita calls it the Ashoka Vatika; and the Upanishad calls it the Somasa forest.
In the supreme abode this grove contains trees of many species, colors, and forms. Principal among them are ashoka, mango, amra, kadamba, bel, plantain, champaka, tamala, coconut, jambu, jackfruit, areca, and many nut and fruit trees such as almond and date. Their colors are green, blue, yellow, and red. Some are high and some low; some spread narrowly and others widely. Clusters of lovely flowering vines wave among them.
All are vrindaraka: they form excellent groups, and divine powers have taken bodies as trees and creepers in order to serve the happiness of the Divine Couple. All the celestial trees - mandara, parijata, santanaka, kalpataru, and harichandana - also reign there. This is verse 26.
27. Who could tell the incomparable beauty of their branches and leaves? Seeing their masses of fruit and flowers, one loses awareness of the body.
मूल पाठ 27 साखा पत्र अनूप कहा कहाँ शोभा उनको । फल कुसुमन के झुण्ड निरखि सुधि रहत न तन की ॥२७॥
Commentary
The branches and leaves of those trees are incomparable. The compassionate poet asks, "How could my mouth describe their beauty?" Because they are all divine vrindarakas, they are incomparable and beyond speech; they can only delight the mind. From top to bottom they are adorned with masses of fruit and flowers. Beholding them, one loses bodily awareness. Sri Sita-Rama, the compassionate Couple, have touched those trees with their lotus hands and watered them with the nectar of their gracious glances. They therefore immerse the beholder in bliss and make bodily awareness disappear. This is verse 27.
28. Near a wish-fulfilling tree stands a wondrous, jewel-filled palace. All its ground is made of gold and shines with marvelous brilliance.
मूल पाठ 28 कल्पवृक्ष के निकट तहाँ इक धाम मणिन जुत । कंचनमय सब भूमि परम अति राजत अद्भुत ॥२८॥
Commentary
Near the wish-fulfilling tree stands the principal palace, made of gold and filled with jewels; the whole ground likewise consists of jeweled gold and shines with extraordinary light.
At the center of all the divine trees stands a celestial kalpavriksha. Its root is made of the jewel of compassionate rasa; its strong blue trunk is firm as a thunderbolt; its boughs and branches radiate like blue gemstones; and its tender green leaves shine. It bears fragrant red flowers like nectar and red, joy-giving fruits like wish-fulfilling gems, filled with the essence of ambrosia. Drops of nectar continually fall from it. The tree is the visible form of the Divine Couple's compassion, generosity, and power to grant boons.
Beside that kalpavriksha stands the one principal abode, highest among all abodes, marvelous, varied, and beyond the ordinary world.
Sri Agracharya Swami presents this meditation upon Sri Sita-Rama in a form accepted by all authorities. It distills the essential portions of the Sri Rama Tapani, Sri Rama Stavaraja, Agastya Samhita, Sundari Tantra, and other Rama-rahasya texts. It accords with his own contemplative vision and with the rasas of love, friendship, service, and the others. It unites eternal and occasioned majesty in a form of supreme sweetness.
How wondrous is the principal palace? It is shaped like a lotus. The outermost audience hall surrounds it and contains thirty-two magnificent arched gates, with pillars inlaid with gold and gems and graceful projecting roofs above. The thirty-two gates resemble a lotus's thirty-two petals. Inside it runs a second encircling hall with sixteen lovely gates. Within that is a third round, expansive, lotus-shaped hall with twelve gates. Further within stands the cuckoo-shaped inner sanctuary with eight gates on every side.
The royal yantra of Sri Rama has the same order: first an outer great lotus of thirty-two petals, within it a lotus of sixteen petals, then one of twelve, a fourth of eight, and a fifth also of eight petals. At the temple's center stands an eight-sided golden platform. Such is this astonishing abode. This is verse 28.
29. At the center of a golden platform stands a throne made of jewels. In the middle of that throne is a supremely auspicious lotus-seat.
मूल पाठ 29 स्वर्ण वेदिका मध्य तहाँ एक रतन सिंहासन । सिंहासन के मध्य परम अति पद्म सुभासन ॥२९॥
Commentary
The platform is fashioned with abundant radiance and supreme loveliness. Upon it stands the one principal, incomparable throne of jewels. A royal lion's seat is called a simhasana; this jeweled throne is the seat of young King Raghu's lion together with Sri Sita.
It is octagonal and supported by eight feet, with a lion cub adorning each. At its center lies a supremely divine and auspicious eight-petaled lotus-seat, formed from the eightfold primordial nature and the eight powers beginning with anima. Some describe a thousand-petaled lotus, but the Tapani, the Stavaraja, and Sri Agra Swami's Ashtayama specify eight petals. This is verse 29.
30. At the lotus's heart, its beautiful central pericarp shines. There an astonishing radiance blazes, comparable only to fire.
मूल पाठ 30 ताके मध्य सुदेस कणिका सुन्दर राजै । अति अद्भुत तहाँ तेज वह्नि सम उपमा छाजै ॥३०॥
Commentary
At the center of the lotus-seat shines its beautiful middle, the pericarp or central dais. It is luminous living reality, the transcendent conscious power in the form of the principle of the individual soul. Its seeds are said to be the fifty letters. Other works say that an astonishing flame-like radiance shines in this lotus pericarp.
First comes the solar mandala, then the lunar, then the fire mandala. The lower radiance resembles the sun, the upper resembles fire, and the moon-like brilliance lies between them. Its white light merges into the radiance of fire and sun, so that only fire-like light is visible. Because all three are united, the splendor is truly astonishing. This is verse 30.