The verse and its meaning · Sundarkand · Sundarkand — Hanuman Crosses to Lanka

Tongue Among Teeth

Sundarkand 7

सुनहु पवन-सुत रहनि हमारी। जिमि दसनन्हि महँ जीभ बिचारी । तात कबहुँ मोहि जानि अनाथा। करिहहिँ कृपा भानुकुल-नाथा॥१ । तामस तनु कछु साधन नाहीं । प्रीति न पद-सरोज मन माहीं । अब मोहि भा भरोस हनुमन्ता । बिनु हरि कृपा मिलहिँ नहिँ सन्ता ॥२ । जौँ रघुबीर अनुग्रह कीन्हा । तौ तुम्ह मोहि दरस हठि दीन्हा । सुनहु बिभीषन प्रभु कै रीती । करहिं सदा सेवक पर प्रीती ॥३ । कहहु कवन मैं परम कुलीना । कपि चञ्चल सबहीं बिधि हीना । प्रात लेइ जो नाम हमारा । तेहि दिन ताहि न मिलइ अहारा ॥४ । अस मैं अधम सखा सुनु,मोहू पर रघुवीर । कीन्ही कृपा सुमिरि गुन, भरे बिलोचन नीर ॥७

Meaning · English

I live like a tongue among teeth, son of the Wind. No practice, no love for his feet; only Hari's grace brings a saint. The Lord loves servants. I am a fickle monkey, lowly; who says my name at dawn goes unfed. Yet Raghuvir was kind; eyes filled.

Shiva is telling Parvati this exchange. Vibhishana speaks first and Hanuman answers him. Vibhishana, living among the demons of Lanka, says he lives as the tongue lives among thirty-two teeth: soft, guarded, always at risk. He calls himself anatha, one with no master or protector. He hopes the lord of the Sun's line may one day remember him with kripa, grace, which comes from a root meaning tenderness. He says his nature is tamasa, heavy and dark, and that he has no practice and no love for Rama's feet. Still he feels sure, because saints do not meet anyone without Hari's grace, and meeting Hanuman is proof. Anugraha, favour, is the word he uses for Rama's act: Hanuman's coming to him was not his own doing. Hanuman takes up his words. Addressing Vibhishana, he says it is Rama's way to love his servants always. Then he turns on himself. He is no kulina, no one of good family. He is a restless monkey, poor in every way. Whoever speaks the name of such a creature at dawn will find no food that day. Yet Raghuvir was kind to him too. Remembering Rama's virtues, his eyes fill with tears. The lines answer Vibhishana's fear that he is too unworthy to be noticed. Hanuman answers with his own example. It asks nothing of the listener except to hear that the text sets grace above worth.

A seedling stands in a crack between paving stones, where nobody planted it and thousands of feet pass. Rain reaches it anyway and it grows. The seedling is the unworthy servant, and the rain is grace, which comes to the small place without asking what it has earned.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

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• Before: A Good Man Awake · Sundarkand 6
• All of Sundarkand · Ask Krishna about it

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