Ramcharitmanas: Bala Kanda, Prakarana 13
दोहा 125
भक्ति का जन्म-चरण: जिज्ञासा (प्रश्न) से श्रद्धा, फिर श्रद्धा से शरणागति। बालकाण्ड ‘सोपान’ में साधक को ‘कथा-प्रवेश’ का अधिकार देता है—जहाँ अहं-रहित प्रश्न (उमा) और कृपा-समाधान (शंकर) से मानस-सर में प्रथम अवगाहन होता है। यहाँ रामावतार का हेतु ‘धर्म-स्थापन’ मात्र नहीं, ‘भक्त-हित’ और ‘माया-विनय’ भी है—अर्थात् मुक्ति-सीढ़ी की पहली पायदान: मोह-नाश और राम-स्वरूप-परिचय।
सुख हाड़ लै भाग सठ स्वान निरखि मृगराज।छीनि लेइ जनि जान जड़ तिमि सुरपतिहि न लाज।।125।।
sukha hāṛa lai bhāga saṭha svāna nirakhi mṛgarāja |chīni lei jani jāna jaṛa timi surapatihi na lāja ||125||
जैसे कोई बेवकूफ कुत्ता सूखा हड्डी मुह में दबाकर भागता है, शेर को देखकर, डरता है कि शेर उसकी हड्डी छीन ना ले। वैसे ही बेवकूफ इंद्र, जो देवताओं का राजा है, उसको कोई शर्म नहीं आयी ऐसे चिचलापन से।
Speaker
Tulsidas (narratorial moral voice)
Listener
General audience (satsaṅga readership/listeners)
Shanta
The scene
The prasanga
A didactic aside in Bala-kanda employing a proverb-like image to censure petty fear and petty accusation: small-minded persons assume the great will behave like them, but true nobility does not stoop to trifles.
The teaching
- Themes
- नीति-उपदेश, विवेक और वैराग्य, तुच्छ सुखों की निस्सारता, महानता बनाम क्षुद्रता, आत्मसंयम
For right living (Ramrajya ethics)
Raj-dharma as restraint: the truly powerful do not prey upon the weak or contend for petty gains; authority is measured by self-control, not acquisitiveness.
Nirguna and saguna
The verse implies that supreme greatness is beyond grasping and rivalry (a nirguna-like transcendence of need), yet it is illustrated through royal, personal imagery (saguna ‘lion/Indra’), showing how transcendence expresses itself as dignified conduct within the manifest world.
Tulsi frames a moral by a vivid animal image: the petty-minded cling to small gains and flee in fear of true greatness. The ‘lion’ signifies genuine majesty and dharmic authority, which does not stoop to seize trivial possessions; dignity lies in restraint. Traditional Manas expositors read this as a rebuke to those who impute pettiness to the noble (or to God): the truly great neither envy nor compete for what is insignificant, and their ‘lajja’ is not social embarrassment but the principled decorum of maryādā.
Doha (13/11 mātrā pattern per line; two lines, each with 24 mātrās split 13+11)
Upama (explicit simile: dog and lion as moral analogues); Drishtanta (exemplum-style moral illustration); Anuprasa (light alliteration in consonant clusters: ‘s…’, ‘l…’ sounds)
Vishishtadvaita-leaning (a personal Lord whose greatness includes ethical majesty and restraint)
Bilawal (common, steady raga for didactic doha recitation in many Manas-path traditions)
सुख-हाड़ लै भाग सठ स्वान, निरखि मृग-राज।
छीनि लेइ जनि जान, जड़, तिमि सुर-पति-हि न लाज।।
- सुख
- आनंद, तृप्तिOrigin: Sanskrit
- हाड़
- हड्डी (तुच्छ वस्तु का संकेत)Origin: Awadhi
- सठ
- दुष्ट/मूर्ख/कुटिलOrigin: Sanskrit
- स्वान
- कुत्ताOrigin: Sanskrit
- मृगराज
- सिंह, पशुओं का राजाOrigin: Sanskrit
- How does the use of Sanskritized Awadhi here elevate the 'Loka' (folk) to the 'Shastra' (scriptural)?
- Tulsi uses a village-clear proverb (dog, bone, lion) but frames it with Sanskritic register markers—compounds and honorific titles like “mṛgarāja” and “surapati.” This hybrid diction lets the line function simultaneously as folk wisdom and as a normative, almost śāstric maxim about authority and decorum. The effect is to legitimize everyday ethical insight as dharma-teaching: the vernacular image carries the immediacy of loka, while the Sanskritized nouns and compact syntax give it the aphoristic weight associated with śāstra.
- What is the specific 'Siddhanta' (doctrine) Tulsidas establishes regarding the Name (Nama) vs Form (Rupa)?
- This verse does not directly argue the Nama–Rupa hierarchy; instead it presupposes a doctrine of divine and noble sufficiency: the truly great have no need to grasp at the petty. In Manas theology, that sufficiency supports the broader Nama–Rupa teaching: whether approached as the manifest Lord (rūpa) or as the transcendent reality accessible through the Name (nāma), the Divine is not conditioned by lack. Thus the verse indirectly reinforces the Manas siddhanta that devotion is not a transactional bargain for small gains; the Lord’s majesty (known through rūpa) and the Lord’s transcendence (tasted through nāma) both stand beyond petty competition and worldly scarcity.
- How does this verse reflect the poet's 'Kavi-Manas' (the lake of the poet's mind) metaphor?
- The ‘Kavi-Manas’ metaphor implies that Tulsi’s mind-lake holds reflections that are both simple and profound: common sights become mirrors of dharma. Here, a quick, almost proverbial snapshot is refined into a moral principle about greatness and restraint. The verse exemplifies how the poet’s inner reservoir transforms ordinary observation into a polished ethical reflection—accessible to lay listeners yet capable of sustaining layered theological and political readings (nobility, divine sufficiency, and the ethics of rule).
FAQs
कुत्ता तुच्छ ‘हाड़’ (हड्डी) पाकर सुखी होकर भागता है और सिंह को देखकर डर जाता है। तुलसीदास बताते हैं कि महान (सिंह) तुच्छ वस्तु के लिए छीना-झपटी नहीं करता—वैसे ही देवताओं के स्वामी (इन्द्र) को ऐसी क्षुद्र बातों में लज्जा/आवश्यकता नहीं।
यहाँ ‘लाज’ का अर्थ संकोच/प्रतिस्पर्धा करने की जरूरत भी है। भाव यह कि उच्च पद/महत्ता वाला व्यक्ति तुच्छ लाभ के लिए संघर्ष नहीं करता; यह वैराग्य और विवेक की नीति है।
साधक को क्षणिक, छोटे सुखों (हाड़) के पीछे भागकर भय/अस्थिरता में नहीं पड़ना चाहिए; बड़े लक्ष्य (भक्ति, धर्म, आत्मकल्याण) के सामने तुच्छ आकर्षणों को महत्व न देना ही विवेक है।
Ask anything about this verse
Answers come straight from the texts, with the shlokas they draw on. Ask in your own words.
A free sign-in with Google or Apple keeps your chat saved across web and the app.
Read Ramcharitmanas in the Vedapath app
Scan the QR code to open this directly in the app, with word-by-word meanings, Awadhi recitation where available, and more.
