Canto 2: Ayodhyā-kāṇḍa ()Chapter 59: Sumantra Describes the Agony of all Creatures in the CountryText 2.59.5
Canto 2 -
Ayodhyā-kāṇḍa
Chapter 59: Sumantra Describes the Agony of all Creatures in the Country
Text 2.59.5
मम त्वश्वा निवृत्तस्य न प्रावर्तन्त वर्त्मनि।
उष्णमश्रु प्रमुञ्चन्तो रामे संप्रस्थिते वनम्॥
mama tv aśvā nivṛttasya na prāvartanta vartmani
uṣṇam aśru pramuñcanto rāme samprasthite vanam
mama tu = my; aśvāḥ = horses; nivṛttasya = when I wanted to return; na = did not; prāvartanta = proceed; vartmani = on the path; uṣṇam = hot; aśru = tears; pramuñcantaḥ = they shed; rāme = when Rāma; samprasthite = had departed; vanam = to the forest.
When I wanted to return, my horses did not proceed on the path. They shed hot tears when Rāma had departed to the forest.
Sumantra’s horses did not proceed on the path due to feelings of separation from Bhagavān Rāmacandra.
GLOSS. The horses didn’t proceed on the path, that is, they went elsewhere.
NOTE. These are symptoms of love of Godhead which is fully transcendental to all kinds of material affection, including pious and selfless material affection. A detailed analysis of the nature of love of Godhead is found in Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī’s Prīti-sandarbha. Readers can also study the remarkable book Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta by Ācārya Sanātana Gosvāmī.
Such Bhagavat-prema appears, by the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in liberated souls who descend with the Lord from His abode to this world. Such souls may appear to be in various species of life, but they experience pleasures that are unimaginably superior to the greatest type of liberation from material existence.