ता गिरो रामभद्रस्य तस्य चित्रार्पितैरिव । संश्रुताः शृणुकैरन्तरानन्दपदपीवरैः ॥ ४ ॥
tā girō rāmabhadrasya tasya citrārpitairiva | saṁśrutāḥ śṛṇukairantarānandapadapīvaraiḥ || 4 ||
Translation
Those words of the noble Rāma were heard by listeners who seemed painted in a picture, full within with the state of bliss:
Word by word
- tā
- (tāḥ) those
- girō
- (giraḥ) words
- rāmabhadrasya
- of the noble Rāma
- tasya
- that
- citra
- in a picture
- arpitair
- (arpitaiḥ) painted
- iva
- seemed
- saṁśrutāḥ
- were heard
- śṛṇukair
- (śṛṇukaiḥ) by listeners
- antar
- (antaḥ) within
- ānanda
- of bliss
- pada
- with the state
- pīvaraiḥ
- full
Meaning
Verses 4 to 11 are another long sentence, a list of who was listening. The commentary: they listened so attentively that, from their stillness, they looked like figures painted on a wall, and their faces shone with the joy within. The painting returns from 1.31.24, where Rāma said he would sit still "like a figure in a painting" if no one answered him. Now it is his hearers who have become still in that way, not from despair but from joy. Rāma is called Rāmabhadra, "Rāma the auspicious". The listeners are full (pīvara, "swollen") with the state of bliss (ānanda-pada). The reader may know the stillness that comes when one is listening wholly: nothing in the body moves, because nothing in the mind is going elsewhere.