English Commentaries


Rama’s anguish at all beings over Sita’s abduction 3.64.54-65


There is a maxim “apatsu raksako dharmah” (Dharma is the saviour in a calamity). Rama says that even Dharma did not save Sita when she was kidnapped.

The idea is that if the gods could help me, then they would have saved Sita before she was kidnapped, they did not, so they cannot help. Here Rama talks with the feeling that all this disaster is due to their (Rama’s and Lakshmana’s) fault. Just like the Sun who rises eclipsing the moonlight, my valour will now shine throwing all other qualities to the background.
I shall make the triple world such that the fire, water and wind will be lost and the Sun will be hidden, with my arrows. There is another reading vipranasta khilama hadbhaskaradyuti. Its meaning is, “The world in which the light of all luminaries includes the Sun becomes dim. Then the world will be covered by darkness.