Ramayana — Ayodhya Kanda, Sarga 20, Shloka 37
अयोध्याकाण्डे विंशः सर्गः
Rama Enters Kauśalyā’s Antaḥpura; Ritual Preparations and the Shock of Exile
एक एव हि वन्ध्याया श्शोको भवति मानसः।अप्रजाऽस्मीति सन्तापो न ह्यन्यः पुत्र विद्यते।।।।
eka eva hi vandhyāyāḥ śoko bhavati mānasaḥ | aprajā asmi iti santāpo na hy anyaḥ putra vidyate ||
“For a barren woman, my son, there is only one sorrow in the mind—the burning pain of thinking, ‘I have no child’; beyond that, no other grief compares.”
O my son! a barren woman has only one mental agony that she has no progeny. Except that she does not have any other sorrow.
FAQs
Dharma is shown through truthful acknowledgment of lived suffering: Kausalyā articulates a culturally recognized pain (childlessness) to communicate the magnitude of her present grief without malice or accusation.
Kausalyā intensifies her lament by comparing her current anguish to the archetypal sorrow of childlessness, claiming this moment is worse.
Kausalyā’s candor and emotional honesty are emphasized, presenting grief as something to be voiced responsibly rather than turned into wrongdoing.