Ramayana — Ayodhya Kanda, Sarga 75, Shloka 55
अयोध्याकाण्डे पञ्चसप्ततितमः सर्गः
Sarga 75: Bharata and Kausalya—Reproach, Oaths, and Reconciliation
पानीयदूषके पापं तथैव विषदायके।यत्तदेकस्स लभतां यस्यार्योऽनुमते गतः।।।।
pānīya-dūṣake pāpaṃ tathaiva viṣa-dāyake | yat tad ekas sa labhatāṃ yasya āryo 'numate gataḥ ||
May he—by whose sanction my noble brother was exiled—alone receive that sin which belongs to one who pollutes drinking water and likewise to one who gives poison.
May the sin of polluting drinking water and administering poison to others be put together and be incurred by the man who counselled the exile of my esteemed brother!
FAQs
Harming shared necessities like water—or actively poisoning others—is extreme adharma; the verse uses these as benchmarks for the moral gravity of approving unjust harm.
Bharata heightens his denunciation by comparing the exile’s authorizer to perpetrators of acts that endanger communal life.
Protectiveness toward life and the common good, expressed through Bharata’s moral outrage at actions akin to poisoning society.