Shloka 2.20.53
अयोध्याकाण्डे विंशः सर्गः — Rama Enters Kauśalyā’s Antaḥpura; Ritual Preparations and the Shock of Exile
यदि ह्यकाले मरणं स्वयेच्छयालभेत कश्चिद्गुरुदुःखकर्शितः।गताहमद्यैव परेतसंसदंविना त्वया धेनुरिवात्मजेन वै।।।।
yadi hy akāle maraṇaṃ svayecchayā labheta kaścid guruduḥkhakarśitaḥ |
gatāham adyaiva paretasaṃsadaṃ vinā tvayā dhenur ivātmajena vai ||
If one, crushed by unbearable grief, could obtain an untimely death by sheer choice, then I would have gone this very day to the assembly of the departed, to Yama’s court; for without you I am like a cow without her calf.
If any one, tormented with great sorrow, could willingly commit suicide I would have gone the way to the assembly of Yama (the lord of death) right away as without you I will be now like a cow without a calf.
The verse highlights the moral weight of grief and attachment, while implicitly contrasting it with dharma: even when despair tempts one toward self-destruction, dharma calls for endurance and right action rather than surrender to impulse.
Kausalya laments to Rama in the palace context of impending separation, expressing that life without him feels like death and invoking Yama’s realm as an image of immediate departure.
Kausalya’s intense maternal love and emotional truthfulness are emphasized; she speaks candidly from grief, revealing the depth of her bond with Rama.