Shloka 2.73.4
भरतस्य कैकेय्याः प्रति धिक्कारः — Bharata’s Rebuke of Kaikeyi and Affirmation of Ikshvaku Royal Dharma
कुलस्य त्वमभावाय कालरात्रिरिवाऽगता।अङ्गारमुपगूह्य स्म पिता मे नावबुद्धवान्।।।।
kulasya tvam abhāvāya kālarātrir ivāgatā |
aṅgāram upagūhya sma pitā me nāvabuddhavān ||
You have come like a night of doom to destroy this lineage; my father did not know that, in embracing you, he was clasping a living coal.
You have come here for the destruction of this race, like a fatal night. My father did not realize that he was embracing a live charcoal.
The verse warns that adharma entering intimate spaces (marriage, counsel) can consume an entire polity; rulers must discern character and counsel wisely to protect kula and rāṣṭra.
Bharata bitterly characterizes Kaikeyi as the destructive force behind the family’s collapse, lamenting Dasharatha’s failure to foresee the danger.
Discernment (viveka) is emphasized indirectly by its absence in Dasharatha’s misjudgment and by Bharata’s sharp moral clarity.