Shloka 6.114.31
रावणस्य अन्त्येष्टिः — Ravana’s Funeral Rites and the Ethics of Post-War Conduct
अल्पपुण्यात्वहंघोरेपतिताशोकसागरे ।कैलासेमन्दरेमेरौतथाचैत्ररथेवने ।।।।देवोद्यानेषुसर्वेषुविहृत्यसहितात्वया ।विमानेनानुरूपेणयायाम्यतुलयाश्रिया ।।।।पश्यन्तिविविधान्देशांस्तांस्तांश्चित्रस्रगम्बरा ।भ्रम्शिताकामभोगेभ्यःसास्मिवीरवधात्तव ।।।।सैवान्येवास्मिसम्वृत्ताधिग्राज्ञांचञ्चलाःश्रियः ।
alpapuṇyā tv ahaṃ ghore patitā śokasāgare |
kailāse mandare merau tathā caitrarathe vane ||
devodyāneṣu sarveṣu vihṛtya sahitā tvayā |
vimānenānurūpeṇa yāyāmy atulayā śriyā ||
paśyantī vividhān deśān tāṃs tāṃś citrasragambarā |
bhraṃśitā kāmabhogebhyaḥ sāsmi vīra vadhāt tava ||
saivānyevā smi saṃvṛttā dhig rājñāṃ cañcalāḥ śriyaḥ ||
I, with only scant merit, have fallen into this dreadful ocean of grief. Once, together with you, I roamed Kailāsa, Mandara, and Meru, and the forest of Caitraratha; we enjoyed every divine garden, traveling in a fitting aerial car with incomparable splendor. Wearing wondrous garlands and garments, I beheld many lands—yet now, because you have been slain, O hero, I have been cast down from pleasures. Alas! Royal fortunes are fickle; I am no longer the same as before.
"O Hero! Whose stock of merit was less, that you have tumbled down into an ocean of grief. I, having sported with you, clad in picturesque robes and the like, by the aerial car Chaitra ratha on mount Kailasa, Mount Meru and Mandara as well as in divine gardens all over, and various lands with matchless splendour, have been deprived of sensual pleasures because of your falling down. What a pity I am surrounded by ordinary women changed into another woman with fleeting fortunes!"
The verse teaches impermanence: worldly śrī (splendor, fortune) is cañcalā (unstable). Dharma urges detachment from pride in power and luxury, recognizing that ethical failure can overturn prosperity.
Mandodarī mourns Rāvaṇa, remembering their former celestial pleasures and travels, and contrasts that past magnificence with her present desolation after his death.
Clear-eyed realism and reflective wisdom in grief: Mandodarī acknowledges the instability of royal fortune and the fragility of pleasure.