Shloka 6.87.13
न्यग्रोध-प्रवेश-निवारणम् (Preventing Indrajit’s Banyan-Tree Rite) / Indrajit Confronts Vibhishana
शोच्यस्त्वमसिदुर्बुद्धेनिन्दनीयश्चसाधुभिः ।यस्त्वंस्वजनमुत्सृज्यपरभृत्यत्वमागतः ।।6.87.13।।
śocyas tvam asi durbuddhe nindanīyaś ca sādhubhiḥ | yas tvaṃ svajanam utsṛjya para-bhṛtyatvam āgataḥ ||6.87.13||
“You are to be pitied, O foolish-minded one—and condemned by the good—for you have cast off your own people and come to serve another.”
"You are evil- minded, think. You are pitiable and to be blamed for you have abandoned your own people and sought the enemy's protection."
It interrogates the ethics of ‘betrayal’ versus ‘conscience’: leaving one’s group can be condemned socially, yet the Ramayana frames Vibhīṣaṇa’s choice as fidelity to satya and dharma when one’s own side becomes adharma.
Indrajit argues that moral people will denounce Vibhīṣaṇa for abandoning Laṅkā and joining Rāma.
The contested virtue is loyalty; the epic ultimately favors principled loyalty to dharma over tribal loyalty.