Valmiki Ramayana 2.105.19: Ayodhya Kanda, Sarga 105, Shloka 19
भरतस्य प्रार्थना · रामस्य कालधर्मोपदेशः
Bharata’s Petition and Rama’s Instruction on Time and Mortality
Spoken by Lakshmana to RamaSetting: River (imagined/mentioned)Places named: Yamunā, Ocean (Samudra)
अत्येति रजनी या तु सा न प्रतिनिवर्तते ।
यात्येव यमुना पूर्णा समुद्रमुदकाकुलम् ॥१९॥
atyeti rajanī yā tu sā na pratinivartate |
yāty eva yamunā pūrṇā samudram udakākulam ||19||
जब रात गुज़र जाती है, वो वापस नहीं आती। यमुना नदी भी ऐसे ही बहती चली जाती है समुंदर की तरफ़, और वापस नहीं आती।
Sandhi Notes
- yāti + eva → yātyeva
- samudram + udakākulam → samudramudakākulam
A night that once passe off does not return like the waters of river Yamuna that flowinto the ocean filled with water (the water do not flow back into Yamuna).
The teaching
What has passed does not return—time and life move onward like a river to the sea.
Duties in tension
- Dwelling in past loss vs. acting rightly in the present
- Attachment to what has passed vs. acceptance of kāla’s one-way movement
- Ethical theme
- Kāla-bodha / śoka-nivṛtti
- How it resolves
- Kāla-viveka (discernment about time)
For your practice
Mindfulness of time’s irreversibility to strengthen present-moment dharma and reduce rumination.
Mood and themes
- Rasa
- Shanta (peace), with Karuna (compassion)
- Mood
- Flowing, irreversible, contemplative
Themes
- Dharma
- Time
- Impermanence
- Ethics
Time carries all experiences forward; the wise seek that which is not carried away by time (akṣara).
River-to-ocean imagery echoes dissolution/merging metaphors used for the finite into the vast (though here stressing one-way passage).
Rātri
- Yamuna River and Ocean
- Natural flow/merging (neutral inevitability)
Mahābhārata: frequent kāla-irreversibility similes (time as river); Bhagavad Gītā 11.32 (kālo ’smi… as devouring time) as thematic parallel
Vedic river hymns (nadī-stuti) repurposed as philosophical metaphor
Ramayana’s repeated ‘time does not return’ consolations in grief contexts; river crossings and flow imagery across Ayodhyā/Araṇya-kāṇḍa
Anuṣṭup (śloka)
Narrative
Madhyama-pravāha (even, flowing cadence)
FAQs
It teaches urgency in dharma: time is irreversible, so one should act truthfully and rightly now rather than postponing duty.
The speaker uses images of night and river-flow to emphasize that what is gone cannot be retrieved.
Apramāda (vigilance): careful, timely action aligned with dharma.
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