Ramcharitmanas: Ayodhya Kanda, Prakarana 4
दोहा 31
त्याग-दीक्षा का सोपान: जहाँ ‘राज्य’ (भोग-धर्म) का मोह टूटकर ‘वन’ (वैराग्य-धर्म) का द्वार खुलता है। अयोध्या काण्ड साधक को यह सिखाता है कि धर्म केवल शुभ-घटना नहीं, बल्कि पीड़ा में सत्य-पालन, वचन-रक्षा, और ईश्वर-आज्ञा-स्वीकार की तपस्या है—यही मुक्ति-सीढ़ी का निर्णायक मोड़ है।
लोभु न रामहि राजु कर बहुत भरत पर प्रीति।मैं बड़ छोट बिचारि जियँ करत रहेउँ नृपनीति।।31।।
lobhu na rāmahi rāju kara bahuta bharata para prīti |maiṁ baṛa choṭa bicāri jiyã karata raheũ nṛpanīti ||31||
राम को राज पर कोई लालच नहीं है, और वो भरत से बहुत प्यार करता है. मैं बस राजा का रूल फॉलो कर रहा था, दिल में सोच रहा था कि कौन बड़ा है और कौन छोटा है.
Speaker
Dasharatha
Listener
Kaikeyi
Karuna (with Vatsalya undertone)
The scene
The prasanga
In the Ayodhya Kanda, Dasharatha is pleading with an angry Kaikeyi. He tries to justify his plan to crown Rama and to reassure her about Bharata. He says that Rama is free of greed and loves Bharata deeply, and that he himself only followed the royal custom of seniority.
The teaching
- Themes
- राम की निर्लोभता, भाइयों का पारस्परिक प्रेम, राजधर्म और नृपनीति, ज्येष्ठ-कनिष्ठ की मर्यादा, पिता की व्याकुलता और मनुहार
For right living (Ramrajya ethics)
The verse upholds nriti, the king's duty to follow settled custom, here succession by the elder. It also upholds a ruler's freedom from greed and the family bond of love between brothers, which are the foundations of Ramrajya.
Nirguna and saguna
Rama's total freedom from craving (lobhu na) is a nirguna-like quality of desirelessness. It is shown through a very human, Saguna conduct of loving a younger brother, so the unattached Absolute is seen as a lovable person.
Dasharatha, trying to calm Kaikeyi, says that Rama has no greed for the kingdom and loves Bharata deeply. He explains that he had only considered who was elder and who was younger, and so followed the established custom of kings. Commentators note the pathos of a king who cannot yet see that his explanation is the very thing Kaikeyi resents. The verse praises Rama's detachment and shows the old rule of succession by seniority. It also shows Dasharatha's gentle, defensive affection for both sons.
Doha (13/11 matra pattern in each line, rhyming at the line ends: प्रीति / नृपनीति)
Anuprasa (alliteration) in the repeated 'र', 'ब' and 'प' sounds (राजु, रामहि, भरत, बहुत, पर, प्रीति). Contrast (pratipaksha) in 'बड़ छोट', set against the equal love for both brothers. Hetu (offering a cause) in 'बिचारि जियँ करत रहेउँ नृपनीति', where custom is given as the reason for his act. Vakrokti (indirect pleading) in the way Dasharatha shifts the blame onto royal custom.
The verse speaks of Rama as free from greed for the throne. This fits the Vishishtadvaita-leaning Saguna view in which the Lord's qualities (guna) belong to his manifest person and are not mere attributes laid on him. A king's attachment (Dasharatha's anxious pleading) and the Lord's detachment (Rama's lack of lobha) are set side by side.
Raga Bhairavi, whose tender and pleading mood suits Dasharatha's anxious reassurance.
लोभु | न | रामहि | राजु | कर | बहुत | भरत | पर | प्रीति |
मैं | बड़ | छोट | बिचारि | जियँ | करत | रहेउँ | नृप-नीति ||
- लोभु
- लालच, पाने की तीव्र इच्छाOrigin: Sanskrit
- प्रीति
- प्रेम, स्नेहOrigin: Sanskrit
- बिचारि
- सोच-विचार करकेOrigin: Sanskrit
- जियँ
- मन में, हृदय मेंOrigin: Awadhi
- नृपनीति
- राजाओं की रीति या राजधर्मOrigin: Sanskrit
- How does the use of Sanskritized Awadhi here elevate the 'Loka' (folk) to the 'Shastra' (scriptural)?
- The words लोभु, राजु, प्रीति, बिचारि and नृपनीति are tatsama or near-tatsama terms from the Sanskrit tradition of rajadharma. They give the speech the weight of political and ethical scripture. Beside them stand plain spoken Awadhi forms such as मैं, जियँ, छोट and रहेउँ, which keep the tone of a husband pleading in a household. The pairing means that a domestic quarrel is voiced in the vocabulary of the Shastra, so that folk speech carries a scriptural teaching on kingship. The compound नृपनीति in particular lifts a personal excuse into a statement of a general law of succession.
- What is the specific 'Siddhanta' (doctrine) Tulsidas establishes regarding the Name (Nama) vs Form (Rupa)?
- This verse does not state the Nama-Rupa doctrine in so many words, so it should be read only in the light of what it shows. The name 'Rama' appears here (रामहि) linked at once to the qualities of freedom from greed and love for Bharata. The name therefore cannot be separated from the character it names, and the sound already carries the Lord's virtues. This agrees with Tulsidas's wider teaching that Nama and Rupa are inseparable, and that the name holds the form's qualities. Here those qualities are renunciation and fraternal love, which Dasharatha cites as a guarantee.
- How does this verse reflect the poet's 'Kavi-Manas' (the lake of the poet's mind) metaphor?
- In the Manas metaphor the poem is a lake whose waters are filled by the poet's reflection, and here the phrase 'बिचारि जियँ' places that reflection in the heart. Dasharatha's thought is shown as something settled in the heart, as in a still pool, that he now tries to bring up to the surface for Kaikeyi. The two brothers, बड़ and छोट, are like two banks of the lake, and the king's love for both keeps the water level between them. The verse also shows the poet's habit of making a human mind transparent so that the reader sees through to the moral depths below. Dasharatha's inner deliberation becomes a clear ghat from which the reader can draw out the lesson of dharma.
FAQs
दशरथ कहते हैं कि राम को राज्य का कोई लोभ नहीं है। वे यह भी कहते हैं कि राम का भरत पर बहुत प्रेम है। इस तरह वे कैकेयी की आशंका को शांत करना चाहते हैं।
नृपनीति का अर्थ है राजाओं की रीति, यहाँ बड़े पुत्र को राजा बनाने की परंपरा। दशरथ ने मन में बड़े और छोटे का विचार करके इसी रीति का पालन किया था। इससे उनका आशय है कि उन्होंने किसी पक्षपात से नहीं, बल्कि परंपरा के कारण राम को चुना।
इसमें करुण रस का भाव प्रमुख है, क्योंकि दशरथ व्याकुल होकर अपनी सफाई दे रहे हैं और कैकेयी को मनाना चाहते हैं। 'बड़ छोट' में विरोध का चमत्कार है और 'र', 'ब', 'प' की आवृत्ति से अनुप्रास बनता है। छंद दोहा है, जिसमें 13 और 11 मात्राओं के चरण हैं।
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