Ramcharitmanas: Ayodhya Kanda, Prakarana 6
सोरठा 50
राजधर्म बनाम प्रेम—यह सोपान साधक को ‘स्वत्व’ (अहं-हित) से उठाकर ‘धर्म-हित’ (ईश-आज्ञा) में स्थिर करता है। अयोध्या काण्ड में राम का राज्य-त्याग और वन-गमन बाह्य घटना नहीं, वैराग्य-दीक्षा है: आसक्ति का परित्याग, वचन-पालन, और लोक-कल्याण हेतु स्वेच्छा से कष्ट-स्वीकार। इस चरण पर साधक सीखता है कि मुक्ति-मार्ग में ‘उचित’ वही है जो ईश्वर-आज्ञा और सत्य-प्रतिज्ञा के साथ हो, चाहे मन-प्रिय न हो।
सखिन्ह सिखावनु दीन्ह सुनत मधुर परिनाम हित।तेइँ कछु कान न कीन्ह कुटिल प्रबोधी कूबरी।।50।।
sakhinha sikhāvanu dīnha sunata madhura parināma hita |teĩ kachu kāna na kīnha kuṭila prabodhī kūbarī ||50||
उसकी सहेलियां ने उसको ऐसी समझ दी थी जो सुनने मे मीठी थी और रिजल्ट मे भी उसके फायदे की थी। पर उसने एक कान नही सुना, क्यों कि टेढी कुबरी, मंथरा, पहले ही उसको भड़का चुकी थी।
Speaker
Tulsidas (narrator)
Listener
General audience
Karuna (with a Shanta, cautionary undertone)
The scene
The prasanga
In Ayodhya Kanda, Kaikeyi has been won over by the crooked maid Manthara. Her friends now give her wholesome counsel, and the poet states that it fails because Manthara had already shaped her mind.
The teaching
- Themes
- हितकारी सलाह की अवहेलना, कुसंग का प्रभाव, मंथरा की कुटिलता, सखियों का सद्परामर्श, विवेक का आवरण, दैवी लीला में मानवीय दोष
For right living (Ramrajya ethics)
The verse teaches that good counsel and trusted friends protect a ruler's household, and that a mind pre-poisoned by a flatterer cannot hear it. In Ramrajya's ethics, listening humbly to wholesome advice is a duty of those in power. Keeping company with the crooked destroys judgment.
Nirguna and saguna
Rama does not appear in this verse. Yet the contrast between counsel that is hita (good) and a mind that has turned crooked points to the same Reality acting through the manifest world, where grace is offered through friendly voices and can be refused. The Lord's play (lila) proceeds even through human blindness.
Commentators read this verse as the poet's explanation of why Kaikeyi could not be turned back. Her sakhis gave her counsel that was pleasant to hear and good in its outcome, but she gave it no ear. The cause is named plainly: the crooked hunchback Manthara had already instructed her. The lesson is that advice offered after the mind has been poisoned cannot take root, and that evil company works first and works deepest.
Soratha (11 + 13 matras per line, with the rhyme in the middle of the couplet: दीन्ह / कीन्ह at the ends of the 11-matra halves). Line 1: सखिन्ह सिखावनु दीन्ह | सुनत मधुर परिनाम हित. Line 2: तेइँ कछु कान न कीन्ह | कुटिल प्रबोधी कूबरी.
Anuprasa (alliteration) of the k-sound in कछु, कान, कीन्ह, कुटिल, कूबरी. Antya-yamaka or rhyme in दीन्ह / कीन्ह. Virodha (contrast) between the madhur, hita counsel of the friends and the kutil teaching of Manthara. Kavyalinga (cause given for the effect), since the reason for the neglect is stated in कुटिल प्रबोधी कूबरी. The word कुटिल suggests both a crooked mind and a crooked body.
The verse leans toward Vishishtadvaita's view that the jiva acts according to the impressions and company it takes in. A mind already coloured by Manthara's teaching shuts out the counsel that would lead to its good, and so drifts away from the Lord's design. Hearing and instruction (sravana, upadesha) are shown to shape the soul's course.
Raga Bhairavi, whose grave, tender and slightly foreboding mood suits the quiet pathos of good advice going unheard.
सखिन्ह | सिखावनु | दीन्ह | सुनत | मधुर | परिनाम | हित |
तेइँ | कछु | कान | न | कीन्ह | कुटिल | प्रबोधी | कूबरी ||
- सिखावनु
- सीख, उपदेश, शिक्षा देने वाली बातOrigin: Awadhi
- मधुर
- मीठा, सुनने में प्रियOrigin: Sanskrit
- परिनाम
- अंतिम फल, परिणामOrigin: Sanskrit
- कुटिल
- टेढ़ा, छली, कपटीOrigin: Sanskrit
- कूबरी
- कुबड़ी दासी, मंथराOrigin: Awadhi
- How does the use of Sanskritized Awadhi here elevate the 'Loka' (folk) to the 'Shastra' (scriptural)?
- The homely Awadhi forms सखिन्ह, सिखावनु, दीन्ह, कान and कूबरी stay close to everyday speech. They are set beside Sanskrit-derived words such as मधुर, परिनाम, हित, कुटिल and प्रबोधी. The pairing of परिनाम and हित carries the shastric idea that conduct is judged by its final outcome, not by momentary pleasure. In this way an ordinary domestic scene takes on the weight of a moral teaching.
- What is the specific 'Siddhanta' (doctrine) Tulsidas establishes regarding the Name (Nama) vs Form (Rupa)?
- This verse does not speak of Nama and Rupa directly, so no doctrine on them is stated here. What it does show is the power of the spoken word: Manthara's words had already settled in Kaikeyi's mind, and the friends' sweet words could not displace them. By implication, a word heard and taken in acts with a force of its own, which prepares the reader to see why the right word, the divine Name, is held so precious. The verse gives the negative case, where a wrong word does lasting harm.
- How does this verse reflect the poet's 'Kavi-Manas' (the lake of the poet's mind) metaphor?
- The Manas is imagined as a lake whose waters can be clear or muddied by what flows into it. Kaikeyi's mind is the muddied counterpart, already filled by Manthara so that clear water cannot enter. The word प्रबोधी (having instructed) suggests a mind pre-filled, while the friends' counsel is the pure stream that finds no room. The poet's own art makes the contrast through the sweet-sounding phrase मधुर परिनाम हित set against the harsh sounds of कुटिल and कूबरी.
FAQs
सखियों की सीख सुनने में मधुर थी और परिणाम में हितकारी थी। यह वही सीख थी जो रानी को अनर्थ से बचा सकती थी।
कवि कहते हैं कि कुटिल कूबरी (मंथरा) पहले ही उसे समझा चुकी थी। इसलिए कैकेयी ने सखियों की सीख पर कुछ भी कान नहीं दिया।
कुसंग मन को पहले ही भर देता है, इसलिए बाद में दी गई अच्छी सलाह टिक नहीं पाती। मीठी और हितकारी बात भी तब बेकार हो जाती है जब मन कुटिल उपदेश से ढका हो। इसलिए सत्संग और विवेकपूर्ण सलाह सुनने की तत्परता आवश्यक है।
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