Ramcharitmanas: Ayodhya Kanda, Prakarana 8
दोहा 70
यह सोपान ‘त्याग-धर्म’ का द्वार है: राजसुख के शिखर पर खड़े होकर भी राम-धर्म के लिए स्वेच्छा से वनगमन स्वीकारते हैं। साधक के भीतर यही रूपांतरण घटता है—‘मेरा अधिकार’ से ‘ईश्वर-आज्ञा’ की ओर, तथा गृह-आश्रय से नाम-आश्रय की ओर। अयोध्या यहाँ ‘अहं-गृह’ का प्रतीक भी है; राम का निष्क्रमण वैराग्य नहीं, धर्म-निष्ठा और लोक-कल्याण-हित करुणा है।
मातु पिता गुरु स्वामि सिख सिर धरि करहि सुभायँ।लहेउ लाभु तिन्ह जनम कर नतरु जनमु जग जायँ।।70।।
mātu pitā guru svāmi sikha sira dhari karahi subhāyã |laheu lābhu tinha janama kara nataru janamu jaga jāyã ||70||
जो लोग मा, बाप, गुरु और मालिक के हुकुम के आगे सिर झुकाते हैं, और दिल से मान कर चलते हैं, उनका जनम सच में काम का हो गया. नही तो बस दुनिया में आना ही बेकार रह गया.
Speaker
Rama
Listener
Lakshmana
Shanta (with Dasya undertone), in the calm, instructive tone of a maxim about obedience and reverence
The scene
The prasanga
In the Ayodhya Kanda, Rama is advising Lakshmana, who is anxious to follow him into exile. Rama sums up his counsel in a general maxim: obeying the commands of mother, father, guru and master with a willing heart is what makes a birth fruitful.
The teaching
- Themes
- माता-पिता और गुरु की आज्ञा का पालन, सहज भाव से आज्ञाकारिता, मानव जन्म की सार्थकता, शिष्टाचार और मर्यादा, कर्तव्य और धर्म, व्यर्थ जीवन की चेतावनी
For right living (Ramrajya ethics)
Ramrajya rests on filial and disciplinary obedience: honouring parents, teacher and lawful master with a willing heart makes social bonds stable, and a life without such reverence is called wasted.
Nirguna and saguna
The verse does not speak of the formless directly. It places divine authority in concrete, embodied persons (mother, father, guru, master), so that the sacred is reached through the manifest relationships of life, which is the Saguna way.
Rama states a general principle: those who accept the instruction of mother, father, guru and master as something placed on their head, and act on it with a natural willing heart, have truly earned the profit of being born. The phrase 'सिर धरि' stresses reverent acceptance, and 'सुभायँ' stresses that obedience should come from the heart and not from fear. The second line gives the reverse: without such obedience, one's birth in the world passes in vain. Traditional commentators read this as the ground for Rama's counsel to Lakshmana that duty to elders is the highest gain of human life.
Doha (13/11 matra pattern per line, with the lines rhyming at the end: सुभायँ / जायँ)
Anuprasa (alliteration) in 'सिख सिर' and 'लहेउ लाभु'; repetition of 'जनम ... जनमु' that stresses the word birth and sets up the contrast; Pratipaksha or antithesis between the gainer of 'लाभु' and the one whose 'जनमु जग जायँ' through the pivot 'नतरु'; Arthantaranyasa, since a universal maxim is stated to support Rama's specific counsel; the idiom 'सिर धरि' is a figurative use of the head to mean reverent acceptance.
The verse is practical dharma rather than metaphysics. It fits Vishishtadvaita's view that the devotee fulfils life by right conduct and submission to rightful authority, and it aligns with Advaita only in treating a human birth as a rare opportunity that must not be wasted.
Raga Desh, whose gentle, steady and affectionate mood suits a calm moral maxim in the voice of Rama.
मातु | पिता | गुरु | स्वामि | सिख | सिर | धरि | करहि | सुभायँ |
लहेउ | लाभु | तिन्ह | जनम | कर | नतरु | जनमु | जग | जायँ ||
- सिख
- शिक्षा, उपदेश या आज्ञाOrigin: Sanskrit
- सुभायँ
- सहज स्वाभाविक भाव से, प्रसन्न मन सेOrigin: Sanskrit
- लाभु
- फल, प्राप्ति, नफ़ाOrigin: Sanskrit
- नतरु
- नहीं तो, अन्यथाOrigin: Awadhi
- जायँ
- जाता है, यहाँ व्यर्थ बीत जाता हैOrigin: Awadhi
- How does the use of Sanskritized Awadhi here elevate the 'Loka' (folk) to the 'Shastra' (scriptural)?
- The vocabulary of the verse is plain village speech: सिख, सिर धरि, सुभायँ, जग जायँ. Yet the words carry a scriptural teaching, since the four authorities of mother, father, guru and svami echo the Sanskrit injunction to honour parents and teacher as divinities. Sanskrit-derived words such as लाभु, जनम and स्वामि sit beside folk idioms like 'जनमु जग जायँ', so that the ear of the common listener receives a shastric rule in everyday diction. The verse thus lifts a household proverb into a binding dharma without leaving the people's language.
- What is the specific 'Siddhanta' (doctrine) Tulsidas establishes regarding the Name (Nama) vs Form (Rupa)?
- This verse does not discuss Nama and Rupa directly, so no doctrine of the Name is stated in it. What it does show is the same Saguna principle at the level of conduct: authority is vested in embodied persons (mother, father, guru, master) and in the spoken word, the 'सिख', that they give. The command (the word) and the person who gives it are honoured together, which parallels the Manas teaching that the word and the form cannot be separated. The reader should take this only as an analogy, since the verse itself names no divine Name.
- How does this verse reflect the poet's 'Kavi-Manas' (the lake of the poet's mind) metaphor?
- The Manas is pictured as a lake whose clear water is drawn from the poet's mind, and this couplet is a small pure stream within it. In two lines it gives a complete thought: the condition (सिख सिर धरि करहि सुभायँ), the reward (लहेउ लाभु) and the warning (नतरु जनमु जग जायँ). The even 13/11 flow and the matching end rhyme of सुभायँ and जायँ make the maxim easy to remember and recite. Its calm, unadorned wisdom is the kind of clear water the lake offers to every bather, learned and unlearned alike.
FAQs
दोहे में माता, पिता, गुरु और स्वामि की सिख यानी आज्ञा या उपदेश मानने की बात कही गई है। इन चारों को जीवन में आदर और अधिकार का स्थान दिया गया है।
'सिर धरि' का अर्थ है आज्ञा को आदरपूर्वक सिर पर रखकर स्वीकार करना। 'सुभायँ' का अर्थ है सहज और प्रसन्न मन से, बिना मजबूरी के। यानी पालन भय से नहीं, हृदय की स्वाभाविक श्रद्धा से होना चाहिए।
दोहे की दूसरी पंक्ति कहती है कि ऐसा करने वालों ने जन्म का सच्चा लाभ पा लिया, 'नतरु' यानी नहीं तो उनका जन्म संसार में व्यर्थ चला जाता है। इस प्रकार बड़ों की आज्ञा का पालन मानव जीवन की सार्थकता की कसौटी बताया गया है।
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