Ramcharitmanas: Ayodhya Kanda, Prakarana 8
दोहा 78
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।
सिख सीतलि हित मधुर मृदु सुनि सीतहि न सोहानि।सरद चंद चंदनि लगत जनु चकई अकुलानि।।78।।
sikha sītali hita madhura mṛdu suni sītahi na sohāni |sarada caṁda caṁdani lagata janu cakaī akulāni ||78||
जो सलाह सीता को सुनाई गई, वो ठंडी, भले की, मीठी और नरम थी. पर सीता को वो सुन कर अच्छी नहीं लगी. वो चकवी पक्षी की तरह अकुल गई, जैसे शरद के चाँद की रोशनी उस पर पड़ती है तो उसे बड़ा तंग किया जाता है.
Speaker
Tulsidas (narrator)
Listener
General audience
Karuna (with Madhurya undertone of Sita's devotion to Rama)
The scene
The prasanga
Ayodhya Kanda. After Dasharatha, the ministers' wives and the elder women have counselled Sita in gentle words to stay at home, Tulsidas states how that well-meant advice struck her. The cooling words only pained her, as moonlight pains the chakvi.
The teaching
- Themes
- सीता का अनन्य प्रेम, पतिव्रत धर्म, हितकारी उपदेश की सीमा, विरह और वेदना, शरद-चंद्र और चकई का उपमान, मर्यादा और शिष्टाचार
For right living (Ramrajya ethics)
The verse shows the ethic of tender counsel. The elders speak with hita, madhurata and mridutā, and Tulsidas does not blame them. It also shows pativrata fidelity, where a wife's true good is fixed at her husband's side even against well-meaning advice.
Nirguna and saguna
The verse names no Rama directly, but the chakvi's pain shows that the saguna Lord's presence is what soothes and his absence what burns. The same moon that cools the world scorches the lover, so one reality is felt differently according to the heart's attachment. Even peace is known only through its relation to the Beloved.
Tulsidas says that the elders' counsel to Sita was cool, kindly, sweet and gentle, yet it did not please her. The advice, however well meant, urged her to stay at home away from Rama. Its coolness and sweetness only pained her, as the autumn moon's rays pain the chakvi, who is parted from her mate in the night. Commentators read the verse as a mark of Sita's single-minded love, in which no comfort apart from Rama can console her. The simile of the chakvi gives that grief a poetic and traditional form.
Doha (13/11 matra pattern per line). The first line breaks as 'सिख सीतलि हित मधुर मृदु' (13) and 'सुनि सीतहि न सोहानि' (11). The second breaks as 'सरद चंद चंदनि लगत' (13) and 'जनु चकई अकुलानि' (11). The line ends rhyme in सोहानि and अकुलानि.
Utpreksha: 'जनु चकई अकुलानि' fancies Sita's distress to be that of the chakvi. Upama (implied comparison) between the counsel and the moonlight, and between Sita and the chakvi. Virodhabhasa-like contrast: things called 'सीतलि', 'मधुर' and 'मृदु' bring pain, as 'सरद चंद चंदनि' brings pain to the chakvi. Anuprasa (alliteration): 'सिख सीतलि', 'सीतहि सोहानि', 'सरद चंद चंदनि'. Vīpsā-like piling of epithets: 'सीतलि हित मधुर मृदु'.
The verse sits with Vishishtadvaita in showing Sita as the soul wholly bound to the Lord. Counsel that is cool, kind, sweet and gentle cannot console her, because her peace lies in Rama alone and not in the comforts the counsellors urge. This is the exclusive devotion (ananyata) of the devotee, and not an Advaitic dissolving of the pair.
Raga Bhairavi, whose tender, yearning and plaintive colour suits Sita's sorrow and the pathos of the chakvi image.
सिख | सीतलि | हित | मधुर | मृदु | सुनि | सीतहि | न | सोहानि |
सरद | चंद | चंदनि | लगत | जनु | चकई | अकुलानि ||
- सिख
- शिक्षा, उपदेश, सीखOrigin: Sanskrit
- सीतलि
- शीतल, ठंडक देने वालीOrigin: Sanskrit
- सोहानि
- अच्छी लगी, रुचिकर हुईOrigin: Awadhi
- चंदनि
- चाँदनी, चंद्रमा की किरणेंOrigin: Sanskrit
- चकई
- चकवी, चक्रवाक पक्षी की मादाOrigin: Awadhi
- How does the use of Sanskritized Awadhi here elevate the 'Loka' (folk) to the 'Shastra' (scriptural)?
- Tadbhava words like 'सिख', 'सोहानि', 'चकई' and 'अकुलानि' keep the household idiom of women's advice. Sanskrit-derived words such as 'सीतलि', 'मधुर', 'मृदु', 'हित', 'सरद' and 'चंद' give the line a classical polish. The chakvi and the moon belong to the kavya-samaya, the poets' convention of Sanskrit literature, so a domestic scene is lifted into the register of scriptural poetry. The folk and the learned are fused in one doha.
- What is the specific 'Siddhanta' (doctrine) Tulsidas establishes regarding the Name (Nama) vs Form (Rupa)?
- This verse does not teach the Nama-Rupa doctrine directly, and the Name is not mentioned in it. What it shows is that Sita's heart is attached to the beloved presence and form of Rama, which no substitute can replace. The counsel is 'सीतलि हित मधुर मृदु' and still fails to please, as the cool moonlight fails to soothe the chakvi. In this way the verse points to the devotee's need for the Lord himself, and not for advice about him.
- How does this verse reflect the poet's 'Kavi-Manas' (the lake of the poet's mind) metaphor?
- The simile is drawn from autumn-lake imagery, with the autumn moon, its rays and the chakvi, and this natural scene belongs to the poet's mind-lake. A lake-and-moon picture is used to show a human inner state. The poet's mind turns the fine epithets of the first line into a single cooling image in the second. The poem therefore moves from outer speech to inner feeling through the lake's own imagery.
FAQs
उपदेश शीतल, हितकारी, मधुर और कोमल था, फिर भी वह सीता को नहीं सुहाया। उसमें उन्हें घर पर रहने की सलाह दी जा रही थी, जबकि उनका मन राम के साथ रहने में लगा था। इसलिए ऊपर की मिठास भी उन्हें पीड़ा देने वाली लगी।
शरद ऋतु की चाँदनी साधारण लोगों को शीतलता देती है, पर चकई को वह कष्ट देती है। इसी प्रकार शीतल उपदेश सीता को चैन नहीं दे सका और वे व्याकुल हो गईं। यह उपमा उनकी गहरी विरह-पीड़ा और प्रेम की एकनिष्ठता दिखाती है।
यह दोहा छंद है, जिसमें प्रत्येक पंक्ति में 13 और 11 मात्राएँ हैं, और पंक्ति के अंत में 'सोहानि' तथा 'अकुलानि' की तुक है। 'जनु चकई अकुलानि' में उत्प्रेक्षा अलंकार है। 'सिख सीतलि', 'सीतहि सोहानि' और 'सरद चंद चंदनि' में अनुप्रास भी है।
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