Ramcharitmanas: Bala Kanda, Prakarana 28
दोहा 277
सोपान-प्रवेश: ‘भक्ति का जन्म’ और अहं-क्रोध-प्रताप के बीच मर्यादा का प्राकट्य। बालकाण्ड इस अर्थ में प्रथम सीढ़ी है कि यहाँ राम-नाम/राम-रूप के प्रति श्रद्धा, विनय, और गुरु-समाज में व्यवहार-धर्म का संस्कार बनता है; साधक के भीतर उठती ‘तेज-आक्रोश’ शक्ति को ‘मृदु-वाणी’ और ‘दास्य’ में रूपांतरित करने का द्वार यही है।
लखन कहेउ हँसि सुनहु मुनि क्रोधु पाप कर मूल।जेहि बस जन अनुचित करहिं चरहिं बिस्व प्रतिकूल।।277।।
lakhana kaheu hãsi sunahu muni krodhu pāpa kara mūla |jehi basa jana anucita karahiṁ carahiṁ bisva pratikūla ||277||
लखन ने मुस्कुरा के बोला, सुनो रिशि, गुस्सा पाप की जड़ है। गुस्से के कबू में लोग गलत काम करते हैं, और पूरी दुनिया के खिलाफ हो जाते हैं।
Speaker
Lakshmana
Listener
Parashurama
Hasya and Vira, with a Shanta undertone in the moral maxim
The scene
The prasanga
In the Sita Swayamvara episode, the sage Parashurama has arrived in a rage after the breaking of Shiva's bow. Lakshmana answers him with a smile and a moral maxim: anger is the root of sin and sets a person against the whole world.
The teaching
- Themes
- क्रोध का दुष्परिणाम, पाप का मूल, शिष्टाचार और मर्यादा, लक्ष्मण की निर्भीकता, संयम और धैर्य, नीति का उपदेश
For right living (Ramrajya ethics)
Ramrajya rests on self-restraint, and the verse names the cause of its breakdown. Anger leads people to improper deeds (अनुचित) and to opposition against the whole world (बिस्व प्रतिकूल), so a ruler or sage must master krodha to keep harmony.
Nirguna and saguna
The verse states a universal, impersonal principle: anger is the root of sin. It is voiced by a personal, smiling Lakshmana, the Lord's own brother, in a dramatic scene. The formless moral law thus speaks through the manifest form.
Lakshmana, answering the furious Parashurama, speaks with a smile and bids him listen. He says that anger (krodha) is the root of all sin. Those who come under its power do improper deeds and make themselves enemies of the whole world. Traditional commentators read this as a pointed moral lesson wrapped in gentle irony, which turns Parashurama's own wrath into an example. The maxim is also meant for every reader as a warning against anger.
Doha (13/11 matra pattern per line). The first half of line 1 is 'लखन कहेउ हँसि सुनहु मुनि' (13 matras) and the second 'क्रोधु पाप कर मूल' (11). The two lines rhyme at their ends: मूल / प्रतिकूल.
Rupaka or metaphor: 'क्रोधु पाप कर मूल' presents anger as the root of the tree of sin. Anuprasa (alliteration): repeated 'क' and 'र' sounds in क्रोधु, कर, करहिं, चरहिं. Kavyalinga (reasoned statement): the second line gives the reason for the first. Vakrokti (indirect speech): the smile with which the maxim is spoken makes the moral advice a gentle taunt.
The verse is an ethical teaching, not a metaphysical one. It fits the Vishishtadvaita-leaning view of the Manas that the soul falls into wrong action when passion (krodha) overpowers it, so that restraint of passion is part of fitness for devotion. Anger here is a binding force (जेहि बस) that makes a person helpless.
Raga Bhairavi, for its grave, reflective mood suited to a moral maxim spoken in a tense scene. Raga Desh is an alternative for the lightly ironic smile.
लखन | कहेउ | हँसि | सुनहु | मुनि | क्रोधु | पाप | कर | मूल |
जेहि | बस | जन | अनुचित | करहिं | चरहिं | बिस्व | प्रतिकूल ||
- क्रोधु
- गुस्सा, कोपOrigin: Sanskrit
- मूल
- जड़, आधार या कारणOrigin: Sanskrit
- अनुचित
- जो उचित न हो, अयोग्य कार्यOrigin: Sanskrit
- प्रतिकूल
- विरोधी, विपरीतOrigin: Sanskrit
- कहेउ
- कहा (भूतकाल, प्रथम पुरुष एकवचन)Origin: Awadhi
- How does the use of Sanskritized Awadhi here elevate the 'Loka' (folk) to the 'Shastra' (scriptural)?
- The verse is built on a folk Awadhi frame of verbs and particles such as कहेउ, हँसि, सुनहु, करहिं, चरहिं and the genitive कर. Into this frame Tulsidas sets Sanskrit-derived words like क्रोधु, पाप, मूल, अनुचित, बिस्व and प्रतिकूल. These give the speech the weight of a scriptural maxim, close to the Sanskrit idea that krodha is the root of papa. Because the maxim is voiced in plain spoken Awadhi, the shastric teaching reaches ordinary listeners without losing its authority.
- What is the specific 'Siddhanta' (doctrine) Tulsidas establishes regarding the Name (Nama) vs Form (Rupa)?
- This verse does not state the doctrine of Nama and Rupa directly, and it should not be forced to do so. What it does is name a thing, क्रोधु, and trace its form in action: improper deeds and hostility toward the whole world. The word is thus shown to carry a whole chain of consequences, which is in the spirit of Tulsidas's wider view that a name holds real power. The Name of Rama as greater than his form belongs to other passages of the Manas, while here the lesson is that naming anger rightly as the root of sin is the first step to controlling it.
- How does this verse reflect the poet's 'Kavi-Manas' (the lake of the poet's mind) metaphor?
- The Manas is a lake whose clear water holds both story and teaching, and here the story's tense moment yields a moral jewel. The image of anger as the 'root' (मूल) of sin shows the poet's mind seeing the inner cause beneath outward events. Lakshmana's smile (हँसि) is like a surface ripple over a deep truth about human nature. The couplet shows that the poet's mind turns even a quarrel into a lesson that the listener can drink.
FAQs
लक्ष्मण हँसकर क्रोधित मुनि परशुराम से कहते हैं कि वे सुनें। वे बताते हैं कि क्रोध पाप की जड़ है। यह बात वे एक नीति-वचन के रूप में कहते हैं।
क्रोध के वश में आकर लोग अनुचित कार्य करते हैं। वे सारे संसार के प्रतिकूल आचरण करने लगते हैं। इस प्रकार क्रोध व्यक्ति को विश्व से अलग और विरोधी बना देता है।
यह दोहा छंद है, जिसकी हर पंक्ति में 13 और 11 मात्राओं के दो चरण होते हैं। पहली पंक्ति का अंत 'मूल' और दूसरी का 'प्रतिकूल' है, जिनमें तुक मिलती है। 'क्रोधु पाप कर मूल' में रूपक अलंकार भी है।
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