Ramayana — Ayodhya Kanda, Sarga 40, Shloka 24
प्रयाणवर्णनम्
Departure from Ayodhya; Civic Lament and the Chariot’s Urgency
कृतकृत्या हि वैदेही छायेवानुगता पतिम्।न जहाति रता धर्मे मेरुमर्कप्रभा यथा।।।।
kṛtakṛtyā hi vaidehī chāyevā’nugatā patim | na jahāti ratā dharme merum arka-prabhā yathā ||
ဝိုင်ဒေဟီသည် မိမိ၏ကိစ္စတာဝန် ပြီးမြောက်ပြီဟု ယူဆကာ ဓမ္မ၌စွဲမြဲလျက် ခင်ပွန်းကို မစွန့်လွှတ်။ သူမသည် အရိပ်ကဲ့သို့ လိုက်ပါ၏—မေရုတောင်မှ နေရောင်မခွာသကဲ့သို့။
Sita, deeply attached to her duty, and with her desire fulfilled is following her husband like a shadow just as the sunlight which never leaves mount Meru.
FAQs
Dharma is steadfast marital fidelity grounded in righteousness: Sītā treats shared hardship as part of her sacred duty, choosing companionship in exile over comfort in the palace.
As Rāma is exiled, Sītā insists on accompanying him; the people describe her unwavering commitment through vivid similes (shadow/sunlight on Meru).
Sītā’s constancy (niṣṭhā) and dharma-centered devotion—she does not separate her life-path from her husband’s righteous path.