Ramayana — Bala Kanda, Sarga 58, Shloka 22

त्रिशङ्कुशापः

Trishanku’s Curse and Appeal to Viśvāmitra

Devanagari script

दैवमेव परं मन्ये पौरुषं तु निरर्थकम्।।।।दैवेनाक्रम्यते सर्वं दैवं हि परमा गति:।

Transliteration

daivam eva paraṃ manye pauruṣaṃ tu nirarthakam | daivenākramyate sarvaṃ daivaṃ hi paramā gatiḥ ||

Translation

ကံကြမ္မာ(ဒေဝကံ) ကိုသာ အမြင့်ဆုံးဟု ငါထင်မြင်၏၊ လူ့ကြိုးပမ်းမှုသည် အကျိုးမဲ့သကဲ့သို့ ထင်ရ၏။ အရာအားလုံးကို ကံကြမ္မာက လွှမ်းမိုးသွားသည်—ကံကြမ္မာပင် အမြတ်ဆုံး အားကိုးရာဖြစ်၏။

Word by Word

• दैवम्: destiny
• दैवम्: Karma (कर्म)
• Type: Noun
• Root: दैव (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, द्वितीया (2nd), एकवचन

• एव: alone/indeed
• एव: Sambandha (सम्बन्ध)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: एव (अव्यय)
• Form: अवधारण-अव्यय (emphatic particle)

• परम्: supreme
• परम्: Visheshana (विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: पर (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, द्वितीया, एकवचन; विशेषणम् (दैवम्)

• मन्ये: I think
• मन्ये: Kriya (क्रिया)
• Type: Verb
• Root: मन् (धातु)
• Form: लट् (present), उत्तमपुरुष (1st), एकवचन; आत्मनेपदम्

• पौरुषम्: human effort
• पौरुषम्: Karma (कर्म)
• Type: Noun
• Root: पौरुष (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, द्वितीया, एकवचन

• तु: but
• तु: Sambandha (सम्बन्ध)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: तु (अव्यय)
• Form: विरोध/विभेद-अव्यय (but)

• निरर्थकम्: fruitless
• निरर्थकम्: Visheshana (विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: निरर्थक (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, द्वितीया, एकवचन; विशेषणम् (पौरुषम्)

• दैवेन: by destiny
• दैवेन: Karana (करण)
• Type: Noun
• Root: दैव (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, तृतीया, एकवचन

• आक्रम्यते: is overpowered/occupied
• आक्रम्यते: Kriya (क्रिया)
• Type: Verb
• Root: आ-क्रम् (धातु)
• Form: लट् (present), प्रथमपुरुष (3rd), एकवचन; आत्मनेपदम्; कर्मणि-प्रयोगः (passive)

• सर्वम्: everything
• सर्वम्: Karma (कर्म)
• Type: Noun
• Root: सर्व (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, प्रथमा/द्वितीया, एकवचन

• दैवम्: destiny
• दैवम्: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: दैव (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, प्रथमा, एकवचन

• हि: indeed
• हि: Sambandha (सम्बन्ध)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: हि (अव्यय)
• Form: निश्चय/हेतु-अव्यय (indeed/for)

• परमा: supreme
• परमा: Visheshana (विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: परम (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: स्त्रीलिङ्ग, प्रथमा, एकवचन; विशेषणम् (गतिः)

• गतिः: refuge/way
• गतिः: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: गति (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: स्त्रीलिङ्ग, प्रथमा, एकवचन

Context

I consider destiny to be all-powerful. The effort of a man goes in vain. Everything is controlled by destiny. It is the supreme resort.

Characters & Entities

• Triśaṅku
• Viśvāmitra
• daiva (destiny)

FAQs

What is the core ethical principle (Dharma) in this verse?

The verse raises the dharmic tension between fate (daiva) and personal responsibility (pauruṣa), prompting reflection on how much agency one has within moral life.

What is the narrative situation?

After repeated rejection, Triśaṅku interprets his failure as destiny’s domination and expresses despair about human effort.

Which character virtue is emphasized?

Not a virtue but a psychological state is foregrounded—despondency and fatalism born from repeated obstruction.