Ramayana — Ayodhya Kanda, Sarga 35, Shloka 21
सुमन्त्रस्य कैकेयी-निन्दा
Sumantra’s Reproof of Kaikeyi in the Royal Assembly
तत्र ते जननी क्रुद्धा मृत्युपाशमभीप्सती।हासं ते नृपते सौम्य जिज्ञासामीति चाब्रवीत्।।2.35.21।।
tatra te jananī kruddhā mṛtyu-pāśam abhīpsatī |
hāsaṃ te nṛpate saumya jijñāsāmīti cābravīt ||2.35.21||
ਉੱਥੇ ਤੁਹਾਡੀ ਮਾਤਾ ਕ੍ਰੋਧਿਤ ਹੋ ਕੇ, ਜਿਵੇਂ ਮੌਤ ਦੇ ਪਾਸ ਨੂੰ ਸੱਦ ਰਹੀ ਹੋਵੇ, ਬੋਲੀ: “ਹੇ ਸੌਮ੍ਯ ਨ੍ਰਿਪਤੇ, ਮੈਂ ਤੁਹਾਡੇ ਹਾਸੇ ਦਾ ਕਾਰਨ ਜਾਣਨਾ ਚਾਹੁੰਦੀ ਹਾਂ।”
Then one day near his bed your highly brilliant father laughed repeatedly over what an ant or a bird said, for he knew the meaning from its sound.
FAQs
Dharma in relationships requires honest communication tempered by compassion; suspicion and anger distort truth-seeking into coercion.
In the backstory, Kaikeyi’s mother confronts her husband, demanding the cause of his laughter after he understood an animal’s speech through a boon.
The virtue is indirectly highlighted by contrast: the episode warns against impulsive anger and the erosion of trust, both enemies of dharmic household harmony.