Ramayana — Ayodhya Kanda, Sarga 109, Shloka 38
सत्यधर्मप्रतिपादनम्
Rama’s Defense of Truth and Dharma in Reply to Jabali
न नास्तिकानां वचनं ब्रवीम्यहं न नास्तिकोऽहं न च नास्ति किञ्चन।समीक्ष्य कालं पुनरास्तिकोऽभवं भवेय काले पुनरेव नास्तिकः।।2.109.38।।
na nāstikānāṃ vacanaṃ bravīmy ahaṃ na nāstiko'haṃ na ca nāsti kiñcana |
samīkṣya kālaṃ punar āstiko'bhavaṃ bhaveya kāle punar eva nāstikaḥ || 2.109.38 ||
Não enuncio de fato a doutrina dos descrentes; não sou um nāstika, nem nego coisa alguma. Considerando o tempo e a ocasião, tornei-me novamente crente; em outro momento, pelas circunstâncias, eu poderia falar de outro modo.
If like a man who appears noble, though ignoble, clean, though unclean or dishonest, auspicious, though inauspicious, a man of character, though depraved, I forsake auspicious ways for unrighteousness, abandon pious acts and scriptural practices and indulge, under the cloak of dharma, in acts of wickedness by causing harm and confusion to the world, will any sensible man with a sense of discrimination between should and should not hold me in high esteem?
FAQs
Speech should align with dharma and satya; the verse also raises the ethical problem of opportunistic rhetoric that shifts with circumstances.
Jābāli defends himself after Rāma’s rebuke, claiming his earlier nāstika-sounding counsel was situational rather than his true conviction.
Pragmatic persuasion (as portrayed by Jābāli), contrasted implicitly with Rāma’s insistence on principled consistency.