Valmiki Ramayana 2.23.22: Ayodhya Kanda, Sarga 23, Shloka 22
लक्ष्मणक्रोधः · दैवपुरुषकारविवादः
Lakshmana’s Wrath and the Debate on Destiny vs Human Effort
Spoken by Lakṣmaṇa to RamaSetting: ForestPlaces named: Araṇya (forest)
यैर्निवासस्तवारण्ये मिथो राजन्समर्थितः ।
अरण्ये ते निवत्स्यन्ति चतुर्दश समास्तथा ॥२२॥
yair nivāsas tavāraṇye mitho rājan samarthitaḥ |
araṇye te nivatsyanti caturdaśa samās tathā ||22||
ข้าแต่พระราชา ผู้ใดร่วมกันสนับสนุนให้ท่านพำนักในป่า ผู้นั้นเองจักต้องไปพำนักในป่านั้นตลอดสิบสี่ปีเช่นกัน
Sandhi Notes
- यैर्निवासः = यैः निवासः
- तवारण्ये = तव अरण्ये
- राजन्समर्थितः = राजन् समर्थितः
- निवत्स्यन्ति = नि+वत्स्, लृट् 3pl
- चतुर्दश = द्विगु-समास (14)
O king! those who, with mutual support banished you to the forest, will themselves dwell in the forest for fourteen years.
The teaching
Those who collaborate in unrighteous displacement of the innocent invite the same hardship upon themselves; collective wrongdoing has collective consequence.
Duties in tension
- Loyalty to family members involved in wrongdoing vs duty to condemn injustice
- Non-violence/forbearance vs demand for retributive consequence
- Ethical theme
- Karma / justice / social responsibility
- How it resolves
- Moral warning and implied karmic retribution
For your practice
Encourages self-audit of complicity; refrain from supporting adharma for short-term gain.
Mood and themes
- Rasa
- Raudra (fury), with Vira (heroism)
- Mood
- Retributive, stern, foreboding
Themes
- Dharma
- Ethics
- Retribution vs justice
- Itihasa
- Royal succession crisis
Action bears fruit; attempts to displace rightful order rebound upon the doer—ethical causality framed as near-inevitable.
General echo of karma doctrine (later systematized): deeds follow the agent like a shadow.
- Bharata and Rama
- Brother defending brother; warning of consequences (protective)
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa Ayodhyākāṇḍa: decree of fourteen-year exile (multiple adjacent passages)
Dharmaśāstra notion of consequences for adharma (conceptual)
Rāma’s acceptance of araṇyavāsa; Bharata’s condemnation of the plot and later confrontation with Kaikeyī
Anuṣṭup
Solemn
Niṣāda-nyāsa (grave settling) on “चतुर्दश समाः”
FAQs
It expresses a retributive impulse—answering wrong with mirrored consequence—raising the dharmic question of whether justice should be punitive or restrained.
Lakṣmaṇa reacts to the plan sending Rāma to forest exile, wishing the instigators to suffer the same fate.
Protective indignation on behalf of Rāma; the verse also exposes the moral danger of anger turning into vengeance.
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