Ramayana — Ayodhya Kanda, Sarga 11, Shloka 27
कैकेयीवरप्रार्थना
Kaikeyi Demands the Two Boons
भरतो भजतामद्य यौवराज्यमकण्टकम्।।।।एष मे परमः कामो दत्तमेव वरं वृणे।अद्य चैव हि पश्येयं प्रयान्तं राघवं वनम्।।।।
bharato bhajatām adya yauvarājyam akaṇṭakam | eṣa me paramaḥ kāmo dattam eva varaṁ vṛṇe | adya caiva hi paśyeyaṁ prayāntaṁ rāghavaṁ vanam ||
Ngayong araw, nawa’y tanggapin ni Bharata ang pagka-yuvarāja, na walang sinumang hahadlang o magiging tinik sa kanya. Ito ang aking pinakamataas na hangarin; hinihingi ko ang biyayang naipagkaloob na. At ngayong araw din, nawa’y masaksihan ko si Rāghava na lumalakad patungong gubat.
O Kaikeyi, in the name of Rama without seeing whom I, for sure, cannot live a momment, I swear I will fulfil your desire.
FAQs
It tests satya-dharma: a boon once granted becomes a moral bond. The verse frames a conflict between the king’s truth-keeping and the justice of the demand imposed through that bond.
Kaikeyī states her first boon explicitly: Bharata’s installation as prince-regent, and Rāma’s immediate departure into forest-exile.
Daśaratha’s expected virtue—truthfulness to his pledged boon—is the focal pressure point, even as the request itself appears adharma-oriented toward Rāma.