Ramayana — Yuddha Kanda, Sarga 83, Shloka 15
त्र्यशीतितमः सर्गः (Sarga 83)
Hanumān Reports Sītā’s ‘Slaying’; Rāma Collapses; Lakṣmaṇa’s Counter-Discourse on Dharma and Artha
भूतानांस्थावाराणां च जङ्गमानां च दर्शनम् ।यथास्ति न तथाधर्मस्तेननास्तीतिमेमतिः ।।6.83.15।।
bhūtānāṃ sthāvarāṇāṃ ca jaṅgamānāṃ ca darśanam |
yathāsti na tathā dharmas tena nāstīti me matiḥ ||6.83.15||
Nakikita natin ang mga nilalang—maging nakatigil at gumagalaw—na tumatanggap ng kaligayahan ayon sa kanilang kalagayan; kaya sa aking palagay, hindi ang dharma ang sanhi na nagpapasya sa gayong kaligayahan.
"Just as inanimate beings which are seen happy and animate are also seen in the same manner, in which case that righteousness alone prospers is not there (for a person like you would not suffer). Knowing this you should not suffer."
FAQs
The verse raises a challenge to dharma: it argues from worldly observation that happiness appears irrespective of moral order, questioning dharma as a causal principle.
Amid the war, a speaker advances a materialist/skeptical argument to unsettle confidence in moral causality (dharma → reward).
Not a virtue but an intellectual posture: skepticism that tests the protagonists’ commitment to dharma and satya under pressure.