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||
Ta thấy các loài hữu tình—cả bất động lẫn động—hưởng lạc theo như chúng vốn vậy; vì thế, theo ý ta, Dharma không phải là nguyên nhân quyết định của hạnh phúc ấy.
"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.
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