Canto 2: Ayodhyā-kāṇḍa ()Chapter 1: Daśaratha Desires to Appoint Rāma as the Crown PrinceText 2.1.27
Canto 2 -
Ayodhyā-kāṇḍa
Chapter 1: Daśaratha Desires to Appoint Rāma as the Crown Prince
Text 2.1.27
श्रैष्ठ्यं शास्त्रसमूहेषु प्राप्तो व्यामिश्रकेषु च।
अर्थधर्मौ च सङ्गृह्य सुखतन्त्रो न चालसः॥
śraiṣṭhayaṁ śāstra-samūheṣu prāpto vyāmiśrakeṣu ca
artha-dharmau ca saṅgṛhya sukhatantro na cālasaḥ
śraiṣṭhyam = proficiency; śāstra-samūheṣu = in the Vedas, Vedāṅgas; prāptaḥ = He attained; vyāmiśrakeṣu = bilingual compositions; ca= as well as; artha-dharmau ca = wealth and pious credits; saṅgṛhya = [only] after acquiring; sukha-tantraḥ = He resorted to the happiness of enjoyment; na = He was not; ca = and; alasaḥ = lazy in acquiring them.
He attained proficiency in the Vedas, Vedāṅgas as well as bilingual compositions. He resorted to the happiness of enjoyment [only] after acquiring wealth and pious credits, and He was not lazy in acquiring them.
He attained proficiency in the Vedas and Vedāṅgas, that is, He was aware of their great purport. Vyāmiśrakeṣu ca indicates that He became proficient in poetry, dramatic texts, rhetorics and other bilingual compositions written in Sanskrit and Prākṛta.1 Lord Rāma dealt with kāma only after acquiring dharma and artha.2
1. Prākṛta refers to the unrefined language of humans derived from Sanskrit. There were several varieties of them. In authorized dramatic texts, women and śūdras generally speak one of the dialects of Prākṛta, while the devas, brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas and other nobles speak in Sanskrit. These rules were also noted by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī in his textbook on dramaturgy Nāṭaka-candrikā and followed by him in his dramas Vidagdha-Mādhava and Lalita-Mādhava.
2. There are two types of artha: dharma-viruddha-artha (“economic prosperity contrary to religious principles”) and dharma-aviruddha-artha (“economic prosperity not contrary to religious principles”). Similarly, there are two types of kāma: dharma-viruddha-kāma (“sense enjoyment contrary to religious principles”) and dharma-aviruddha-kāma (“sense enjoyment not contrary to religious principles”). Lord Rāma was only interested in the latter types of artha and kāma; He scrupulously avoided the former types of artha and kāma. This is an important lesson for us, the conditioned souls, still pursuing artha and kāma.