शीलव्यसनमेतत्ते नाभिजानाम्यहं पुरा।
बालायास्तत्त्विदानीं ते लक्षये विपरीतवत्॥
śīla-vyasanam etat te nābhijānāmy ahaṁ purā
bālāyās tat tv idānīṁ te lakṣaye viparītavat
śīla-vyasanam = a destruction of your good character 4; etat = such; te = you; na = not; abhijānāmi = did come across; aham = I; purā = were in the past; bālāyāḥ = [an innocent] girl; tat = character; tu = but; idānīm = now; te = that your; lakṣaye = I see; viparītavat = [has become] the opposite [of what it was before].
I did not come across such a destruction of your good character. You were [an innocent] girl in the past but now I see that your character [has become] the opposite [of what it was before].
1 What you see (before marriage) is not necessarily what you get (after marriage), in the sense that innocent boys and girls can, due to evil association, become perverted in their character later on. These are Śrī Vālmīki’s hints on the dangers of men and women becoming attracted to each other. As we learnt from Canto 1, he had resolved to write this great literature showing the dangers of artha and kāma while promoting dharma and mokṣa in eternal service to the Lord.
Daśaratha had only witnessed Kaikeyī’s [good] character in the past because she had been [an innocent] girl in the past, but now that she had grown up, her character had become perverted.1