Canto 2 -
Ayodhyā-kāṇḍa
Chapter 19: Rāma Promises to Leave for the Forest
Text 2.19.33
न वनं गन्तुकामस्य त्यजतश्च वसुन्धराम्।
सर्वलोकातिगस्येव लक्ष्यते चित्तविक्रिया॥
na vanaṁ gantu-kāmasya tyajataś ca vasundharām
sarva-lokātigasyeva lakṣyate citta-vikriyā
na = not; vanam = to the forest; gantu-kāmasya = wanted to go; tyajataḥ = when He left; ca = and; vasundharām = His kingdom; sarva-loka-atigasya = [the mind] of an excellent yogī who had become transcendental to everyone; iva = like; lakṣyate = seen to be; citta-vikriyā = Rāma’s mind was affected.
Like [the mind] of an excellent yogī who had become transcendental to everyone, Rāma’s mind was not seen to be affected when He left His kingdom and wanted to go to the forest.
The sage Vālmīki had described that Rāma’s body was not affected in any way—His face did not become discolored and so on—and now he describes that His mind was not affected in any way too. His mind was equal to honor and dishonor.
NOTE. Lord Rāma has already explained to Kaikeyī that He was simply interested in carrying out His dharma purely like the transcendental sages.
The lesson demonstrated by the Supreme Personality of Godhead here is that we should aim at attaining spiritual realization without being disoriented by material happiness and material unhappiness. Here are His own instructions from the Bhagavad-gītā (2.14-15) in this regard:
mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ
āgamāpāyino ’nityās tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata
“O son of Kuntī, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.”
yaṁ hi na vyathayanty ete puruṣaṁ puruṣarṣabha
sama-duḥkha-sukhaṁ dhīraṁ so ’mṛtatvāya kalpate
“O best among men [Arjuna], the person who is not disturbed by happiness and distress and is steady in both is certainly eligible for liberation.”