रामं मेऽनुगता दृष्टिरद्यापि न निवर्तते।
न त्वा पश्यामि कौसल्ये साधु मां पाणिना स्पृश॥
rāmaṁ me ’nugatā dṛṣṭir adyāpi na nivartate
na tvā paśyāmi kausalye sādhu māṁ pāṇinā spṛśa
rāmam = Rāma; me = my; anugatā = having followed; dṛṣṭiḥ = vision; adya = now; api = even; na = not; nivartate = has come back; na tvā paśyāmi = I don’t see you; kausalye = [therefore]; sādhu = firmly; mām = me; pāṇinā = with your hand; spṛśa = please touch.
My vision, having followed Rāma, has not come back to me even now. [Therefore] Kausalyā, I don’t see you. Please firmly touch me with your hand.
1 Just as an object that falls into the ocean cannot be retrieved, Daśaratha’s vision has fallen into the ocean of Rāma and he thinks that therefore it could not be retrieved.
Daśaratha intended to tell her, “My vision has followed Rāma. If something falls into the ocean, does it come back?1 My vision has lasted for 60,000 years [due to] the performance of fasts and so on. [But] it has not come back to me today when it is appropriate that I see you, His mother, even if I can’t see Him. I cannot see you, Kausalyā. When I can’t see Rāma, I am eager to see your face to free myself of the sin of having seen Kaikeyī’s face. But I can’t do that too. I understand that my sense of sight not working. So touch me with your hand firmly. Find out if my sense of touch is right now working or not. Don’t think that I have banished Rāma on the order of Kaikeyī and that I am putting on a show [of love for Rāma]. With firm conviction that I did all this simply out of ignorance. Because you are Rāma’s mother, the touch of your hand is the touch of Rāma.”