अप्रहृष्टमनुष्या च दीननागतुरङ्गमा।
आर्तस्वरपरिम्लाना विनिश्वसितनिःस्वना॥
निरानन्दा महाराज रामप्रव्राजनातुरा।
कौसल्या पुत्रहीनेव अयोध्या प्रतिभाति मा॥
aprahṛṣṭa-manuṣyā ca dīna-nāga-turaṅgamā
ārta-svara-parimlānā viniśvasita-niḥsvanā
nirānandā mahā-rāja rāma-pravrājanāturā
kausalyā putra-hīneva ayodhyā pratibhāti mā
aprahṛṣṭa-manuṣyā ca = Ayodhyā is filled with despondent men; dīna-nāga-turaṅgamā = elephants and horses here are morose; ārta-svara-parimlānā = the city is languid with distressful cries; viniśvasita-niḥsvanā = it is filled with sounds of the citizens’ long breaths [due to their extreme sorrow]; nirānandā = the city is devoid of happiness; mahā-rāja = Mahārāja; rāma-pravrājana-āturā = anguished by the exile of Rāma; kausalyā = Kausalyā; putra-hīnā = who has been separated from her son; iva = to be like; ayodhyā = Ayodhyā; pratibhāti = appears; mā = to me.
Ayodhyā is filled with despondent men. Elephants and horses here are morose. The city is languid with distressful cries. It is filled with sounds of the citizens’ long breaths [due to their extreme sorrow]. Mahārāja, the city is devoid of happiness, anguished by the exile of Rāma. Ayodhyā appears to me to be like Kausalyā who has been separated from her son.
1 This verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also appears in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līla, Chapter Twenty, text 162 and Prabhupāda has commented on it. This is presented here.
2 When the living entity is liberated from all material delusions, he naturally and spiritually becomes attracted to the Supreme Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa or His plenary expansions like Rāmacandra. Such natural and spiritual attraction has been openly disclosed by Śrī Vālmīki herein. Attainment of such Bhagavat-prema is the highest goal of life, higher than even the attainment of mokṣa of any kind. This has been abundantly stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. See Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Part 1 Chapter 2 or The Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 4.
Viniśvasita-niḥsvanā also indicates that the city was filled with people whose breathing appeared to be like that of a person suffocating due to a particular disease. In other words, they were constantly lamenting, “Alas! Alas!”
Sumantra compares Ayodhyā with Kausalyā for she was near [Daśaratha].
Sage Vālmīki has hinted through this section that Rāma is the soul of all souls. This is the theme of this section of the text.
NOTE. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.14.55 notes that Kṛṣṇa is indeed the soul of all souls:
kṛṣṇam enam avehi tvam ātmānam akhilātmanām
jagad-dhitāya so ’py atra dehīvābhāti māyayā
“You should know Kṛṣṇa to be the original soul of all ātmās [living entities]. For the benefit of the whole universe, He has, out of His causeless mercy, appeared as an ordinary human being. He has done this by the strength of His own internal potency.”
Śrīla Prabhupāda has explained the implication of Kṛṣṇa being the souls of all souls in his commentary to this verse.1 He writes:
Parīkṣit Mahārāja asked Śukadeva Gosvāmī why Kṛṣṇa was so beloved by the residents of Vṛndāvana, who loved Him even more than their own offspring or life itself. At that time Śukadeva Gosvāmī replied that everyone’s ātmā, or soul, is very, very dear, especially to all living entities who have accepted material bodies. But that ātmā, the spirit soul, is part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. For this reason, Kṛṣṇa is very dear to every living entity. Everyone’s body is very dear to oneself, and one wants to protect the body by all means because within the body the soul is living. Due to the intimate relationship between the soul and the body, the body is important and dear to everyone. Similarly, the soul, being part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord, is very, very dear to all living entities. Unfortunately, the soul forgets his constitutional position and thinks he is only the body (deha-ātma-buddhi). Thus the soul is subjected to the rules and regulations of material nature. When a living entity, by his intelligence, reawakens his attraction for Kṛṣṇa, he can understand that he is not the body but part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Thus filled with knowledge, he no longer labors under attachment to the body and everything related to the body. Janasya moho ’yam ahaṁ mameti. Material existence, wherein one thinks, “I am the body, and this belongs to me,” is also illusory. One must redirect his attraction to Kṛṣṇa. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.2.7) states:
vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ
janayaty āśu vairāgyaṁ jñānaṁ ca yad ahaitukam
“By rendering devotional service unto the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, one immediately acquires causeless knowledge and detachment from the world.”2