Canto 2 -
Ayodhyā-kāṇḍa
Chapter 63: Daśaratha Remembering Killing a Sage’s Innocent Son
Text 2.63.6

यदाचरति कल्याणि शुभं वा यदि वाशुभम्।
तदेव लभते भद्रे कर्ता कर्मजमात्मनः॥

yad ācarati kalyāṇi śubhaṁ vā yadi vāśubham
tad eva labhate bhadre kartā karmajam ātmanaḥ

yat = that; ācarati = he engages in; kalyāṇi = O propitious; śubham = pious; = whether; yadi = or; aśubham = impious; tat = the; eva = certainly; labhate = attains; bhadre = and auspicious lady; kartā = the performer of an activity; karmajam = result of the activity; ātmanaḥ = for himself.

O propitious and auspicious lady, the performer of an activity certainly attains for himself the result of the activity that he engages in, whether pious or impious.1

In order to describe his [former] sinful act that he had recollected now, he describes a feature of this world here.

He refers to Kausalyā as a propitious lady to console her.

In this world a man attains for himself the auspicious or inauspicious result that he brings about in others.1 The king implies here that because he had caused a sage to be separated from his son, the king is [now] separated from his [own] son.

1 Technical note: śubhaṁ aśubham vā yad ācarati tat ātmanaḥ karmajaṁ śubhāśubha-karma-janitaṁ sukhaṁ duḥkhaṁ vā kartā labhata eva.

1 Here is great insight from the commentator synthesizing his scriptural knowledge of the law of karma and the philosophy of ethics summarized as paropakāraḥ puṇyāya pāpāya para-pīḍanam: “Benefiting others is piety and harming others is sin.”