स तच्छ्रुत्वा वचः क्रूरं मयोक्तमघशंसिना।
नाशकत्तीव्रमायासमकर्तुं भगवानृषिः॥
sa tac chrutvā vacaḥ krūraṁ mayoktam agha-śaṁsinā
nāśakat tīvram āyāsam akartuṁ bhagavān ṛṣiḥ
saḥ = the; tat = those; śrutvā = upon hearing; vacaḥ = words; krūram = cruel; mayā = by me; uktam = spoken; agha-śaṁsinā = describing a calamity; na aśakat = was unable; tīvram āyāsam = a terrible calamity; akartum = to prevent; bhagavān = capable; ṛṣiḥ = sage.
Upon hearing those cruel words spoken by me describing a calamity, the capable sage was unable to prevent a terrible calamity.1
1 Notice how Prince Daśaratha’s deals with and refers to the father of the young ascetic, a person who was a vaiśya by birth. Daśaratha considers and treats him as a brāhmaṇa and refers to him as a capable sage, that is, a brāhmaṇa by guṇa and karma, because that was the real system—you recognize people by their guṇa and karma, not by their janma to the exclusion of their guṇa and karma.