रामस्तथा सत्यधृतिः सतां धर्ममनुस्मरन्।
नाजहात्पितुरादेशं शशी ज्योत्स्नामिवोदितः॥
rāmas tathā satya-dhṛtiḥ satāṁ dharmam anusmaran
nājahāt pitur ādeśaṁ śaśī jyotsnām ivoditaḥ
rāmaḥ = Rāma; tathā = similarly; satya-dhṛtiḥ = who is fond of truthfulness; satām = of persons obedient to their fathers; dharmam = the dharma; anusmaran = remembering; na = did not; ajahāt = abandon; pituḥ = His father’s; ādeśam = instruction; śaśī = moon [does not abandon]; jyotsnām = its effulgence; iva = like; uditaḥ = the rising.
Similarly, remembering the dharma of persons obedient to their fathers, Rāma who is fond of truthfulness did not abandon His father’s instruction, like the rising moon [does not abandon] its effulgence.
1 It should be remembered that this is like the statement iṣuvad gacchati savitā: “The sun moves like an arrow.”
2 This statement is also found in Vikrama-carita [southern recension] 4.3. Of course, it is implicit that if the instructions of a father are not in line with Vedic dharma, they are to be rejected. A father’s instructions that are within the bounds of Vedic dharma are meant to be taken seriously.
Tathā (“similarly”) indicates that Rāma was like His father.1
Regarding the dharma of persons obedient to their fathers, [the Smṛti] states:
jīvato vākya-karaṇāt pratyabdaṁ parvanena ca
gayāyāṁ piṇḍa-dānena tribhiḥ putrasya putratā
“A son is a putra [or a deliverer of his father from hell] when he carries out the instructions of his father while [the father is] alive, when he carries out the annual ceremony [of offering annual oblations to his departed father] and when he offers his respectful oblations unto his forefathers at Gayā.”2