स चापि कालोऽयमुपागतः शनैर्यथा मया नास्तिकवागुदीरिता।
निवर्तनार्थं तव राम कारणात्प्रसादनार्थं तु मयैतदीरितम्॥
sa cāpi kālo ’yam upāgataḥ śanair
yathā mayā nāstika-vāg udīritā
nivartanārthaṁ tava rāma kāraṇāt
prasādanārthaṁ tu mayaitad udīritam
saḥ = that; ca api = and; kālaḥ = time; ayam upāgataḥ = was now; śanaiḥ = softly; yathā = when; mayā = I; nāstika-vāk = the words of a disbeliever of the existence of the soul; udīritā = spoke; nivartana-artham tava = to make You return [to Ayodhyā and thus]; rāma = Rāma; kāraṇāt = for a reason; prasādana-artham tu = please Bharata; mayā = therefore I; etat = it; udīritam = spoke.
And that time was now when I softly spoke the words of a disbeliever of the existence of the soul.1 Rāma, therefore I spoke it for a reason—to make You return [to Ayodhyā and thus] please Bharata.
[1] dhiṣṇyaṁ dhāma niketanaṁ ca sadanaṁ vastyaṁ ca vāstu kṣayaḥ (Vaijayantī).
[2] gamane vartane yātrā (Vaijayantī).
[3] sukṛtāṁ vā etāni jyotīṁṣi yan nakṣatrāṇi.
1 Softly: Jābāli didn’t loudly trumpet an anti-Vedic ideology in front of Lord Rāma; he presented it softly. Nevertheless Lord Rāmacandra became irritated with him to such an extent that He began to criticize His father’s policy of having appointed Jābāli as one of his advisors.
Nivartanārtham [also] indicates that Jābāli wanted to reveal Rāmacandra’s rejection [of the idea that the soul does not exist], that is, he wanted to reveal to the public that Rāma cannot be deviated from the path of the Vedas. Jābāli wanted to see Bharata’s happy face.