Canto 2 -
Ayodhyā-kāṇḍa
Chapter 117: Anasūyā Instructs Sītā About Strī-dharma
Text 2.117.12-1

तामिमां सर्वभूतानां नमस्कार्यां यशस्विनीम्।
अभिगच्छतु वैदेही वृद्धामक्रोधनां सदा॥

अनसूयेति या लोके कर्मभिः ख्यातिमागता।

tām imāṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ namas-kāryāṁ yaśasvinīm
abhigacchatu vaidehī vṛddhām akrodhanāṁ sadā

anasūyeti yā loke karmabhiḥ khyātim āgatā

tām imām = this; sarva-bhūtānām = by all creatures; namaḥ-kāryām = she is worthy of being offered respects; yaśasvinīm = illustrious; abhigacchatu = should meet; vaidehī = Sītā; vṛddhām = old lady; akrodhanām = free from anger; sadā = always; anasūyā iti = of being beyond everyone’s envy; loke = in the world; karmabhiḥ = because of her auspicious activities; khyātim = the reputation; āgatā = who has attained.

Sītā should meet this illustrious old lady. She is worthy of being offered respects by all creatures, always free from anger and who has attained the reputation of being beyond everyone’s envy in the world because of her auspicious activities.

Karmabhiḥ indicates that Anasūyā performed auspicious activities, that is, certain austerities impossible for others for attaining the blessings of the Supreme Being, and that she performed activities which increased her chastity to her husband, which protected her husband and so on.

Anasūyā. Her glory [as a chaste woman of this world] was beyond competition. Therefore she was beyond everyone’s envy.1

1 The idea is that it makes no sense to be jealous of someone you can never ever become equal to. Therefore, she was called Anasūyā, literally “the lady beyond envy.”