यत्करोति परं धर्मं मुनिर्मूलफलाशनः।
तत्र राज्ञश्चतुर्भागः प्रजा धर्मेण रक्षतः॥
yat karoti paraṁ dharmaṁ munir mūla-phalāśanaḥ
tatra rājñaś catur-bhāgaḥ prajā dharmeṇa rakṣataḥ
yat = that; karoti = earns; param = great; dharmam = piety; muniḥ = a sage; mūla-phala-aśanaḥ = who only eats roots and fruits; tatra = of the; rājñaḥ = [goes] to the king; catur-bhāgaḥ = one-fourth; prajāḥ = those citizens; dharmeṇa = according to Vedic dharma; rakṣataḥ = who provides for and protects.
One-fourth of the great piety that a sage, who only eats roots and fruits earns, [goes] to the king who provides for and protects those citizens according to Vedic dharma.1
1 “Those citizens” refers to the sages who eat only roots and fruits in his kingdom.
1 A king who provides for and protects his citizens can enjoy taxes from those citizens as a tax. The figure “one-sixth” appears in text 11 in this chapter. For the ordinary citizens, the system is that he can take one-sixth of their produce. For the sages engaged in religious austerities, one-fourth of their piety goes to him; therefore they are to be provided for and protected too—this is the point in this verse. Piety that has been accumulated is nothing but potential wealth and enjoyment. Just as a bona fide cheque is money that has to be realized, piety is nothing but artha and kāma that are yet to be experienced in one’s next lifetime(s). Just as we value both genuine cash and genuine cheques, in Vedic dharma kings valued tax in the form of gross material wealth and subtle material piety.
But what about the protection of the sages who are incapable of paying taxes? That is referred to here.1 They have thus described the result of protecting the citizens to gain pious credits.
In the next verse, the sages state that their surrender unto Rāma who does not need pious credits is the only reason for Him to protect [them].