अप्यहं जीवितं जह्यां त्वां वा सीते सलक्ष्मणाम्।
न तु प्रतिज्ञां संश्रुत्य ब्राह्मणेभ्यो विशेषतः॥
apy ahaṁ jīvitaṁ jahyāṁ tvāṁ vā sīte salakṣmaṇām
na tu pratijñāṁ saṁśrutya brāhmaṇebhyo viśeṣataḥ
api = even; aham = I; jīvitam = [My] life; jahyām = can give up; tvām = You; vā = or; sīte = Sītā; salakṣmaṇām = or Lakṣmaṇa; na = not; tu = but; pratijñām = a promise; saṁśrutya = that I have made; brāhmaṇebhyaḥ = to those with spiritual knowledge; viśeṣataḥ = especially.
1 This verse is noted as a variant reading in Patrick Olivelle’s edition of the Manu-smṛti under text 7.213. The verse with satataṁ instead of sarvadā appears as Mahābhārata 5.37.17 and Garuḍa Purāṇa 1.109.1, and is found in Hitopadeśa and Pañcatantra.
2 This is also noted as a variant reading in Patrick Olivelle’s edition.
[The scriptures] state:
[āpad-arthe dhanaṁ rakṣed dārān rakṣed dhanair api]
ātmānaṁ sarvadā rakṣed dārair api dhanair api
“One should protect wealth to face crisis. One should protect his wife more than his wealth. But at all times one should protect one’s life more than his wife and wealth.”1 (Manu-smṛti 7.213)
And it is this very life that Lord Rāma would rather give up [for the sake of maintaining a promise].
[The scripture also] states:
[ācāryo brahmaṇo mūrtiḥ pitā mūrtiḥ prajāpateḥ]
mātā pṛthivyā mūrtis tu bhrātā svā mūrtir ātmanaḥ
“One’s ācārya is a form of the [Supreme] Brahman. One’s father is a form of the progenitor [Brahmā]. One’s mother is a form of the earth. One’s brother is the form of one’s own self.”2 (Manu-smṛti 2.226)
Rāmacandra would rather give up His brother Lakṣmaṇa, noted above [to be a form of His own self, for the sake of maintaining a promise].
[Furthermore, the scripture] states:
ardho vā eṣa ātmano yat-patnī
“A wife is half of one’s own self.” (Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa 3.3.3.5)
Rāma would rather give up His own wife, mentioned above [to be half of Himself to maintain a promise]. Indeed, what is surprising in this?
Rāma asserts here that He will never break His promise irrespective of what He has promised and to whom He has promised, especially to those who possess spiritual knowledge.
NOTE. In Chapter 21 of The Nectar of Devotion, Prabhupāda explains the truthful nature of Lord Kṛṣṇa as follows:
A person whose word of honor is never broken is called truthful. Kṛṣṇa once promised Kuntī, the mother of the Pāṇḍavas, that He would bring her five sons back from the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra. After the battle was finished, when all the Pāṇḍavas had come home, Kuntī praised Kṛṣṇa because His promise was so nicely fulfilled. She said, “Even the sunshine may one day become cool and the moonshine one day become hot, but still Your promise will not fail.”
Similarly, when Kṛṣṇa, along with Bhīma and Arjuna, went to challenge Jarāsandha, He plainly told Jarāsandha that He was the eternal Kṛṣṇa, present along with two of the Pāṇḍavas. The story is that both Kṛṣṇa and the Pāṇḍavas—in this case Bhīma and Arjuna—were kṣatriyas (warrior-kings). Jarāsandha was also a kṣatriya and was very charitable toward the brāhmaṇas. Thus Kṛṣṇa, who had planned to fight with Jarāsandha, went to him with Bhīma and Arjuna in the dress of brāhmaṇas. Jarāsandha, being very charitable toward the brāhmaṇas, asked them what they wanted, and they expressed their desire to fight with him. Then Kṛṣṇa, dressed as a brāhmaṇa, declared Himself to be the same Kṛṣṇa who was the king’s eternal enemy.
And among all the promises made by the Lord, one promise stands supreme: If we surrender unto Him, He will fully deliver us from all of our sinful reactions. Prabhupāda explains this in his purport to Bhagavad-gītā 18.66:
In summarizing Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord says that Arjuna should give up all the processes that have been explained to him; he should simply surrender to Kṛṣṇa. That surrender will save him from all kinds of sinful reactions, for the Lord personally promises to protect him.