Canto 3 -
Araṇya-kāṇḍa
Chapter 64: Rāma Discovers Some Clues About Sītā’s Whereabouts
Text 3.64.54

न धर्मस्त्रायते सीतां ह्रियमाणां महावने॥

na dharmas trāyate sītāṁ hriyamāṇāṁ mahā-vane

na = not; dharmaḥ = dharma; trāyate = has protected; sītām = Sītā; hriyamāṇām = while she was being abducted; mahā-vane = in the great forest.

Dharma has not protected Sītā while she was being abducted in the great forest!

The Lord also became angry with dharma because there was none to protect her even in this situation. Not only that, the next verse reveals that He became angry with the devas who award the results of dharma.

NOTE. Here the Lord pretends to behave like a bewildered human being. In reality, because of the dharma of Mother Sītā’s extreme chastity, there is absolutely no question of her being kidnapped by anyone, as stated in the Kūrma Purāṇa verses quoted in the note to Rāmāyaṇa 3.45.36-37.

When we destroy dharma, dharma destroys us and when we protect dharma, dharma protects us: dharma eva hato hanti dharmo rakṣati rakṣitaḥ. This is noted in Manu-smṛti 8.15.

At this point in Śrī Rāmāyaṇa, Lord Rāmacandra personally plays the role of a man who is overwhelmed by passion. Such a man stops thinking rationally, as stated in the Gītā (2.62-63):

dhyāyato viṣayān puṁsaḥ saṅgas teṣūpajāyate
saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ kāmāt krodho ’bhijāyate

While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises.

krodhād bhavati sammohaḥ sammohāt smṛti-vibhramaḥ
smṛti-bhraṁśād buddhi-nāśo buddhi-nāśāt praṇaśyati

From anger, complete delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost one falls down again into the material pool.