734. Dasaratha says, “Your soft feet will hurt
when you walk on the gravel with stones
as sharp as the points of the spears enemies hold,
and they may bleed.
Willingly you are going to the forest
where no one wishes to go.
The sun will be hot and hunger will cause you cruel pain.
My son, you are going now
because I, a sinner, listened to the evil daughter of king Kaikeyan.
Surely I must have done bad karmā. What can I do to stop you?”
Word by Word (WBW) meaning
(The words may be rearranged to facilitate conversion from poetry to prose (Aṉvayam). Please read the meanings (in black) continuously to form the sentence and understand the simplified meaning based on the Divyārtha Dīpikai for the verse.)
In this profoundly sorrowful pāśuram, the emperor Daśaratha pours forth his grief, lamenting his own wretched and pitiable state. He decries himself as a great sinner of unparalleled measure, for it was his singular folly in heeding the cruel words of the sinner Kaikēyī that compelled his divine son, Śrī Rāma, to willingly embrace the