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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.20.11

Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, sarga 20: Lakṣmaṇa opposes fate with effort. He offers to overcome every obstacle by force, Rāma wipes away his tears but remains bound to the promise

In the sequence: he says a courageous person should act against misfortune instead of submitting to fate

2.20.11

viklavo vīryahīno yaḥ sa daivam anuvartate
vīrāḥ saṃbhāvitātmāno na daivaṃ paryupāsate

It is the faint-hearted man, void of valour, who submits to fate; heroes of self-respecting souls do not wait upon fate.

Words: viklavo — faint-hearted, dismayed; vīryahīno — void of valour; yaḥ — who; sa — he; daivam — fate; anuvartate — follows, submits to; vīrāḥ — heroes; saṃbhāvitātmāno — of self-respecting souls; na — not; daivaṃ — fate; paryupāsate — wait upon, worship

Composed by Maharṣi Vālmīki, the ādikavi of the ādikāvya: the first poet of the first poem. Sanskrit: The Vālmīki-Rāmāyaṇa: Critical Edition, Oriental Institute, Baroda, 1960–1975 (gen. eds. G. H. Bhatt, U. P. Shah); IAST from GRETIL (Göttingen). Translation and word glosses: Claude Opus 4.6–4.7; summaries and sequences: ChatGPT Astra (machine-made). Numbering follows the Critical Edition, not the vulgate (e.g. Gita Press, valmikiramayan.net), so sarga and verse numbers can differ from those editions.