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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.20.9
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
2.20.9
lokavidviṣṭam ārabdhaṃ tvadanyasyābhiṣecanam
yeneyam āgatā dvaidhaṃ tava buddhir mahīpate
sa hi dharmo mama dveṣyaḥ prasaṅgād yasya muhyasi
The consecration of another than you, hated by the world, has been set afoot—by which your mind, O lord of earth, has fallen into this division; that dharma indeed, by whose entanglement you are deluded, is hateful to me.
Words: lokavidviṣṭam — hated by the world; ārabdhaṃ — undertaken, begun; tvadanyasyābhiṣecanam — the consecration of another than you; yeneyam — by which this; āgatā — come, fallen; dvaidhaṃ — division, twofold state; tava — your; buddhir — mind, intellect; mahīpate — O lord of earth; sa — that; hi — indeed; dharmo — dharma; mama — to me; dveṣyaḥ — hateful; prasaṅgād — through attachment, entanglement; yasya — of which; muhyasi — you are deluded
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.