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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.57.5

Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, sarga 57: Daśaratha’s arrow aimed at a sound. He recalls mistaking a filling pot for an elephant and shooting a youth who directs him to his blind parents

In the sequence: he says that people reap the consequences of their actions and that acting without considering the result has brought him to this point.

2.57.5

guru lāghavam arthānām ārambhe karmaṇāṃ phalam
doṣaṃ vā yo na jānāti sa bāla iti hocyate

He who does not know, at the outset of his undertakings, the weight or the lightness of aims, the fruit of actions, or their flaw — he is called a fool.

Words: guru — the heaviness, gravity; lāghavam — the lightness; arthānām — of aims, matters; ārambhe — at the outset, undertaking; karmaṇāṃ — of actions; phalam — the fruit; doṣaṃ — the fault, flaw; vā — or; yo — who; na — not; jānāti — knows; sa — he; bāla — a fool, child; iti — thus; hocyate — is indeed called

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.