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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.98.49
Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, sarga 98: Bharata’s appeal and Rāma’s answer. Bharata asks him to restore the Kingdom, Rāma teaches the inevitability of loss, separation and death
In the sequence: Bharata admires Rāma's steadiness but argues that a good son should correct a father's harmful decision → he rejects Kaikeyī's action and asks Rāma to rescue the family and people from its consequences
2.98.49
guruḥ kriyāvān vṛddhaś ca rājā pretaḥ piteti ca
tātaṃ na parigarheyaṃ daivataṃ ceti saṃsadi
He was my elder, a doer of rites, aged, a king, now dead, and my father—and a very deity: for these reasons I would not reproach my father in an assembly.
Words: guruḥ — an elder, superior; kriyāvān — devoted to sacred rites; vṛddhaś ca — and aged; rājā — a king; pretaḥ — dead, departed; piteti ca — and “(my) father”; tātaṃ — (my) father; na parigarheyaṃ — I would not reproach; daivataṃ ceti — and “a deity”; saṃsadi — in the assembly
Composed by Maharṣi Vālmīki. 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.