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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2.98.51

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

2.98.51

antakāle hi bhūtāni muhyantīti purāśrutiḥ
rājñaivaṃ kurvatā loke pratyakṣā sā śrutiḥ kṛtā

“At the hour of their end, beings become deluded”—so runs the ancient saying; and the king, by acting thus, has made that saying manifest before the world.

Words: antakāle hi — for at the time of the end; bhūtāni — beings; muhyantīti — “become deluded,” thus; purāśrutiḥ — an ancient tradition, old saying; rājñaivaṃ — by the king thus; kurvatā — by (him) doing; loke — in the world; pratyakṣā sā śrutiḥ — that saying made evident; kṛtā — was made

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.