← 3.35.1 · Araṇya Kāṇḍa 35: Mārīca’s warning · 3.35.3 →
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.35.2
Araṇya Kāṇḍa, sarga 35: Mārīca’s warning. He corrects Rāvaṇa’s account of Rāma’s exile, praises Rāma’s character and urges consultation before a plan that could destroy Laṅkā
In the sequence: Mārīca says that pleasant advisers are easy to find, but people willing to speak or hear an unpleasant truth are rare
3.35.2
sulabhāḥ puruṣā rājan satataṃ priyavādinaḥ
apriyasya ca pathyasya vaktā śrotā ca durlabhaḥ
Easily found, O king, are men who always speak what is pleasant; but rare is one who speaks—or one who hears—what is unpleasant yet wholesome.
Words: sulabhāḥ — easily found; puruṣā — men; rājan — O king; satataṃ — always, constantly; priyavādinaḥ — speakers of what is pleasant; apriyasya ca — and of the unpleasant; pathyasya — of the wholesome, salutary; vaktā — a speaker; śrotā ca — and a hearer; durlabhaḥ — hard to find
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.