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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 3.39.9

Araṇya Kāṇḍa, sarga 39: Mārīca’s final warning. He condemns advisers who fail to restrain a destructive ruler and predicts that the abduction will kill them both and ruin Laṅkā

In the sequence: he condemns ministers who fail to restrain a ruler on a destructive course, because the ruler's failure ruins everyone dependent on him

3.39.9

viparyaye tu tat sarvaṃ vyarthaṃ bhavati rāvaṇa
vyasanaṃ svāmivaiguṇyāt prāpnuvantītare janāḥ

But in the reverse case all that becomes vain, Rāvaṇa; through the master's fault other people meet with disaster.

Words: viparyaye tu — but in the reverse (case); tat sarvaṃ — all that; vyarthaṃ — vain, useless; bhavati — becomes; rāvaṇa — O Rāvaṇa; vyasanaṃ — calamity, disaster; svāmivaiguṇyāt — through the master's fault; prāpnuvantītare — the other (people) obtain; janāḥ — people

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.