वृद्धिमायाति दौर्जन्यं सौजन्यं याति तानवम् । करञ्जकर्कशे राजन् प्रत्यहं जनचेतसि ॥ ३ ॥
vṛddhimāyāti daurjanyaṁ saujanyaṁ yāti tānavam | karañjakarkaśē rājan pratyahaṁ janacētasi || 3 ||
Translation
In people's hearts, harsh as the karañja, wickedness grows day by day and goodness wastes away, O king.
Word by word
- vṛddhim
- growth
- āyāti
- grows
- daurjanyaṁ
- wickedness
- saujanyaṁ
- goodness
- yāti
- goes
- tānavam
- to thinness
- karañja
- as the karañja
- karkaśē
- harsh
- rājan
- O king
- pratyahaṁ
- day by day
- jana
- in people's
- cētasi
- hearts
Meaning
The karañja is a thorny wild tree with hard fruit; the commentary compares the hearts of people to that fruit. Rāma speaks to his father (rājan, "O king") of what a prince sees at court: as dharma declines a little and adharma grows a little, the commentary says, ill-will (daurjanya) increases and kindness (saujanya) thins. This is the third reason for his dispassion: not only are things faulty and changing, the people among whom one would seek comfort are hardening. The verse is not a judgement from above; Rāma counts the human heart, his own included, among the things that cannot be relied on. The reader may notice how small daily compromises, each excusable, add up to a harder heart, and that the remedy is not to blame the age but to watch one's own.