The law of karma binds one and all. Every being is born to experience the effects of one’s past deeds, good and bad. None can escape from facing the fruits of one’s actions. This truth clearly flashes in Dasaratha’s mind when, having sent Rama to the forest, he is in the grip of extreme sorrow and also realises that his life is going to end in this fashion, pointed out Swami Paramasukananda in a discourse. He is alone with Kausalya and seeks solace in her presence.
Accepting that he deserves every word of her harsh accusations, which clearly reflect her sorrow, the king pacifies her and very humbly asks her to refrain from committing any further sin of blaming her husband. He sees clearly that people easily commit sins when giving vent to their emotions like anger, desire, etc, unmindful of the terrible and fearful effects that quickly get attached to each one’s individual karma account. The suffering experienced by individuals is not something targeted on them indiscriminately; it is their own earnings from their past deeds. He recalls the act of adharma that he had committed long back in his past life when he was young and unmarried.
He had gone hunting in the forest and did not get any prey on that day. Suddenly, he heard the sound of someone drinking water from a nearby pond and he presumed that it was an elephant. Skilled in aiming the target by sheer focus on the sound, he now sent an arrow that did not miss the target. But soon he heard an anguished cry and rushing to the spot found that he was guilty of killing an innocent man who had the sole responsibility of caring for his aged and blind parents. This crime is now chasing Dasaratha and he knows he has to endure the blind parents’ dying curse of putra soka he had incurred then.
