तं लक्ष्मणोऽथ बाहुभ्यां परिष्वज्य सुदुःखितः। उवाच राममस्वस्थं वाक्यं हेत्वर्थसंयुतम्॥ शुभे वर्त्मनि तिष्ठन्तं त्वामार्य विजितेन्द्रियम्। अनर्थेभ्यो न शक्नोति त्रातुं धर्मो निरर्थकः॥
taṃ lakṣmaṇo'tha bāhubhyāṃ pariṣvajya suduḥkhitaḥ| uvāca rāmamasvasthaṃ vākyaṃ hetvarthasaṃyutam|| śubhe vartmani tiṣṭhantaṃ tvāmārya vijitendriyam| anarthebhyo na śaknoti trātuṃ dharmo nirarthakaḥ||
English Meaning
Thereat Laksmana, over-come with sorrow, embracing Rāma, spoke to his words fraught with reason and import, “Profitless* virtue is incapable, O noble one, of delivering from calamities you, who have subdued your senses, and who ever abidst in the good path. * 'Profitless, although apparently an epither of virtue, is really the predicate of the sentence. 'Virtue, incapable of delivering you is profitless.
— M.N. Dutt (1891–94, public domain)