Vararuchi was one of the Navaratnas in the court of King Vikramaditya. The King one day challenged Vararuchi to identify the most important shloka of Ramayana. Vararuchi did not know. Vikramaditya asked him to find out the answer in forty-one days or else leave the country. Vararuchi wandered many places in search of the answer. He spoke to many learned scholors who said all shlokas are important. Vararuchi knew the language of Yakshas and one evening while resting below a tree he heard the Yakshas refer to him as “Vararuchi who does not know the shloka Ramam Dasaratham…”. Vararuchi immediately returned to the court and quoted the shloka where Sumitra is advising Lakshmana. He interpreted it in ten ways and the King and the courtiers accepted that this was indeed the most important shloka of Ramayana.
The shloka appears in the fortieth Sarga of Ayodhyakanda :
रामम् दशरथम् विद्धि माम् विद्धि जनक आत्मजाम् |
अयोध्याम् अटवीम् विद्धि गच्च तात यथा सुखम् || २-४०-९
vidhdhhi = know; raamam = Rama; dasharatham = to be Dasaratha; vidhdhhi = look upon; janakaatmajaam = Seetha the daughter of Janaka; maam = as myself;vidhdhhi = consider; aTaviim = forest; ayodhyaam = as Ayodhya; gachchha = depart; yathaasukham = happily; taata = my son!
Translation by Griffith :
Let Rama Dasaratha be, Look upon Sita as on me,
And let the cot wherein you dwell Be thine Ayodhya. Fare thee well
Meaning 1 : See Rama as Dasaratha and Sita as Sumitra. Treat the forest like Ayodhya. Depart with a happy mind
Meaning 2: Know that Rama is Mahavishnu and Sita is Mahalakshmi. Understand that with their departure Ayodhya will be like a forest. Depart with a happy mind.
Explantion about why this is the most important shloka could not be located, but possible reasons could be :
- It captures the essense of the protagonist and his position
- It points out how to look deep to understand the truth and feel happy about it
- Lakshmana’s was a sacrifice as he had no compulsion to go to the forest. This shloka attracts attention to that
- In a single shloka it summarises what a whole chapter can not do, in ensuring that Lakshmana remains happy in the long period of exile