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Consider the following slokas from Ayodhya Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana.

Rama again and again saw that Kausalya, his mother who was crying thus, running after that chariot as though dancing, shouting"Oh, Rama, Rama!" "Oh, Seetha!" and "Oh, Lakshmana!" trickling tears descending from her eyes for the sake of Rama Lakshmana and Seetha.

Dasaratha exclaimed saying "Stop!" while Rama called out "Go on, proceed!" (In that way) Sumantra's mind became confused, as in between two (opposing) whirl pools.

Rama said to him: "You can say to the king that you did not hear (his call), even when scolded (later). seeing their grief for a long time is quite unbearbale."

The charioteer, doing as per Rama's words, took leave of those citizens and drive the horses more speedily even while they are going.

In normal perception, it is surely a lie. If not a lie, then, is there any scriptural justification regarding this?

hanugm
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    No, he did not, because Dasharatha did not really mean 'Stop, I order you not not go to forest', because he had his own vow to keep up (send Rama to forest). He meant it as 'Stop causing me pain by obeying my orders'. This is discussed even earlier when Dasharatha tells Rama that if Rama wants to disobey Dasharath and stay in kingdom, he would be fine with it, that way he can have best of both worlds - Dashrath would have kept his vow to Kaikeyi to tell Rama to leave, but then it was Rama who disobeyed, so Dashrath can't do anything about it. But Rama didn't want that infamy of disobeying. – ram Nov 16 '18 at 17:47
  • Possible duplicate of In Hinduism, what exactly is a lie? And is lying adharma? – Say No To Censorship Nov 16 '18 at 21:11
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    So the commentary says why such an untruthful statement? It says because of delay. The delay in the sorrow they were experiencing at that moment was most wicked/ unbearable. Or as I would translate it- the delay in sorrow was the most wicked thing (पापिष्ठ) (more wicked than lying to the king). Does this satisfy the question? – Adiyarkku Mar 02 '21 at 10:43

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