Jabali

Jabali
Ramayana character
Created by	Valmiki
Aliases	Javali
Gender	Male
Occupation	Priest, Dasharatha's advisor

Jabali (Sanskrit: जाबालि) is a character in the ancient Indian epic Ramayana. A learned Brahmin priest and an advisor of Dasharatha, he unsuccessfully tries to persuade Rama to give up his exile, using rational arguments.

In Ramayana, Rama abandons his claim to the royal throne and goes on a 14-year exile, in order to help his father keep a promise. Rama considers his decision as his dharma (righteous duty), necessary for his father's honour. In Ayodhya Khanda, Jabali accompanies Bharata to the forest, as part of a group that tries to convince Rama to give up his exile.

Jabali uses nihilist reasoning to dissuade Rama from continuing the exile. He states that those give up artha (material pleasures) for the sake of dharma suffer in this life and meet extinction after their death. Showing further disbelief in the concept of afterlife, he criticizes the shraddha ritual, in which people offer food to their dead ancestors. He calls it a wastage of food, and sarcastically suggests that if food eaten by one person at a given place could nourish another person at another place, shraddha should be conducted for those going on long journeys, so they would not need to eat anything. However, even after listening to the arguments of Jabali and others, Rama refuses to give up his exile and extols the virtues of following the dharma.

Valmiki's Ramayana contains a section that describe's Rama angrily denouncing Jabali, which includes the following verses:

निन्दाम्यहं कर्म पितुः कृतं त ।
द्यस्त्वामगृह्णाद्विषमस्थबुद्धिम् ।
बुद्ध्यानयैवंविधया चरन्तं ।
सुनास्तिकं धर्मपथादपेतम् ।। (2-109-33)

यथा हि चोरः स तथा हि बुद्ध |
स्तथागतं नास्तिकमत्र विध्हि |
तस्माद्धि यः शङ्क्यतमः प्रजानाम् |
न नास्ति केनाभिमुखो बुधः स्यात् (2-109-34)

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