In plain words
‘What, are you so mad? Rāma will become emperor. And you are to be a slave to Kausalyā?’ Saying this again and again, pouring in evil counsel, she turned her mind. Though bad words are not sweet at first, if they are said again and again without end, they go to the head.
A good word they will not hear, though told with all the heart; a bad word falls first upon the ear; can such as these ever come to know Me? Whatever cleverness they have, what is the fruit?
Mantharā spoke the bad words. Kaikeyī listened to the bad words. She turned against Daśaratha's plan. She had Rāma sent to the forest. She asked that her son be crowned. Then whom did all the people of Ayodhyā revile? They reviled Kaikeyī and Mantharā. They heaped scorn on her: ‘What a wicked woman this Mantharā is!’ Because of what? Mantharā became bad by speaking bad words. Kaikeyī became bad by listening to bad words. So the whole world hated these two. Today does any woman take the name ‘Mantharā’ or ‘Kaikeyī’? Has your aunt, or your mother, or your younger sister taken it? Tell Me. No, no one takes those names. You will not have heard them anywhere. No ordinary person takes them. Why I say this is not to criticise them. There are the names ‘Laṅkhiṇī’ and ‘Śūrpaṇakhā’. Because they spoke bad words and listened to bad words, society has put their names far away.
Society keeps those of evil sight at a distance
Having spent 12 years in the forest, the Pāṇḍavas were living one year in hiding. There, so that their names and home would not be known, they lived in disguise. However they disguised themselves, where would their radiance go? That radiance is always there.