ka: dharmagya:?

The next question asked by the sage Valmiki is "ka: dharmagya:?" That is, who is the one who knows Dharma? Andal called Krishna as one who did not know Dharma in Her Nachchiyar Thirumozhi ("dharumam aRiyA kuRumban"). As opposed to that, Rama has been celebrated as the very personification of Dharma. There are many dharmas that are described in the shastras. So, what is the dharma that He is known for?

In Sundara Kandam, Sita says "Anrushamsyam paro dharma: tvatta eva mayA shruta:". Here, Anrusamsyam means kindness. This is said to be Rama's dharma. Vedanta Desikan in his Dashavatara Shloka has written one shloka for all ten avataras combined, after writing one shloka for each one. In this shloka, he uses one adjective for each avatara. For Ramaavatara, he says "karuNA kAkutstha!". What is this karuNa that Swami Desikan is talking about?

Amara Kosham says "kAruNyam karuNA kruNA, krupA dayA, anukampA syAt anukroshopi". When one shudders seeing another person shuddering from misery, it is called anukampA; when one cries seeing another person crying from misery, it is called anukrosham. This quality is called karuNa. That is, having empathy upon seeing another person's suffering is the quality of karuNa or compassion. This is well shown by Sri Rama.

Compassion

Seeing the great qualities of Rama and the affection that He had for the populace and their affection in turn for Him, Dasaratha decided to crown Him as the prince and hand over the kingdom to Him. He consulted on that with his ministers and then called the people in his kingdom to express his desire to them. As soon as he told them that, they became very happy and told him "O! Old man. Leave now and crown Rama immediately". This was pleasing to Dasaratha and he knew why they had told him that. Nevertheless, desiring to hear it from them directly, he told them "Were you all suffering in my kingdom? You could have told me that you support my decision. Or told me that you being a King can make this decision and that there is no need to ask us. Instead you are asking me to leave immediately. Why is that?"

They replied "O! King. We did not find any fault with you. It is due to the great divine qualities of Sri Rama that we desired to live under His kingship immediately. If you wish, we can tell you what those qualities are". As they explained His divine qualities to Dasaratha, they said the following: "vyasaneshu manushyANAm bhrusham bhavati du:khita:, utsaveshu cha sarveshu piteva paritushyati".

paradu:kha du:khitva nirUpaNam

The meaning of the above shloka is that He suffers greatly when He sees someone else's suffering and that He experiences great happiness upon seeing someone else's joy. The latter feeling is not as great as the former. When describing His qualities, the people of Ayodhya had started by saying "bahavo nrupa! kalyANaguNA: putrasya santi te" - they had stated about His many auspicious qualities. Therefore this quality too is an auspicious quality.

Some may say that suffering is not an auspicious quality. In his commentary for Sahasranama, Bhattar when explaining the nAma vikartA, has answered these objections very well.