Thereat Laksmana, over-come with sorrow, embracing Rāma, spoke to his words fraught with reason and import, “Profitless* virtue is incapable, O noble one, of delivering from calamities you, who have subdued your senses, and who ever abidst in the good path. * 'Profitless, although apparently an epither of virtue, is really the predicate of the sentence. 'Virtue, incapable of delivering you is profitless.
तं लक्ष्मणोऽथ बाहुभ्यां परिष्वज्य सुदुःखितः। उवाच राममस्वस्थं वाक्यं हेत्वर्थसंयुतम्॥ शुभे वर्त्मनि तिष्ठन्तं त्वामार्य विजितेन्द्रियम्। अनर्थेभ्यो न शक्नोति त्रातुं धर्मो निरर्थकः॥