“He prayeth best who loveth best all things both great and small”
Ramayana“He prayeth best who loveth best all things both great and small” is a maxim quoted in an explanatory note on the poem. The note presents love for all living beings—not human beings alone, but birds and beasts too—as a measure of genuine prayer, giving the expression an ethical meaning that reaches beyond human society.
Meaning and Context
The expression appears in note 832, which discusses a precept said to recur frequently in old Indian poems: one should treat others as one would wish to be treated. The note then broadens the scope of that charity to include animals, and quotes the maxim as a compact statement of this inclusive principle.
The line links prayer with love rather than defining devotion through ritual or doctrine. Its superlative claim—that the best prayer belongs to the one who loves most fully—makes ethical regard the test of spiritual excellence. The final phrase, “all things both great and small,” emphasizes that this regard extends across differences of size and kind.
Ethical Reach
The note’s explanation is essential to the maxim’s scope. It does not confine compassion to relationships among people: birds and beasts are explicitly included. The expression therefore presents care for other creatures as part of a wider moral disposition, rather than as a separate or lesser concern.
Its parallel phrasing gives the principle a memorable, balanced form. The movement from prayer to love and from “all things” to “great and small” turns a broad ethical idea into a concise verse suitable for recitation and recollection.
Place in the Poem’s Commentary
The maxim is quoted by the commentator as an illustration of the older ethical precept, not as a reported speech or a scene in the narrative. The note uses it to explain how the principle of treating others as oneself can extend beyond human beings. In that framing, the expression serves as a concise interpretive statement about charity’s reach and the connection between love and prayer.
