Shloka 37

धृतराष्ट्र-सत्कारः तथा श्राद्ध-दाने नियमनम् | Honoring Dhṛtarāṣṭra and Regulating Śrāddha-Gifts

Devanagari script

विपरीतकश्न मे शत्रुर्नियम्यश्न भवेन्नर: । राजा युधिष्ठिर बड़े दयालु थे। वे सदा प्रसन्न रहकर अपने भाइयों और मन्त्रियोंसे कहा करते थे कि “ये राजा धृतराष्ट्र मेरे और आपलोगोंके माननीय हैं। जो इनकी आज्ञाके अधीन रहता है, वही मेरा सुहृद्‌ है। विपरीत आचरण करनेवाला मेरा शत्रु है। वह मेरे दण्डका भागी होगा

Transliteration

viparītakṛc ca me śatrur niyamyaś ca bhaven naraḥ |

Translation

Vaiśampāyana sprach: „Wer meinem Befehl und rechtem Wandel zuwiderhandelt, ist mein Feind; wer sich aber zügelt, in Zucht lebt und gehorcht, der soll als einer der Meinen gelten.“ In diesem Sinne ermahnte König Yudhiṣṭhira—stets voll Mitgefühl und heiterer Ruhe—seine Brüder und Minister immer wieder, König Dhṛtarāṣṭra als ehrwürdigen Ältesten zu achten; wer unter Dhṛtarāṣṭras Autorität blieb und seinen Weisungen folgte, galt als Wohlgesinnter Yudhiṣṭhiras, wer jedoch das Gegenteil tat, zog Strafe auf sich.

Word by Word

• {'viparīta': 'contrary, opposite, acting against (instruction/dharma)', 'kṛt (kṛc)': 'doing, acting (here: one who acts in a certain way)', 'me': 'my', 'śatruḥ': 'enemy', 'niyamyaḥ': 'to be restrained/controlled

• obedient (one who is to be kept under rule or who keeps himself under rule)', 'ca': 'and', 'bhavet': 'would be, should be, becomes', 'naraḥ': 'man, person'}

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vaiśampāyana
• Yudhiṣṭhira
• Dhṛtarāṣṭra
• brothers of Yudhiṣṭhira (Pāṇḍavas)
• ministers

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse frames ethical governance as loyalty to rightful authority and disciplined conduct: obedience and self-restraint are treated as friendship and social harmony, while deliberate contrariness is treated as enmity and becomes liable to punishment.

What is happening in the narrative?

Vaiśampāyana describes Yudhiṣṭhira’s policy after the war: he instructs his brothers and ministers to honor Dhṛtarāṣṭra as a venerable elder-king, to remain under his direction, and to treat disobedience or oppositional conduct as a punishable offense.