Shloka 65
कर्णनिधनवृत्तान्तनिवेदनम् | Reporting Karṇa’s Fall to Yudhiṣṭhira
पापेभ्यो हि धनं दत्तं दातारमपि पीडयेत् । जहाँतक वश चले, किसी तरह उन लुटेरोंको धन नहीं देना चाहिये; क्योंकि पापियोंको दिया हुआ धन दाताको भी दुःख देता है ।।
pāpebhyo hi dhanaṃ dattaṃ dātāram api pīḍayet | yāvatakaṃ vaśaṃ cale, kathaṃcid api tān luṭerān dhanaṃ na dātavyaṃ; yato hi pāpiṣu dattaṃ dhanaṃ dātāram api duḥkhayati || tasmād dharmārtham anṛtam uktvā nānṛtabhāg bhavet; etac chrutvā brūhi pārtha yadi vadhyo yudhiṣṭhiraḥ ||
Vāyu sprach: „Reichtum, den man den Bösen gibt, quält am Ende selbst den Geber. Darum soll man, soweit es in der eigenen Macht steht, diesen Plünderern kein Geld geben; denn was man Sündern gibt, kehrt als Leid zum Spender zurück. Daher gilt: Wird eine Unwahrheit um des Dharma willen gesprochen, so fällt dem Menschen kein Anteil an der Schuld der Lüge zu. Nachdem du dies gehört hast, sage mir, o Pārtha: Soll Yudhiṣṭhira noch immer getötet werden?“
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The passage distinguishes between harmful giving and righteous speech: giving wealth to the wicked rebounds as suffering for the donor, and speaking an untruth specifically to protect or uphold dharma is presented as not incurring the ordinary moral fault of falsehood.
Vāyudeva addresses Arjuna, offering ethical guidance relevant to the battlefield: avoid empowering wrongdoers, and consider that a strategic untruth aimed at preserving dharma may be morally exempt. He then presses Arjuna to judge whether Yudhiṣṭhira should still be treated as a legitimate target for killing.