Shloka 27
Sabhā Parva, Adhyāya 68 — Pāṇḍavānāṃ Vanavāsa-prasthānaḥ; Duḥśāsana-nindā; Pāṇḍava-pratijñāḥ
उस कोलाहलके शान्त होनेपर राधानन्दन कर्ण क्रोधसे मूर्च्छिंत हो उसकी सुन्दर बाँह पकड़कर इस प्रकार बोला ।।
karṇa uvāca | dṛśyante vai vikarṇeha vaikṛtāni bahūny api | tajjātas tadvināśāya yathāgnir araṇiprajaḥ ||
Karna sprach: „Vikarna, in dieser Welt sieht man vieles, das verkehrte und schädliche Folgen zeitigt. Wie das Feuer, das aus den araṇi-Hölzern geboren wird, am Ende eben diese Hölzer verzehrt, so kann auch ein Mann in einer Familie aufsteigen, nur um zum Grund ihres Untergangs zu werden.“
कर्ण उवाच
Educational Q&A
Karna uses a moral analogy: causes can generate their own destroyers. One should recognize that a person born within a lineage may act against its welfare, just as fire produced from araṇi-sticks consumes the very sticks that produced it.
After the commotion subsides, Karna—angered—addresses Vikarna and rebukes him through a pointed metaphor, implying that someone within a family can become the agent of that family’s downfall.