Shloka 37
Sanatsujāta-Āhvāna (Summoning Sanatsujāta) — Vidura’s Invocation and Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s Doubt
योअन्यथा सन्तमात्मानमन्यथा प्रतिपद्यते । कि तेन न कृतं पापं चौरेणात्मापहारिणा,जो उक्त प्रकारसे वर्तमान आत्माको उसके विपरीत रूपसे समझता है, आत्माका अपहरण करनेवाले उस चोरने कौन-सा पाप नहीं किया?
yo 'nyathā santam ātmānam anyathā pratipadyate | kiṁ tena na kṛtaṁ pāpaṁ caureṇātmāpahāriṇā ||
Sanatsujāta sprach: „Wer das Selbst, das wahrhaft ist, anders auffasst, als es ist—welche Sünde hätte jener Dieb nicht begangen, der sich selbst das Selbst raubt?“
सनत्युजात उवाच
Educational Q&A
Misunderstanding the true Self is portrayed as the gravest ethical failure: it is like stealing from oneself. Such self-deception becomes the root from which other wrong actions arise, because one acts from a false identity.
In Udyoga Parva, Sanatsujāta instructs (in a didactic discourse) on inner truth and right understanding. Here he condemns distorted apprehension of the Self, using the metaphor of a thief who robs his own Self, to stress the moral and spiritual stakes of ignorance.