Shloka 61
अध्याय ७४: अक्रोध–क्षमा–निवासनीति
Chapter 74: Non-anger, Forbearance, and the Ethics of Residence
ननु नामाड्कमारोप्य स्नेहाद् ग्रामान्तरं गता: | मूर्श्नि पुत्रानुपाप्राय प्रतिनन्दन्ति मानवा:,“प्रायः देखा जाता है कि दूसरे गाँवकी यात्रा करके लौटे हुए मनुष्य घर आनेपर बड़े स्नेहसे पुत्रोंको गोदमें उठा लेते हैं और उनके मस्तक सूँघकर आनन्दित होते हैं
nanu nāmāṅkam āropya snehād grāmāntaraṃ gatāḥ | mūrdhni putrān upāghrāya pratinandanti mānavāḥ ||
Is it not commonly seen that when people return home after traveling to another village, they lift their children onto their lap out of affection, smell their heads, and rejoice? So too does affection, by its very nature, seek reunion and the recognition of one’s own.
दुष्यन्त उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse appeals to a familiar social gesture—embracing and smelling a child’s head after returning from travel—to underline how affection naturally seeks reunion and acknowledges one’s own. It frames love and recognition as spontaneous human impulses, supporting an ethical claim grounded in common experience.
Duṣyanta is speaking and uses an everyday example from village life to justify or strengthen his point: people returning from a journey instinctively welcome their children with intimate affection. The comparison functions as persuasive reasoning within his dialogue in the Adi Parva narrative.