Shloka 62
Chapter 2: Sudarśana Upākhyāna — Atithi-Dharma and the Conquest of Mṛtyu
Gṛhastha-Vrata
अथ तां पुनरेवेदं प्रोवाच स सुदर्शन: । क्व सा साध्वी क््व सा याता गरीय: किमतो मम,अब सुदर्शन फिर पुकार-पुकारकर इस प्रकार कहने लगे--“मेरी वह साध्वी पत्नी कहाँ है? वह सुशीला कहाँ चली गयी? मेरी सेवासे बढ़कर कौन गुरुतर कार्य उसपर आ पड़ा। वह पतिव्रता, सत्य बोलनेवाली और सदा सरलभावसे रहनेवाली है। आज पहलेकी ही भाँति मुसकराती हुई वह मेरी अगवानी क्यों नहीं कर रही है?”
atha tāṃ punar evedaṃ provāca sa sudarśanaḥ | kva sā sādhvī kva sā yātā garīyaḥ kim ato mama ||
Then Sudarśana again spoke these words, calling out repeatedly: “Where is that virtuous woman? Where has my chaste wife gone? What task more weighty than serving me has suddenly fallen upon her?”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds the traditional dharma-ideal of the sādhvī (faithful, virtuous wife) and the expectation of steadfast domestic duty; it also hints at how attachment and entitlement can shape one’s moral assumptions about another’s obligations.
Sudarśana, not finding his wife, calls out for her again and again, wondering where she has gone and what could be more urgent than attending to him.