Shloka 5
कथं धर्मभृतां श्रेष्ठोी राजा त्वं वासवोपम: । पुनर्वने न दु:खी स्या इति चोद्धर्षणं कृतम्,तुम धर्मात्माओंमें श्रेष्ठ और इन्द्रके समान ऐश्वर्यशशाली राजा होकर पुन: वनवासका कष्ट न भोगो, इसी उद्देश्यसे मैंने तुम्हें युद्धके लिये उत्साहित किया था
kathaṁ dharmabhṛtāṁ śreṣṭho rājā tvaṁ vāsavopamaḥ | punar vane na duḥkhī syā iti coddharṣaṇaṁ kṛtam ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “How could you—best among the upholders of dharma, a king endowed with sovereignty like Indra—be made to suffer once again in the forest? It was with this very aim, that you should not have to endure renewed hardship of exile, that I stirred you on toward war.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames war-urging as a duty-bound intervention: a righteous king should not be forced into repeated unjust suffering (renewed forest-exile). The ethical claim is that decisive action may be justified when it prevents ongoing adharma and protects rightful order and dignity.
Vaiśampāyana explains the motive behind having encouraged the king toward war: to ensure that, despite being foremost among dharma-upholders and Indra-like in royal stature, he would not have to undergo the misery of returning to forest life again.