Shloka 5
यद्य॒हं भवतोस्त्याज्यो न वाच्यो5स्मि तदैव हि । आवां पाण्डुसुतान् संख्ये जेष्याव इति मानदौ,“दूसरोंको मान देनेवाले वीरो! यदि आपलोग मुझे त्याग देना ही उचित समझते थे तो आपको उसी समय मुझसे यह नहीं कहना चाहिये था कि “हमलोग पाण्डवोंको युद्धमें जीत लेंगे!
yady ahaṃ bhavatos tyājyo na vācyo 'smi tadaiva hi | āvāṃ pāṇḍusutān saṅkhye jeṣyāva iti mānadau ||
Sañjaya said: “If you two truly deemed it right to cast me off, then at that very time you should not have spoken to me at all, saying, ‘We shall defeat the sons of Pāṇḍu in battle.’ O you who honor others, such words bind one to responsibility; to reject a person after taking his counsel is ethically blameworthy.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
Words of commitment create moral responsibility: it is improper to seek someone’s participation or assent (“we will win”) and then discard that person; honoring others includes consistency and accountability in speech.
Sañjaya voices a reproach to two addressed as “mānadau,” arguing that if they intended to abandon him, they should not earlier have spoken to him with confident assurances about defeating the Pāṇḍavas in battle.