Shloka 14
स्वधर्म नेच्छसे ज्ञातुं मिथ्यावचनमेव ते । भयार्दितानामस्माकं वाचा मर्माणि कृन्तसि
svadharma necchase jñātuṁ mithyāvacanam eva te | bhayārditānām asmākaṁ vācā marmāṇi kṛntasi ||
Sañjaya said: “You do not wish to understand your own duty; instead, false speech alone is what you choose. With your words you cut into the vital points of us who are already stricken with fear.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse condemns abandoning svadharma and choosing untruthful speech; it highlights that words can become ethically harmful weapons, especially against those already weakened by fear.
Sañjaya rebukes an interlocutor for refusing to discern proper duty and for speaking falsely; he describes such speech as wounding the vulnerable ‘vital points’ of their side, already distressed by fear amid the war’s crisis.