Shloka 223

Devanagari script

गुरो्गुरुं च भूयो5पि क्षिपन्नैव हि लज्जसे । दुराचारी पांचाल! तू मेरे आगे मेरे ही गुरु तथा मेरे गुरुके भी गुरुपर बारंबार आक्षेप कर रहा है, तो भी तुझे लज्जा नहीं आती

Transliteration

guroḥ guruṁ ca bhūyo 'pi kṣipann eva hi lajjase | durācārī pāñcāla! tvaṁ me 'gre me eva guruṁ tathā me guroḥ api guruṁ prati bāraṁbāram ākṣepaṁ karosi, tato 'pi te lajjā na āyāti |

Translation

Sañjaya said: “You keep hurling insults again and again at my teacher and even at my teacher’s teacher, right before me—yet you feel no shame. O Pañcāla of wicked conduct! In this moment your words reveal not courage but moral collapse: contempt for one’s elders and preceptors, spoken openly, is a grave breach of propriety even amid war.”

Word by Word

गुरोःof (my/your) teacher

गुरुम्the teacher (guru)

चand

भूयःagain, repeatedly

अपिalso, even

क्षिपन्throwing abuse at, reviling

एवindeed, just

हिfor, indeed

लज्जसेyou are ashamed

दुराचारीevil-doer, of bad conduct

पाञ्चालO Panchala (descendant/king of Panchala)

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

Sañjaya

Pañcāla (addressed person)

guru (the speaker’s teacher)

guru-guru (teacher’s teacher)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Cross References

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Even in the heat of conflict, dharma restrains speech: repeatedly insulting one’s elders and preceptors is portrayed as a serious ethical failing, marked by the absence of shame (lajjā).

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya rebukes a person addressed as “Pañcāla,” accusing him of repeatedly censuring the speaker’s guru and the guru’s guru directly in front of him, and condemns this as shameless, immoral conduct.