Shloka 29
Karna Reproves Shalya; Brahmin Reports on Bāhlīkas; Shalya’s Universalizing Rebuttal (कर्ण–शल्य संवादः)
अतिकान्तं हि यत् कार्य पश्चाच्चिन्तयते नर: । तच्चास्य न भवेत् कार्य चिन्तया च विनश्यति
atikāntaṁ hi yat kāryaṁ paścāc cintayate naraḥ | taccāsya na bhavet kāryaṁ cintayā ca vinaśyati ||
Sañjaya said: “O King, when a man broods afterward over a deed that has already gone beyond recall, that deed does not get accomplished (or undone) by his worrying; rather, through such anxious brooding he himself is ruined. The counsel is to remember the earlier justifications you once advanced and not to waste yourself in regret over what cannot now be changed.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
Regretful brooding over an irreversible past action is fruitless: it cannot change the deed, and it harms the person who indulges in it. The ethical thrust is to accept consequences, learn, and act rightly in the present rather than be consumed by anxiety.
Sañjaya addresses the king (Dhṛtarāṣṭra), urging him to recall the earlier rationalizations he had offered (such as appeals to ‘dharma’ in matters like the dice-game) and to stop tormenting himself with after-the-fact worry, since it cannot alter what has already unfolded.