Shloka 6
स भवान् धर्मभीरुत्वाद् ध्रुवमैष्यन्महत्तम: । नरकं घोररूपं च भ्रातुर्ज्येष्ठस्य वै वधात्,“अतः तुम धर्मभीरु होनेके कारण अपने ज्येष्ठ भाईके वधसे निश्चय ही घोर नरकरूप महान् अन्धकार (दुःख)-में डूब जाते
sa bhavān dharmabhīrutvād dhruvam aiṣyan mahattamaḥ | narakaṃ ghorarūpaṃ ca bhrātur jyeṣṭhasya vai vadhāt ||
Sañjaya said: “O best of men, because you are fearful of violating dharma, by slaying your eldest brother you would surely fall into a dreadful hell—into a great darkness of suffering.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the ethical gravity of killing one’s elder brother: even amid war, such an act is framed as a severe breach of dharma with dire karmic consequences (symbolized as falling into dreadful hell/darkness).
Sañjaya, narrating events and moral stakes, warns that the dharma-fearing listener would inevitably incur terrible spiritual consequence if he were to slay his eldest brother—highlighting the tension between battlefield duty and familial dharma.