Shloka 19
Chapter 59: Baladeva’s Censure, Keśava’s Restraint, and Yudhiṣṭhira’s Moral Accounting
विध्वस्तो5यं हतामात्यो हतभ्राता हतप्रज: । उत्सन्नपिण्डो भ्राता च नैतन्न्याय्यं कृतं त्वया,“इसका सर्वथा विध्वंस हो गया, इसके मन्त्री, भाई और पुत्र भी मार डाले गये। अब इसे पिण्ड देनेवाला भी कोई नहीं रह गया है। इसके सिवा यह हमारा ही भाई है। तुमने इसके साथ यह न्यायोचित बर्ताव नहीं किया है
vidhvasto ’yaṁ hatāmātyo hatabhrātā hataprajaḥ | utsannapiṇḍo bhrātā ca naitannyāyyaṁ kṛtaṁ tvayā ||
Sañjaya said: “This man has been utterly ruined—his ministers are slain, his brother is slain, and his people are slain. His line of funeral offerings has been cut off; there is no one left to offer him the piṇḍa. And besides, he is our own brother. What you have done to him is not just, not in keeping with what is right.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
Even amid war, actions are judged by dharma and nyāya: destroying a kinsman’s support-system (ministers, kin, subjects) and cutting off his ritual continuity (piṇḍa/śrāddha) is portrayed as ethically improper, especially when the victim is ‘our own brother’.
Sañjaya reports a moral protest: someone has been thoroughly devastated—his advisers, brother, and people have been killed, leaving him without anyone to perform funeral rites. Sañjaya condemns the deed as unjust and emphasizes the bond of brotherhood.