Shloka 23
Duryodhana-vadha-pratikriyā: Harṣa, Nindā, and Kṛṣṇa’s Nīti-vyākhyā (Śalya-parva 60)
“अत्यन्त लोभीका अर्थ और अधिक आसक्ति रखनेवालेका काम--ये दोनों ही धर्मको हानि पहुँचाते हैं! जो मनुष्य कामसे धर्म और अर्थको, अर्थसे धर्म और कामको तथा धर्मसे अर्थ और कामको हानि न पहुँचाकर धर्म, अर्थ और काम तीनोंका यथोचित रूपसे सेवन करता है, वह अत्यन्त सुखका भागी होता है ।। तदिदं व्याकुलं सर्व कृतं धर्मस्य पीडनात् । भीमसेनेन गोविन्द काम॑ त्वं तु यथा55तथ माम्,“गोविन्द! भीमसेनने (अर्थके लोभसे) धर्मको हानि पहुँचाकर इन सबको विकृत कर डाला है। तुम मुझसे जिस प्रकार इस कार्यको धर्मसंगत बता रहे हो वह सब तुम्हारी मनमानी कल्पना है”
sañjaya uvāca |
atyanta-lobhaḥ arthasya cādhikā saktir eva ca |
kāmaś caite dvāv api dharmaṃ ghnataḥ ||
yaḥ kāmād dharmam arthaṃ ca na hiṃsati narottamaḥ |
arthād dharmaṃ ca kāmaṃ ca dharmād arthaṃ ca kāmataḥ |
dharma-artha-kāmān yathā-nyāyaṃ sevate sa sukha-bhāk ||
tad idaṃ vyākulaṃ sarvaṃ kṛtaṃ dharmasya pīḍanāt |
bhīmasenena govinda kāmaṃ tvaṃ tu yathā-tathā |
mām "govinda" iti brūṣe dharma-saṃsthaṃ vikalpitam ||
Sañjaya said: “Excessive greed for wealth, stronger still the clinging to it, and desire—these two indeed strike at dharma. But the man who does not, for desire’s sake, injure dharma and artha; nor, for wealth’s sake, injure dharma and kāma; nor, for dharma’s sake, injure artha and kāma—who instead pursues dharma, artha, and kāma in due measure—he becomes a sharer of the highest happiness. But now everything has been thrown into turmoil by the wounding of dharma. O Govinda, Bhīmasena has done this by harming dharma (through greed for gain); and you, as you please, are trying to present this deed to me as ‘in accordance with dharma’—it is your own contrivance.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches the balanced pursuit of the three aims of life (dharma, artha, kāma). Excessive greed for wealth and unchecked desire undermine dharma; true well-being comes from pursuing all three in proper proportion without letting one violate the others.
Sanjaya reports a moral dispute: the situation has become ‘vyākula’ because dharma has been injured. Bhima is accused of acting from greed and thereby violating dharma, while Govinda (Krishna) is criticized for attempting to frame or justify the act as dharmic according to his own interpretation.