Shloka 61
Dama-pradhāna-dharma (Self-restraint as the Root of Dharma) — Śānti-parva 154
चक्षुर््या न च कर्णाभ्यां संशृूणोति समीक्षते । कस्मादेनं समुत्सूज्य न गृहान् गच्छताशु वै
cakṣurbhyāṁ na ca karṇābhyāṁ saṁśṛṇoti samīkṣate | kasmād enaṁ samutsṛjya na gṛhān gacchatāśu vai ||
Jambuka said: “He neither sees with his eyes nor hears with his ears. Why, then, do you not abandon him and quickly go back to your homes?”
जम्बुक उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames an ethical provocation: if someone appears incapable of seeing or hearing, should others abandon him and return to their own concerns? In the Shanti Parva’s moral discourse, such a question typically tests the listener’s commitment to dharma—especially compassion and responsibility toward the vulnerable—rather than endorsing neglect.
Jambuka addresses a group (plural imperative ‘gacchata’) and points out that the person in question neither sees nor hears. He then challenges them: why not leave him and go home quickly? The line functions as a pointed rhetorical move within a broader ethical discussion, pressing the audience to respond with the dharmic course of action.