Shloka 26
Adhyāya 2: Nārada’s Disclosure—Karṇa’s Training and the Brahmin’s Curse (Śānti-parva)
“नराधम! जब पृथ्वीमें तेरा पहिया फँस जायगा और तू अचेत-सा हो रहा होगा, उस समय तेरा शत्रु पराक्रम करके तेरे मस्तकको काट गिरायेगा। अब तू चला जा ।। यथेयं गौहता मूढ प्रमत्तेन त्वया मम । प्रमत्तस्य तथाराति: शिरस्ते पातयिष्यति,'“ओ मूढ! जैसे असावधान होकर तूने इस गौका वध किया है, उसी प्रकार असावधान- अवस्थामें ही शत्रु तेरा सिर काट डालेगा'
narādhama! yadā pṛthivyāṃ tava cakraṃ saṃsaktam bhaviṣyati, tvam ca acetana iva bhaviṣyasi, tadā tava śatruḥ parākrameṇa tava mastakaṃ chittvā pātayiṣyati. idānīṃ tvaṃ gaccha. yathā iyaṃ gauḥ hatā mūḍha pramattena tvayā mama, tathā pramattasya te ’rātiḥ śiras pātayiṣyati.
Nārada said: “Wretch among men! When your chariot-wheel sinks and jams in the earth and you are left as if senseless, then your enemy will display his prowess and strike off your head. Go now. Fool—just as, through your heedlessness, you have slain this cow that was mine, so too, when you are heedless, your foe will cut down your head.”
नारद उवाच
Educational Q&A
Heedlessness (pramāda) in violating dharma—here, the wrongful killing of a cow—invites corresponding downfall; negligence becomes the opening through which retribution arrives.
Nārada rebukes a wrongdoer for killing a cow and foretells a fitting end: at a moment of vulnerability—when the chariot-wheel is stuck and the person is dazed—an enemy will be able to behead him.