Shloka 17
Bṛhaspati’s Counsel on Contentment
Santoṣa), Restraint, and Adroha (Non-injury
कुन्तीनन्दन! अतः तुम भी प्रयत्नपूर्वक इस धर्मका पालन करो। जो क्षत्रियनरेश राज्यसिंहासनपर स्थित हो अपनी सम्पूर्ण इन्द्रियोंको सदा अपने अधीन रखता है, प्रिय और अप्रियको समानदृष्टिसे देखता है, यज्ञसे बचे हुए अन्नका भोजन करता है, शास्त्रोंके यथार्थ रहस्यको जानता है, दुष्टोंका दमन और साधु पुरुषोंका पालन करता है, समस्त प्रजाको धर्मके मार्गमें स्थापित करके स्वयं भी धर्मानुकूल बर्ताव करता है, वृद्धावस्थामें राजलक्ष्मीको पुत्रके अधीन करके वनमें जाकर जंगली फल-मूलोंका आहार करते हुए जीवन बिताता है तथा वहाँ भी शास्त्र-श्रवणसे ज्ञात हुए शास्त्रविहित कर्मोका आलस्य छोड़कर पालन करता है, ऐसा बर्ताव करनेवाला वह राजा ही धर्मको निश्चितरूपसे जानने और माननेवाला है ।। तस्यायं च परश्चैव लोक: स्यात् सफलोदय: । निर्वाणं हि सुदुष्प्राप्यं बहुविघ्नं च मे मतम्,उसका यह लोक और परलोक दोनों सफल हो जाते हैं, मेरा यह विश्वास है कि संन्यासके द्वारा निर्वाण प्राप्त करना अत्यन्त दुष्कर एवं दुर्लभ है; क्योंकि उसमें बहुत-से विघ्न आते हैं
devasthāna uvāca | kuntīnandana! ataḥ tvam api prayatnapūrvakaṃ asya dharmasya pālanaṃ kuru | yaḥ kṣatriya-nareśaḥ rājyasiṃhāsane sthitaḥ san sarvendriyāṇi sadā svādhīnāni karoti, priya-apriyau samadṛṣṭyā paśyati, yajña-śeṣa-annam aśnāti, śāstrāṇāṃ yathārtha-rahasyaṃ jānāti, duṣṭānāṃ damanaṃ sādhu-puruṣāṇāṃ pālanaṃ ca karoti, sarvāḥ prajāḥ dharmamārge pratiṣṭhāpya svayam api dharmānukūlaṃ vartate, vṛddhāvasthāyāṃ rāja-lakṣmīṃ putrasya vaśe nidhāya vanaṃ gatvā vanya-phala-mūlāhāraḥ san jīvanaṃ nayati, tatra api śāstra-śravaṇena jñātān śāstra-vihitān karmāṇi ālasyaṃ tyaktvā pālayati—sa eva rājā niścayena dharmaṃ jānāti manyate ca || tasya ayaṃ ca paraś ca eva lokaḥ syāt saphalodayaḥ | nirvāṇaṃ hi suduṣprāpyaṃ bahu-vighnaṃ ca me matam ||
Devastāna said: “O son of Kuntī, therefore you too should strive carefully to uphold this dharma. That Kṣatriya king who, while seated upon the royal throne, keeps all his senses continually under control; looks with equal vision upon what is pleasing and displeasing; eats only the food that remains after sacrifice; understands the true inner purport of the scriptures; restrains the wicked and protects the virtuous; establishes all his subjects on the path of dharma and himself acts in accordance with dharma; and, in old age, entrusts royal fortune to his son and goes to the forest, living on wild fruits and roots—there too, abandoning laziness, performing the scripturally enjoined duties he has learned through hearing the śāstras—such a king alone truly knows and honors dharma with certainty. For him, both this world and the next become fruitful. In my view, liberation through renunciation is exceedingly hard to attain and beset with many obstacles.”
देवस्थान उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse defines the ideal of rājadharma: a king must govern with self-restraint, impartiality, sacrificial discipline, and scriptural understanding—punishing the wicked, protecting the virtuous, and guiding subjects toward dharma. It also affirms a life-stage ethic: after fulfilling royal duties, the ruler should retire to the forest and continue prescribed practices; by contrast, mere renunciation aimed at liberation is portrayed as difficult and obstacle-filled.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction on dharma after the war, Devastāna addresses a ‘son of Kuntī’ and lays out a model portrait of righteous kingship and orderly withdrawal in old age. The speaker concludes by stating that such conduct makes both this world and the next successful, while warning that attaining nirvāṇa solely through saṃnyāsa is very hard due to many impediments.