Shloka 14
राजधर्मः, दण्डनीतिः, कर्तृत्व-विचारः च
Royal Duty, Lawful Discipline, and the Question of Agency
यथा हि पुरुषश्टछिंद्याद् वृक्ष परशुना वने । छेत्तुरेव भवेत् पापं परशोर्न कथठ्चन
yathā hi puruṣaś chindyād vṛkṣaṁ paraśunā vane | chettur eva bhavet pāpaṁ paraśor na kathaṁcana ||
Just as, in a forest, when a man cuts down a tree with an axe, the moral fault belongs only to the cutter; it does not attach to the axe in any way.
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
Moral merit or fault attaches to the conscious doer (the one who intends and acts), not to the inert tool; instruments are ethically neutral, while agency and intention determine karmic responsibility.
Vyāsa illustrates an ethical principle through a simple analogy: when a man fells a tree using an axe in the forest, blame belongs to the person wielding the axe, not to the axe itself—clarifying how responsibility is assigned in actions.