Shloka 7
Adhyāya 33 — Yudhiṣṭhira’s Post-Conflict Remorse and Inquiry on Āśrama Discipline (शोक-विमर्शः, आश्रम-जिज्ञासा)
पितामह! बारंबार इसी चिन्तासे मैं आज भी निरन्तर जल रहा हूँ। उन श्रीसम्पन्न राजसिंहोंसे हीन हुई इस पृथ्वीको, भाई-बन्धुओंके भयंकर वधको तथा सैकड़ों अन्य लोगोंके विनाशको एवं करोड़ों अन्य मानवोंके संहारको देखकर मैं सर्वथा संतप्त हो रहा हूँ ।।
pitāmaha! bāraṃbāram asyāṃ cintāyāṃ aham adyāpi nirantaraṃ jvalāmi | śrī-sampannai rāja-siṃhaiḥ hīnāṃ imāṃ pṛthivīṃ, bhrātṛ-bandhūnāṃ bhayaṅkaraṃ vadhaṃ, śataśo ’nyeṣāṃ vināśaṃ ca, koṭiśo ’nya-manuṣyāṇāṃ saṃhāraṃ ca dṛṣṭvā ahaṃ sarvathā santaptaḥ | kā nu tāsāṃ vara-strīṇām avasthā adya bhaviṣyati, vihīnānāṃ tu tanayaiḥ patibhiḥ bhrātṛbhis tathā? |
“Grandfather! Again and again this very thought consumes me even today without respite. Seeing this earth bereft of her glorious lion-like kings, the dreadful slaughter of kinsmen and brothers, the ruin of hundreds besides, and the destruction of countless other men, I am utterly tormented. What, indeed, will be the condition today of those noble women—now forever separated from their sons, their husbands, and their brothers?”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds the ethical aftermath of war: beyond victory or political order, violence leaves enduring moral injury—especially visible in the suffering of families and the vulnerability of women deprived of protectors. Yudhiṣṭhira’s lament frames kingship and dharma as accountable to human cost, not merely to strategic success.
In Śānti Parva, Yudhiṣṭhira speaks to Bhīṣma (lying on the bed of arrows) and confesses that he is still burning with grief. He surveys the devastation—kings slain, kinsmen destroyed—and then turns to a poignant consequence: the present condition of noble women who have lost sons, husbands, and brothers in the great war.