Shloka 27
सर्वाभिशड्की नृपतिर्यश्व सर्वहरो भवेत् । स क्षिप्रमनजुर्लुब्ध: स्वजनेनैव बध्यते,जो राजा सबपर संदेह करता और सबका सर्वस्व हर लेता है, वह लोभी और कुटिल राजा एक दिन अपने ही लोगोंके हाथसे शीघ्र मारा जाता है
sarvābhiśaṅkī nṛpatir yaś ca sarvaharo bhavet | sa kṣipram anṛjur lubdhaḥ svajanenaiva badhyate ||
Bhishma said: A king who suspects everyone and becomes a plunderer of all—seizing the wealth and rights of his subjects—such a greedy and crooked ruler is swiftly checked and brought down by his own people. The teaching is that rule rooted in distrust and confiscation destroys legitimacy, and the ruler’s fall arises from the very community he wronged.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
A ruler must not govern through blanket suspicion and predatory seizure of subjects’ property; greed and crookedness erode trust and invite collective resistance, leading to the ruler’s swift downfall at the hands of his own people.
In the Shanti Parva’s instruction on rajadharma, Bhishma warns Yudhishthira about the fate of an oppressive king: when a ruler treats everyone as suspect and becomes a universal confiscator, his own community ultimately restrains and destroys him.