Shloka 1
Yudhiṣṭhira’s Lament for Karṇa and Renunciation-Oriented Self-Assessment (शोक-प्रलापः / त्याग-प्रवृत्तिः)
अपने-आप बछ। अर: 2 सप्तमो<्ध्याय: युधिष्ठिरका आन्तरिक खेद प्रकट करते हुए अपने लिये राज्य छोड़कर वनमें चले जानेका प्रस्ताव करना वैशम्पायन उवाच युधिष्ठिरस्तु धर्मात्मा शोकव्याकुलचेतन: । शुशोच दुःखसंतप्त: स्मृत्वा कर्ण महारथम्,वैशम्पायनजी कहते हैं--राजन्! धर्मात्मा राजा युधिष्ठिरका चित्त शोकसे व्याकुल हो उठा था। वे महारथी कर्णको याद करके दुःखसे संतप्त हो शोकमें डूब गये ते वयं पृथिवीहेतोरवध्यान् पृथिवी श्वरान् । सम्परित्यज्य जीवामो हीनार्था हतबान्धवा:
Vaiśampāyana uvāca: Yudhiṣṭhiras tu dharmātmā śokavyākulacetanaḥ | śuśoca duḥkhasaṃtaptaḥ smṛtvā Karṇaṃ mahāratham || te vayaṃ pṛthivī-hetor avadhyān pṛthivīśvarān | saṃparityajya jīvāmo hīnārthā hata-bāndhavāḥ ||
Vaiśampāyana said: Yudhiṣṭhira, steadfast in dharma, became inwardly shaken by grief. Tormented by sorrow, he lamented as he remembered Karṇa, the great chariot-warrior. “For the sake of the earth—of kingship—we have slain those who should not have been slain, the lords of the earth. Now let us abandon everything and live on, bereft of purpose and with our kinsmen destroyed.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds the ethical aftermath of violence: even a dharma-minded king can be overwhelmed by remorse when he reflects on the human cost of sovereignty. It frames kingship as morally weighty—victory does not erase guilt—and introduces the tension between worldly duty (ruling) and the impulse toward renunciation when one feels complicit in adharma.
After the war, Yudhiṣṭhira is consumed by grief, especially on remembering Karṇa. He declares that for the sake of the kingdom they have killed ‘unslayable’ kings and now proposes abandoning the realm and living on without purpose, as survivors whose kin have been destroyed—setting the stage for counsel on śānti (pacification) and righteous governance.