Shloka 8
Chapter 78: Royal Responsibility for Wealth, Social Order, and the Protection of Dvijas
Kekaya Exemplum
राजोवाच न मे स्तेनो जनपदे न कदर्यो न मद्यप: । नानाहिताग्निर्नायज्वा मामकान्तरमाविश:,यह देख राजाने उस राक्षससे कहा--ेरे राज्यमें एक भी चोर, कंजूस, शराबी अथवा अन्निहोत्र और यज्ञका त्याग करनेवाला नहीं है तो भी तुम्हारा मेरे शरीरमें प्रवेश कैसे हो गया?
rājovāca na me steno janapade na kadaryo na madyapaḥ | nānāhitāgnir nāyajvā māmaka-antaraṃ āviśaḥ ||
The king said: “In my realm there is no thief, no miser, no drunkard; nor is there anyone who has abandoned the sacred fires or neglected sacrifice. If so, how have you found entry into my very person—into what is within me?”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse links a ruler’s legitimacy and well-being to moral and ritual order in the kingdom—absence of theft, miserliness, intoxication, and neglect of sacred duties. It also hints that harm can arise not only from visible social crimes but from subtler inner or systemic lapses that allow ‘evil’ to enter.
A king confronts a rākṣasa who has somehow entered his body. The king argues that his realm is free from common vices and from abandonment of agnihotra and sacrifice, and therefore questions how such a being could gain access to him.