Shloka 25

धन-राजधर्म संवादः

Discourse on Wealth and Royal Duty

Devanagari script

अवेक्षस्व यथान्यायं पश्य देवासुरं यथा । राजन्‌ किमन्यज्जातीनां वधाद्‌ गृद्धयन्ति देवता:

Transliteration

avekṣasva yathānyāyaṁ paśya devāsuraṁ yathā | rājan kim anyaj jātīnāṁ vadhād gṛddhyanti devatāḥ |

Translation

Arjuna said: “Consider this in accordance with justice and look closely at how the gods and the asuras behave. O King, what else do the gods desire except the slaughter of their own kind? For, being born of the same progenitor, gods and asuras are, in truth, brothers to one another.”

Word by Word

• {'avekṣasva': 'look upon, examine, consider (imperative)', 'yathā-nyāyam': 'according to justice

• in a lawful/proper manner', 'paśya': 'see, observe (imperative)', 'deva-asuram': 'the gods and the asuras (as a paired collective)', 'rājan': 'O King (vocative address)', 'kim anyat': 'what else?', 'jātīnām': 'of (their) own kinds/kin-groups

• of related peoples', 'vadhāt': 'from killing

• than the killing (ablative sense: ‘other than/except’)', 'gṛddhyanti': 'they crave, desire intensely, are greedy for', 'devatāḥ': 'the gods

Speaker

अर्जुन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Arjuna
• King (rājan)
• Devas
• Asuras

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse frames an ethical critique: even exalted beings can be driven by partisan desire and violence against their own kin. True judgment should be made “according to nyāya” (justice), not by assuming that the ‘divine side’ is automatically righteous.

What is happening in the narrative?

Arjuna addresses a king and urges him to assess events fairly by observing the conduct of devas and asuras. He argues that their rivalry is essentially fratricidal—stemming from shared origin—so one should not romanticize their motives as purely noble.