Shloka 3

धन-राजधर्म संवादः

Discourse on Wealth and Royal Duty

Devanagari script

अर्जुन उवाच अहो दुःखमहो कृच्छुमहो वैक्लव्यमुत्तमम्‌ । यत्‌ कृत्वामानुषं कर्म त्यजेथा: श्रियमुत्तमाम्‌

Transliteration

arjuna uvāca: aho duḥkham aho kṛcchram aho vaiklavyam uttamam | yat kṛtvā mānuṣaṁ karma tyajethāḥ śriyam uttamām ||

Translation

Arjuna said: “Alas, what sorrow! Alas, what hardship! Your bewilderment has reached an extreme. It is astonishing that, after accomplishing humanly possible deeds, you would renounce this highest prosperity—this royal fortune won by extraordinary valor.”

Word by Word

• {'aho': 'an exclamation: alas!, indeed!, how!', 'duḥkham': 'sorrow, grief, suffering', 'kṛcchram': 'hardship, distress, difficulty', 'vaiklavyam': 'confusion, faint-heartedness, helpless agitation', 'uttamam': 'supreme, highest, most excellent', 'yat': 'that which

• because', 'kṛtvā': 'having done, having accomplished', 'mānuṣam': 'human, pertaining to human capacity', 'karma': 'deed, action, undertaking', 'tyajethāḥ': 'you would abandon/renounce (2nd person, potential/optative sense)', 'śriyam': 'prosperity, fortune, splendor

• royal wealth', 'uttamām': 'supreme, highest (feminine accusative, qualifying śriyam)'}

Speaker

अर्जुन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Arjuna
• Rājan (the king, addressed)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights the ethical tension between renunciation and responsibility: abandoning hard-won royal prosperity out of despair is portrayed as extreme bewilderment, implying that a ruler’s duty and steadiness of mind are integral to dharma.

What is happening in the narrative?

Arjuna addresses the king (rājan), lamenting that the king has become overwhelmed and is considering giving up the supreme royal fortune, despite having achieved it through great and extraordinary effort.