Shloka 7
धन-राजधर्म संवादः
Discourse on Wealth and Royal Duty
इस प्रकार श्रीमह्याभारत शान्तिपर्वके अन्तर्गत राजधर्मानुशासनपर्वमें युधिष्ठिरका खेदपूर्ण उद्गार नामक सातवाँ अध्याय पूरा हुआ
kapālīṁ nṛpa pāpiṣṭhāṁ vṛttim āsādya jīvataḥ | saṁtyajya rājyam ṛddhaṁ te loko 'yaṁ kiṁ vadiṣyati ||
O king, if you abandon your prosperous sovereignty and, while still alive, take up the most blameworthy livelihood—wandering as a skull-bowl-bearing mendicant—what will people in this world say of you?
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
A ruler’s personal impulse toward renunciation must be weighed against rajadharma: abandoning a flourishing kingdom for an extreme mendicant life is portrayed as ethically suspect because it neglects the king’s responsibility to protect and sustain social order, and it invites justified public censure.
Yudhiṣṭhira voices a lamenting, admonitory question: if the king gives up his prosperous rule and lives by the lowest form of begging as a skull-bowl-bearing ascetic, how will society judge him? The line functions as a moral challenge about the consequences of deserting kingship.