Shloka 11
Gāndhārī’s Grief, Vyāsa’s Pacification, and the Ethics of Retaliation (गान्धारी-शोकः शमोपदेशश्च)
आत्मनोऊतिक्रमं पश्य पुत्रस्य च दुरात्मन: । यदनागसि पाण्डूनां परित्यागस्त्वया कृत:,“आप अपने और दुरात्मा पुत्र दुर्योधनके उस अत्याचारपर तो दृष्टि डालिये, जब कि बिना किसी अपराधके ही आपने पाण्डवोंका परित्याग कर दिया था”
ātmano ’tīkramaṃ paśya putrasya ca durātmanaḥ | yad anāgasi pāṇḍūnāṃ parityāgas tvayā kṛtaḥ ||
Look upon the wrongdoing committed by you yourself, and also by your wicked-souled son—how you abandoned the Pāṇḍavas even though they were without fault. The verse presses an ethical reckoning: the calamity now unfolding is rooted in an earlier, unjust rejection of the innocent.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse urges moral self-examination and accountability: present suffering is traced to earlier adharma—specifically, the unjust abandonment of the innocent Pāṇḍavas and complicity in a son’s wrongdoing.
In the Strī Parva’s lamentation context after the war, the speaker (Vaiśampāyana narrating) highlights a prior ethical failure—rejecting the blameless Pāṇḍavas—pointing to it as a root cause behind the catastrophe associated with Duryodhana’s conduct.