Shloka 8
मा कुलघ्न: कुपुरुषो दुर्मति: कापथं गम: । मातरं पितरं चैव मा मज्जी: शोकसागरे,“भरतश्रेष्ठ) केशवका वचन सत्य और सार्थक है। तुम उनके, अपने पिताके तथा बुद्धिमान् विदुरके वचनोंकी अवहेलना करके कुमार्गपर न चलो। कुलघाती, कुपुरुष और कुबुद्धिसे कलंकित न बनो तथा माता-पिताको शोकके समुद्रमें न डुबाओ”
mā kulaghnaḥ kupuruṣo durmatiḥ kāpathaṃ gamaḥ | mātaraṃ pitaraṃ caiva mā majjīḥ śokasāgare ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “Do not become a destroyer of your lineage, a base man, or one stained by perverse judgment; do not set your feet upon the wrong road. Do not plunge your mother and father into an ocean of grief.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse warns against choosing an unrighteous course that destroys one’s lineage and character; it frames ethical failure as both personal degradation (becoming kulaghna, kupuruṣa, durmati) and relational harm (casting one’s parents into profound grief).
In the Udyoga Parva’s pre-war counsel and negotiations, Vaiśampāyana reports a stern admonition urging the addressee not to disregard wise advice and not to proceed on a wrongful path that would bring dynastic ruin and unbearable sorrow to parents.