Shloka 46
निर्मोचनमें छः हजार बड़े-बड़े असुरोंको भगवानने पाशोंमें बाँध लिया। वे असुर भी जिन्हें बंदी न बना सके, उन्हींको तुम बलपूर्वक वशमें करना चाहते हो ।। अनेन हि हता बाल्ये पूतना शकुनी तथा । गोवर्धनो धारितश्ष गवार्थे भरतर्षभ,भरतश्रेष्ठ! इन्होंने ही बाल्यावस्थामें बकी पूतनाका वध किया था और गौओंकी रक्षाके लिये अपने हाथपर गोवर्धन पर्वतको धारण किया था
nirmocane ṣaṭ-sahasrāṇi mahā-asurān bhagavān pāśaiḥ baddhavān | ye 'surā api yān na śekuḥ bandhanaṃ kartuṃ tān eva tvaṃ balāt vaśīkartuṃ icchasi || anena hi hatā bālye pūtanā śakuṇī tathā | govardhano dhāritaś ca gavārthe bharatarṣabha ||
Vidura reminds Dhṛtarāṣṭra that the Lord once bound six thousand mighty asuras with His nooses. Even those demons whom others could not capture were subdued by Him—yet you now wish, by sheer force, to bring under control the very one who accomplished such feats. For it was He who, in His childhood, slew Pūtanā and Śakaṭāsura, and who, for the protection of the cattle, lifted and held aloft Mount Govardhana. The ethical thrust is a warning against arrogant miscalculation and unjust coercion: power used without discernment and dharma invites ruin, especially when directed against the divinely protected.
विदुर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Vidura teaches that coercive power without dharmic discernment is self-destructive. One must recognize true strength and divine backing; attempting to subdue the divinely protected (or the genuinely superior) out of pride and political obsession leads to catastrophe.
In the Udyoga Parva’s counsel scenes, Vidura warns the Kuru king (Dhṛtarāṣṭra) by recalling Kṛṣṇa’s divine exploits—binding powerful asuras, killing Pūtanā and the cart-demon in childhood, and lifting Govardhana to protect cattle—implying that opposing or trying to dominate such a figure (and his cause) is folly.