Shloka 293
Udyoga Parva Adhyāya 132 — Vidura’s Counsel on Udyama, Yaśas, and Kṣātra-Dharma
कलिं पुत्रप्रवादेन संजय त्वामजीजनम् | संजय! तू सत्पुरुषोंके बीचमें अशोभन कार्य करनेवाला है
kaliṃ putra-pravādena sañjaya tvām ajījanam | sañjaya! tvaṃ satpuruṣāṇāṃ madhye aśobhana-kārya-kartā, kula-vaṃśa-pratiṣṭhā-nāśakaḥ asi | jñāyate, tava rūpeṇa putra-nāmnā mayā kali-puruṣa eva janitaḥ |
Vāyu said: “O Sañjaya, through the mere pretext of calling you my ‘son’ I have, it seems, brought Kali into being. Sañjaya, among the company of the good you act in a disgraceful way; you destroy the honor and standing of family and lineage. It appears that, in your form and under the name of a son, I have in truth given birth to the very personification of Kali.”
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse warns that unethical conduct—especially when performed in the presence of the virtuous—destroys the honor (pratiṣṭhā) of one’s family and lineage. Such behavior is portrayed as ‘Kali’ entering human life: moral decline is not abstract but embodied through actions that undermine social and ethical order.
Vāyu addresses Sañjaya in harsh rebuke, accusing him of acting disgracefully among good people and of ruining the standing of his clan. Vāyu laments that, though Sañjaya is called his ‘son,’ it seems he has actually produced the very embodiment of Kali—an image intensifying the moral condemnation.