Shloka 17
उद्योगपर्व अध्याय १३३ — संजये मातृउपदेशः
Udyoga Parva Adhyaya 133 — A Mother’s Counsel to Saṃjaya
दासकर्मकरान् भृत्यानाचार्यतत््विक्ृपुरोहितान् । अवृत्त्यास्मान् प्रजहतो दृष्टवा कि जीवितेन ते
dāsakarmakarān bhṛtyān ācārya-tatvik-ṛpurohitān | avṛttyāsmān prajahato dṛṣṭvā kiṃ jīvitena te
Seeing that you abandon us—your servants and laborers, dependents, teachers, officiating priests, and household priests—leaving us without livelihood, what use is life to you?
पुत्र उवाच
Educational Q&A
One must not forsake those who depend on one’s protection—servants, workers, retainers, teachers, and priests—especially by cutting off their livelihood; such abandonment is portrayed as a grave lapse of dharma.
A son confronts an elder (addressed as 'you') with a sharp reproach: by abandoning the household’s dependents and religious functionaries and leaving them without sustenance, the elder makes his own life ethically meaningless.