Shloka 17
भीष्मस्य दुर्योधनं प्रति कुलहितोपदेशः | Bhīṣma’s Counsel to Duryodhana on Dynastic Welfare
राजकिल्बिषिणां तेषां भर्तृपिण्डापहारिणाम् | नैवायं न परो लोको विद्यते पापकर्मणाम्
rājakilbiṣiṇāṁ teṣāṁ bhartṛpiṇḍāpahāriṇām | naivāyaṁ na paro loko vidyate pāpakarmaṇām ||
Karna declares: “For those who commit offenses against the king and who seize the livelihood due to one’s rightful master, there is neither well-being in this world nor any good state in the next. Stained by sinful action, such people forfeit both.”
कर्ण उवाच
Educational Q&A
Betrayal of rightful authority and theft of another’s due sustenance are grave adharma; such wrongdoing destroys both worldly stability and otherworldly merit—one loses benefit in this life and in the next.
In the Udyoga Parva’s pre-war deliberations, Karna speaks in a condemnatory, moralizing tone, asserting that those who offend the king and deprive a rightful protector/master of his due are doomed to lack welfare here and hereafter.